[kyl]

Time for some new-ish questions regarding copepods.

I have a small tank that finished cycling about five months ago, and has been very stable as the stock list has been slowly growing (2 small clowns, Randals goby & some inverts). Over the last few weeks I've gotten a small refugium set-up, with a ball of chaeto that’s growing well and a small pile of rock rubble. There were a few random pods on the handful of chaeto when I got it a couple of weeks ago, but they've definitely been reduced to nothing at all visible since then.

Is there a preferred method to kick-start a colony of these guys, or is it simply a matter of seeking another ball of chaeto, but this time laden with pods? I’d like to keep my system as pest free as possible, which is always somewhat of an unknown when adding new chaeto. The other part of this, is it required to periodically add something like phyto-feast to keep that population going once established, or is the food and fish waste from the tank enough to keep them sustained?

Thanks for any advice.