Copepod habitat
Drop it into the Culturi-M and the vessel stops being a phytoplankton reactor and starts being a copepod one. It works just as well standing in a DIY setup of your own.
A$60.00AUD
Made in Australia. Ships anywhere we ship, and there is nothing to plug in.
Why it is shaped like that
Every copepod hotel on the market is the same idea: flat grids stacked one on top of the other. It looks like a lot of surface area, and on paper it is. The trouble starts the moment you put it in water.
Air gets under a flat plate and has nowhere to go. Every direction along that underside is equally flat, so the bubble just sits in the middle of it.
Stack six of those and the core of the thing never sees a drop of water. You cannot shake it out, and you cannot tip it out. That surface area is on the spec sheet, not in your culture.
Every fin is a cone, so its underside rises the whole way from the middle out to the rim. A bubble under it cannot stay put: the shape hands it to the edge and it lifts away on its own.
The whole core drains of air by itself, so there are no dry spots anywhere on it. All of the surface area, and then some, actually gets used.
The weighted base keeps it planted instead of floating, and the footprint is deliberately small so water still passes underneath rather than going stale under it.
Where it goes
With the Pod Core
4x
Surface area
Same 2 L vessel
It was drawn around the Culturi-M, so it drops straight into that vessel and the airflow you already have does the rest. Nothing to modify and nothing to buy twice.
It is not fussy though. Plenty of people run it in a container of their own, and it behaves the same way in anything with a bit of gentle circulation: the cones still shed their air, the base still keeps it standing.
Harvest day
A copepod culture is only useful when you can separate what you want from what you do not. Hole size is the whole decision, so here is each grade at its actual relative size.
130 mm
Laser cut circles
Our nylon mesh is cut as a circle at 130 mm, sized to drop straight into the Zooplankton Harvesting Tool. No trimming, no gaps around the edge, no mesh creeping out from under the lock ring.
100µm
Adult copepods, and it lets the detritus straight through.
The all-rounder. Harvest the adults, leave the nauplii behind and the culture keeps reproducing.
38µm
Juveniles and adults, with some detritus along for the ride.
The middle ground, and the one to reach for when you want a mixed harvest.
25µm
Nauplii and rotifers, plus a fair bit of detritus.
The finest we cut. It catches almost everything, so expect it to drain slowly.
Launchpad
Copepods are more forgiving than phytoplankton, but nobody is born knowing how to start a culture, when to harvest, or what a healthy one is meant to look like. The Launchpad walks you through the whole thing at your own pace, and it remembers where you got to.
The Pod Core is an optional attachment for the AK Culturi-M, engineered to massively increase usable surface area inside the vessel. Its cone-finned design creates layers of grazing and habitat space, boosting internal surface area significantly, while a solid, weighted base keeps it planted and prevents floating.
It is shaped to discourage air bubbles from getting trapped, keeping surfaces consistently wet and usable for biofilm growth. The footprint is intentionally small so water can still flow underneath, preventing dead space and helping circulation stay even throughout the vessel.
More surface area means more biofilm, more natural food, and more sheltered space for microfauna like copepods and rotifers to feed, hide, and reproduce.
The core is super easy to use, simply place it inside the Culturi-M, and ensure the lid lines up with the hole at the top of the core, the lid will then auto-center the core for you and keep it there.
Round it out
Added to cart
Free shipping on orders over A$300
Free shipping on orders over A$300
Nothing in here yet
Everything we build is made to be run by someone who has never cultured before.
