Pods in sw tank

[Julie]

What happens to the pods in a sw tank when there is no fish consuming them?
Is there a population explosion on its' way?

[gvv]

If you are talking about copepods then:
If you feeding corals/inverts in your tank (assuming you have no fish ), the population can grow, but they by themselves are food for corals:
"In reef aquaria, harpacticoids are commonly the first small "bugs" seen on the walls of the aquarium shortly after it is set up. Often dense swarms of them may occur in the water, particularly if fish have not been added. Once the other benthic fauna starts to become abundant, the numbers of the harpacticoids drop as predators on them become more abundant and common. Nevertheless, unless something becomes highly amiss in the aquarium, they never disappear. They can be very fecund, and their life cycles are short, often taking only a few days to go from adult through eggs and immature forms to adult. They are major constituent animals of the detritivore guild, and will eat small particulate debris. Additionally they eat bacteria and microalgae that they scrape off sand particles. In aquaria, in addition to the adults being eaten, their eggs and larval stages are food for small-mouthed corals such as Acropora. "
( from here: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/rs/index.php)
When I'm overfeeding, I can see clouds of these guys. As soon as I stop feeding my fish/corals - population goes down.

With amphipods, who are mainly algae/debri eaters I think the situation could be the same. The main idea is: as soon as you got balanced tank you will have everybody in the numbers that could be supported by your tank. Even flatworms follow this rule
So don't worry.

Or you may even catch them and feed to your FW fish  
Regards

[Aiglos]

GVV  +1 for that post. I learned alot.

[Julie]

Thanks gvv, very informative.