Help with Mangrove Fuge

#1. Buy them from Ebay. There's a guy selling them for a buck each! Beat that price! :p

#2. Mangroves tolorate high light, however any light source will do. I have a 200 watt clear bulb over my mangrove refugium.

#3. They don't need ANY additives to thrive. There is far more than enough in an average system.

#4. You can add alot in a small space at one time but dont' overcrowed them. You need to allow room for proper root developement which is far more extensive than the upper part of the plant itself.

#5. Don't mix any macro algaes in with the mangroves. Either the algae will choke out the mangrove's roots, or the mangroves will not allow enough light to reach the algae. Instead, go with dual refugiums if you want mangroves AND macro.

Rich Valentine
ScubaRaven.com
 
Here is a pic of my mangroves. They sit in a rear refugium that in piped into another refugium sitting directly in front of them that houses macro algae exclusively. These mangroves were purchased through the guy I mentioned on ebay last December and are thriving. They were only about 8 inches when recieved but are now close to 4 feet!

Rich Valentine
ScubaRaven
 
Here is a closeup of a couple of my plants after I cut them back due to the high growth. You can see the very intese lighting that is above them.

Rich Valentine
ScubaRaven
 
Substrate makes little difference. My mangroves are suspended above the refugium bottom which allows the roots room for proper developement. You can place them flat on the bottom in a sandy substrate, suspend them as I do, place them in baskets designed for aquatic plants or whatever, it really doesn't matter. Just make sure that the top of the plants is not in the water and that you mist them often to wash away salt export (they export salt through their leaves so this must be removed) and you should do fine. I feel that direct light from any source is ideal. A standard fullspectrum bulb would be best in my opinion.

Rich
 
Wow Alot of great info going on here. I might have to redesign my filtering system to accomodate the space needed. Maybe even move my tank to where i can have a fish room lol. I need to Find a way to keep Macro and Mangroves though. So i was thinking something like this. A Horse trough (great idea BTW) thats outside in the patio. It would get The suns beneficial light and still be in a indoor invironment. It was also add 40-50 gallons to my system. Now that i woul have that out side i could Dedicate one or two 10 gallon tanks to Growing Macro. thats the idea that keeps poping up in my mind lol. We will see. Im still having a hard time deciding which species to keep. My only big problem is the Nitrate level. Im still worried about my Phosphates too.

Travis
 
Reefrunner, what I did to accomodate both macro's and mangroves was to design a stand that sits next to my main system and holds two 10-gallon tanks side by side. They are drilled and piped together. Water flows into the first refugium where I keep my macro algaes. This refugium is lit at night only, Then it flows into the adjacent mangrove refugium which is lit during the day only. This setup is a definately highlight to my overall system. My macro refugium is lit by power compacts, my refugium lit by a hanging pendant with a standard clear 100watt incandescent bulb. There are pictures of it on my site with information as well ( http://scubaraven.com )

Rich Valentine
 
Oh... another thing, I recommend keeping red mangroves. They are very hardy once established and easy to find. There's info on my site on a guy selling them for a buck each (inported from hawaii) which is the best price I have found so far.

Rich
 
I really liked your site. I have it bookmarked now lol. I liked the way You did the racks in the 10 gallons, Now ill be stealing your idea :lol: . Im having trouble with my return (from the lower level tank) because the lower level is the same hieght as my sump. Any ideas? Still Brainstorming on the Mangrove sump though but I know that will be a tank larger then 30 gallons. This is getting good lol.

Travis
 
I'm using a 50G rubbermaid ag tub (horse trough) as a refugium. There's a not too ggod picture in my gallery. I'm growing both red mangroves and assorted macros in the tub. I currently have caulerpa racemosa and red kelp in with the mangroves. The fuge is fed from a T in the line from my main tanks overflow. The water level is a few inches above my sump so the fuge can gravity drain into the sump. I also have a small powerhead (~150GPH) in the fuge. It's lit by a 100W HPS bulb w/ a spiderlight reflector. It's plumbed somewhat remotely, about 12' from the main tank so putting one outside on the porch should be fairly easy if you have a place to run the pvc. The rubbermaid tub was given to me by a friend but if I had to buy one for the purpose I'd probably get a deeper one, I think they come in a 100G model. It would give you more room to work with since the 50G one is only ~12" deep.
 
kroot, I don't see a problem with keeping the mangroves lit 24/7. I personally only light them during the day, and my macro refugium in the evenings...

Rich
 
kroot, sure, you can leave your lights on 24/7 but I personally only run mine a max of 16 hours a day and during the time frame that my main tanks lights will be off. Thats just me though.
 
Sorry to ask this...
A refugium will help with my algae problem by using the nutrients that the algae feeds on? What would be better macro algae or mangroves?
 
The answer would easily and by far be macro algae. For mangroves to have any noticable benificial effect, they would have to grow a very good root structure and/or have several plants (maybe like 1 per every 2 gallons). Mangroves are very slow growing as compared to macro algae. I have mangroves mainly for their aesthetic value. I do agree that they contribute to good water quality and obsorb nutrients, but nowhere near as much as macro algae does. This is the same for any true plant (grasses, etc)

Rich Valentine
 
New question for everyone!

Whats you favorite Macro (Looks or performance, it dont matter)
Which Species (in your opinion) Is most beneficial.
How many Species do you keep together.
What Type of inverts do you keep in the fuge.

Thats it for now. I can never stop planning or thinking.
I want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way!

Thanks agian
Travis
 
I keep about five species together. Speg, grape, mexicana, red leaf, and a green leaf varity. My favorite is the speg, as it grows dense and is very easy to manage/crop but grape is a very fast growing species as is the mexicana. (reds don't grow nearly as fast)

Rich Valentine
 
Nice info thread. Here's another site with decent price for bulk magrove seedlings and seeds, in case you want to go that way.

http://www.floridaplants.com/Mangroves/Default.htm

Meijer's (local food mart) has 4 potted seedling to a pot for 13 bucks. Costs more, but don't have to ship and see what you get.
Is there anything you need to do to get potted mangrove aclimated to salt water?
 
When they arrive... mist them with water from your tank. Let them acclimate while laying out on some newspaper or perhaps a clean towel. Keep misting them for a 20 - 30 minutes.
 
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