Mangroves and the reef aquarium

[JUICE!]

Thanks to Skinny Joe, I've started using mangroves again in my refugium in my 125G, in the tank in my 75G, and soon in my sump for my 220G.

I've brushed up on the care and maintenance, and figured I'd share the knowledge and let folks know about the advantages of mangroves in a reef aquarium. Basically this plant sucks up organic pollution, nitrates, and phosphates....kind of like macro algae only with the algae, those elements can be released back into the water when fish eat it, or there is some die off. With mangroves, the elements used up are removed from the system completely so long as you don't let the leaves fall back into the tank and rot.

I've posted more info on www.o-r-c-a.com which can be viewed here:

http://o-r-c-a.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1846#1846

Enjoy!

~D

 

[jay24k]

I thought there was an article on it how mangroves, while nice, do not provide that much filtration for a system to be effective.

 

[chrisstie]

The thing with mangroves is they do export nutrients, but are essentially a tree so their growth isn't quite fast enough to really help out a system if it has a severe nutrient problem.

if you have a very very very low level reading of nitrates or phosphates I'm sure it could help and its a cool plant to grow to boot!

But if you're looking for something to help out with a larger problem and aren't willing to consider phosphate removing media\reactor etc and want to try a more natural approach a quicker growing macro algae is probably going to be more effective.

It just depends on what kind of system you want, how quickly you want to export nutrients, and if you have room enough to grow something cool like mangroves or if you'd prefer to have something like chaeto to also breed copepods.

Theres a million and one (and probably more!) ways to do everything in this hobby so it really just kind of depends on your personal preference on this one I think

 

[JUICE!]

I've read many articles in the last couple weeks. All of the articles I've read (and several studies) have noted that the addition of mangroves is clearly beneficial. I did read one study where a guy tried to only use a filter sock and a sump full of mangroves to filter his system. In that case, his out of control contaminates, nitrates, and phosphates were reduced, but mangroves alone were not enough to maintain a healthy system.

There are some articles making them out to be the best thing on earth for a reef tank, and others saying that they are mostly just for show. One thing they all agree on is that they do reduce phosphates, nitrates, and organic pollution.

I'm not planning on junking the filtration I have, but I'm more than happy to add to it's performance.

 

[AMIFL]

I do chaeto and mangroves. I like the mangroves just because they remind of wild tampa bay where I'm from. If you grow mangroves, remember to pour fresh water on ther leaves to wash off the salt buildup. In the wild, rain does this for them. If you don't, the salt will kill the leaves.