Mangroves starving out chaeto...your opinion?

[mkengr45]

I know practically everyone will insist that chaeto will outperform mangroves when it comes to nutrient export...however, I'm starting to doubt that and here is why.

I've had a bunch of chaeto in my fuge for a while and everything was going fine. I added several mangroves and over a period of a several weeks the chaeto ball has pretty much disappeared and the mangroves are putting on leaves and long roots. What started as a basketball size piece of chaeto is now almost nothing at all...maybe a ping-pong ball size.

Sure chaeto grows fast but the composition is mostly water as opposed to mangroves which are a solid composition. So if you look at it in terms of material mass (say dehydrated matter) I'm not so sure that chaeto really is pulling out more bad stuff.

What I know for sure is that I added a bunch of mangroves and the chaeto vanished. Refugium lighting is two Kessil A150s, one is the Amazon sun 6700k spectrum and the other is the kessil sky blue 10,000k spectrum.

I know of others that have observed this same thing and I'm just looking for others thoughts.

I could be totally wrong in this theory...

 

[mkengr45]

Wow...don't everyone jump in at once now. I guess nobody gives a crap enough to voice an opinion.

 

[thegrun]

Is the chaeto getting enough light? If the chaeto ball is not near the water's surface it usually will not grow well. Another thing that will slow down chaeto growth is a lack of iron. Dosing iron can be a two edged sword as if you add too much it will cause an algae outbreak, but most of the reef tanks that I have run are low on iron and some dosing is necessary.

 

[slief]

I've got 4 healthy growing mangroves in my system. They have been there for years. My chaeto grows just fine.

As thegrun mentioned, how is your lighting? I can't comment on the iron as I have never tested for it let alone dosed for it. That said, I did use steel pipes instead of PVC for my tank plumbing because I live in earthquake country. Maybe that's why I don't need to worry about iron... :thumbsup:

 

[Phildirt]

So you had 1 organism to absorb excess nutrients and then added a second to do the same. But are asking why one is declining... The answer seems obvious. Are the mangroves up stream or down stream of the chaeto? Plus chaeto has been known to decline after a peroid of time and can be finicky to keep.

 

[CHSUB]

would like to see some pics!

chaeto got starved out in my fug by Gracilaria Parvisipora, so i think it is very likely.