red mangrove in refugium?

[moonp13]

hey guys. I got my refugium set up under my 72 gallon bowfront and it looks great. i have a few live rocks in there with a clump of chaetomorpha. I was reading that chaeto does really well with phosphate reduction but not so hot with nitrate. I was wondering if you can put mangroves in there with the chaeto.

does anyone have these in their refugiums? how are they working?

 

[ginger7286]

Yes, you can put mangroves in with chaeto. I had them in mine. They are hard to keep alive though. Remember they will need a good strong light. Good luck. If you have a good skimmer you shouldn't have to worry about nitrates unless you have a large bio-load.

 

[moonp13]

i have a CORALIFE MINI AQUALIGHT currently. is that going to be enough?

 

[davocean]

Mangroves do very little for nutrient export, but they look kinda neat.
Only bummer is you have to keep leaves clean and free of SW, and best is to squirt the leaves w/ RO water daily or every other day for best growth.

 

[kgross]

As davocean says, Mangroves are not very good for nutrient export, they grow way to slow. With that said, your chaeto will do a great job of removing nitrates as it grows. I don't know why anybody would say it does not help with nitrates, unless they could not get it to grow. If you have a major nitrate/phosphate problem, you could try organic carbon dosing, (ie Vinegar/vodka/sugar).

Kim

 

[nvictor]

Mangroves also seem to grow better when you have refugium mud.
noel

 

[sullyfish]

Mangroves are easy and add new demension to the refuge. some say you have to plant them in some sort of substrate but that is not true, they can just as well float on the surface which is how mine are, and they do not need strong light. I have had 4 mangrove stalks floating in my sump under a 45w 6500k grow light I got at menards. they float with a little piece of styrofoam. If the mangrove is floating it will grow roots faster, as opposed to planted in substrate roots grow slower and leaves grow faster.
Mangroves are very easy, Once a day I spray a bit of RO water on the stalks to keep them from drying out, and that is it. I have had them as long as my tank has been up, for 9 mos. The roots are over 6 inches long on all four. Although I cannot verify how much nitrate they export, and if you start with several small stalks the amount they export would be low, however as they grow so would the amount they export.

Currently I have "0" nitrates in my 180 DT, and I feed my anthias 2-3 times a day heavy feeding. I do not have a RDSB or any other nitrate removal media. I believe the mangroves are a big reason for this and I will always keep them in my systems. Plus they look cool !