Mangroves

[andrew catling]

What purpose do mangroves serve, dont know much about them but from what I hear they help keep nitrates down.
Where should they be placed, ie: tank or sump.
I've never seen them in my lfs, saying that I dont even know what they look like
Please enlighten me, and where can you buy them.

Cheers!

 

[ostrow]

They are used in a refugium, separate from the sump. Some do mangrove fuges, some (most) use macro algaes like chaetomorpha, caulerpa, etc. A few have tried pesky soft corals like xenia. I know one guy who is relegating aiptasia to a fuge. I wish him luck with that.

I don't run a fuge for lack of space. Wish I had the space.

 

[Navarre]

I have mangroves in my system. At the moment they are in the main tank but only to to allow the roots to grow deeper. When i first placed them in the sump the roots had yet to grow and the flow turned them over and exposes the root system to the air which dried them out. I now have the roots growing nicely and the mangroves will be placed in the sump very soon.

here is a photo

here is the same mangroves in the main system.
if you look closely you will see that most of them have good root growth now and this will help to keep them well balanced in the water.

They are slow to extract nutrients but once they start to produce leaves they really do a great job at removing Nitrates, Phosphates (and magnesium... but the mineral mud should replace this)

If you are having difficulty in getting mangroves then PM me as I see you are fromthe UK and I can direct you to some very good quality Mangroves

 

[pedwards]

I have mangroves in my system. At the moment they are in the main tank but only to to allow the roots to grow deeper. When i first placed them in the sump the roots had yet to grow and the flow turned them over and exposes the root system to the air which dried them out. I now have the roots growing nicely and the mangroves will be placed in the sump very soon.

here is a photo

here is the same mangroves in the main system.
if you look closely you will see that most of them have good root growth now and this will help to keep them well balanced in the water.

They are slow to extract nutrients but once they start to produce leaves they really do a great job at removing Nitrates, Phosphates (and magnesium... but the mineral mud should replace this)

If you are having difficulty in getting mangroves then PM me as I see you are fromthe UK and I can direct you to some very good quality Mangroves

[snapback]513124[/snapback]​

 

[pedwards]

I have mangroves in my system. At the moment they are in the main tank but only to to allow the roots to grow deeper. When i first placed them in the sump the roots had yet to grow and the flow turned them over and exposes the root system to the air which dried them out. I now have the roots growing nicely and the mangroves will be placed in the sump very soon.

here is a photo

here is the same mangroves in the main system.
if you look closely you will see that most of them have good root growth now and this will help to keep them well balanced in the water.

They are slow to extract nutrients but once they start to produce leaves they really do a great job at removing Nitrates, Phosphates (and magnesium... but the mineral mud should replace this)

If you are having difficulty in getting mangroves then PM me as I see you are fromthe UK and I can direct you to some very good quality Mangroves

[snapback]513124[/snapback]​

 

[pedwards]

I am pretty new to reef keeping and have set up 2 tanks (450L total) in series (syphon plus pump). One for display and 1 like a refugia primarily for water quality. I use an undergravel filter in the refugia for pumping out water to the show tank and the powerhead is also linked to this, so no impellers to chew up planktonic babies from my show tank. I have good lighting in my refugia tank and would like to use mangroves to manage nitrate levels to <0.25ppm before introducing difficult corals and anenomes etc into show tanks. Would really like to know where in UK I can get mangroves, best species, best substrate, proportion to grow above and below water, especially what is a reasonable space aboove the water level for good leaf growth, as you say this is when the nitrate... removal is at its best.

Pete

I have mangroves in my system.  At the moment they are in the main tank but only to to allow the roots to grow deeper. When i first placed them in the sump  the roots had yet to grow and the flow turned them over and exposes the root system to the air which dried them out.    I now have the roots growing nicely and the mangroves will be placed in the sump very soon.

here is a photo

here is the same mangroves in the main system.
if you look closely you will see that most of them have good root growth now and this will help to keep them well balanced in the water.

They are slow to extract nutrients but once they start to produce leaves they really do a great job at removing Nitrates, Phosphates (and magnesium...    but the mineral mud should replace this)

If you are having difficulty in getting mangroves then PM me as I see you are fromthe UK and I can direct you to some very good quality Mangroves

[snapback]513124[/snapback]​

[snapback]866672[/snapback]​