Has anyone here had any experience with using mangrove plants to help control phosphates and nitrates? I've read a few articles that it is very easy and very effective and they replace your skimmer after they start uptaking the nutrients. Sounds like an interesting concept and could add a nice touch to the aquascaping.
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Has anyone used Mangrove plants??
- Thread starter stilmas
- Start date
stilmas,many reefers who use macroalgeas do so buy keeping them in a sump,therefore there is no direct contact with the reef tank inhabitants.You can "weed" your macros without disturbing the main tank.The macros utilize the nitrates and phospates faster than the mangroves.HTH
randy holmes-farley
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Arlington, MA
To a very rough approximation, organic tissue contains about the same amount of nitrogen and phosphorus (on a dry weight basis) regardless of the source.
So, if you want mangroves to remove all of these nutrients from the tank then the plants must grow at a rate about equal to the food that is added to the tank (minus that which goes directly into growth of other things like fish and corals).
Since mangroves grow rather slowly, they take up relatively few nutrients compared to macroalgae that grow much faster. Can they grow fast enough to remove all excess nutrients? Sure, if you have enough of them for the amount that you feed. The question is how much you need. That will of course vary by tank, but it is unlikely that a single plant or two will keep up with a decent sized reef tank (IMO).
OTOH, macros in a refugium can. In my case, they supplement a skimmer, but together they drive the nutrients way down. Under the same lighting conditions (which haven't been intentionally optimized for either mangroves or macros), the macros in my system take out far more nutrients than the 2 small mangroves.
[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Randy Holmes-Farley ]</p>
So, if you want mangroves to remove all of these nutrients from the tank then the plants must grow at a rate about equal to the food that is added to the tank (minus that which goes directly into growth of other things like fish and corals).
Since mangroves grow rather slowly, they take up relatively few nutrients compared to macroalgae that grow much faster. Can they grow fast enough to remove all excess nutrients? Sure, if you have enough of them for the amount that you feed. The question is how much you need. That will of course vary by tank, but it is unlikely that a single plant or two will keep up with a decent sized reef tank (IMO).
OTOH, macros in a refugium can. In my case, they supplement a skimmer, but together they drive the nutrients way down. Under the same lighting conditions (which haven't been intentionally optimized for either mangroves or macros), the macros in my system take out far more nutrients than the 2 small mangroves.
[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Randy Holmes-Farley ]</p>
Ok, that explains it a bit better. I should have thought about placing the macroalgae in the sump instead of directly into the tank before I said anything. I'm not actually doing any of this yet since I don't have a sump, but I will when I upgrade to a larger tank eventually. I'm just trying to gather as much info from you experienced reefers as I can before I make any final decisions. Thanks again, and if you can think of anything else that might help me please post it. Thanks!
I forgot who said it, maybe Dr. Shimek, maybe someone else, but you need to have a forest of mangrove to effectively remove enough nutrient from a average stocked/fed tank. I think the rule is one mangrove seedling per 5 gallon of your total water volume. The last time I was calculating it, for my 150G, I would need 30 plants......hehe....I only have 12 now, and I am already running out of sump surface spaces.
Bottom line, better go with macro algae or more frequent water changes.
Bottom line, better go with macro algae or more frequent water changes.
You could always use a hang on refugium. I just got a plastic container about 6 gallons on my 90 gallon. I made a hanging bracket and it is gravity feed bak into the aquarium, a power head pumps the water into the box. For light i just use one of those new flourescent light fixtures tha screw into a incendescent light socket and it works pretty well it has a pretty good color spectrum I grow alot of macro algae such as caluprea. I think it works pretty well of rhow much it cost me to make it maybe 30 bucks all together including powerhead.
randy holmes-farley
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Arlington, MA
Many of us have mangroves, myself included. Few of us claim them to be a great sink for nitrates or phosphates compared to faster growing macroalgae.
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