Mangrove’s in the Reef Aquarium

Mangroves are becoming a very popular addition to home reef aquariums. They are great for reducing nitrate and phospate in the aquarium, but because of their slow growth rates, many people believe they are not as effective as the other types of macro algae, such as chaeto or culpera. In my own aquarium, I have been using several types of macro for my biological filtration, but mainly mangroves and I have just about 20 in my refugium. I wanted to post to show the growth rates of mangroves in my aquarium.

Also, it is recommended to have at least 1 mangrove per 2 gallons of total water volume of your system if they are your only source of biological filtration. I cannot comment on how accurate this statement is as I use other types of macro as well.

I built my refugium on november 3rd, 2009. It is a refugium + sump combo made with glass baffles and 5 gallon refugium section (you can find more on the build by clicking here). Here is what it looked like while I was testing to make sure there were no leaks.

Then, on november 8th, I was able to install the refugium sump into my stand.

My first macro algae, a nice size chunk of chaeto, was added November 12th.

Then, on December 3rd, I received my first 10 mangroves. I don’t have a picture of them, but I know this was the date as it was the day of Art Basel in Miami. On the way home from the art show, I went by the inter coastal and snatched a few mangroves out of the water. To my knowledge, it is O.K. to harvest mangrove seeds as long as they have no leaves or roots starting to form. The ones that I found were just seeds floating in the water.

The first picture I have of the mangroves was shortly after the seeds finally opened on January 15th 2010.

The next picture I have of the mangroves in the refugium is from January 20th, 2010. As you can see, more leaves have opened on a few of the seeds, and the ones that were open now have larger leaves.

Then, on feb 3rd, you can see that most of the mangroves have opened and a few of them are growing quite large. Some are even starting to grow their second set of leaves.

Finally, a picture from today, February 17th, 2010. Most of the mangroves are doing well. I have also added 10 more mangroves that have not yet opened, a ball of chaeto, and a small piece of some grape culpera. All seem to be doing fine.

Over the last month, I have definitely seen a drop in my nitrates and phosphate in the aquarium since the addition of the refugium and mangroves. Also, when people come over to see the tank, they are sometimes more intrigued by my sump than my actual reef tank, and I must admit, it does look pretty cool.

You can find more information on my tank here

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10 Responses to “Mangrove’s in the Reef Aquarium”

1. jeffry r. johnston says:

   February 19, 2010 at 6:40 pm

   Great coverage!
2. admin says:

   February 20, 2010 at 5:30 pm

   Thank you. I figured the reefing community out there might appreciate some mangrove growth over time shots as I have really not seen much about it online.