Just a couple pictures showing the size of the mangroves since the last post where we looked at growth rates from December 3rd 2009 to February 17th 2010. These are the most recent pictures taken on 3/23/2010.

In the time since the last post, the grape culpera strand has grown more than 5x its original size. If any of you have ordered from reefcleaners.org, they offer a strand of grape culpera for $.01 to add on to any order – that is the size my piece started as (probably 2-3 inches long with just a straight stalk and no “leaves” forming). The chaeto has just about doubled in size as well.

without further delay…click images to expand

Mangroves in refugium

mangroves in refugium

mangroves chaeto and grape culpera in refugium

As you can see, the mangroves have grown up to the bottom of my stand, and it is now time to trim them. I am under the impression that to trim a mangrove, you must cut it right above the first set of leaves on the stalk. I will test this on a few of my taller ones and see if the plant is able to recover and as always, I will post the results here.

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.

Refugium

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

Refugium installed into my aquarium stand

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

Refugium with chaeto

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.

Mangroves in refugium 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.

Mangroves January 20th, 2010

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.

Mangroves February 3rd, 2010

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.

Mangroves February 17th, 2010

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