Please Help Me Start My Refugium!

MDeVito · Mar 14, 2016

Hey guys,
Couple quick questions, need some expert advice. Starting up my 57 g rimless SPS dominated build, I have a custom 15 gallon sump with a small space for a refugium. I am in love with mangroves so I need some help from you guys on what to grow the mangroves in, sand only? live rubble and sand? live rubble only? Mud and rubble? Also, I understand the mangroves aren't very useful for nutrient export but I love them. I'm also aware of daily misting, what do you guys think about the idea of an automatic reptile misting machine with RODI water in it aimed towards the mangroves? Lighting will be cheap, most likely a day light 15w LED. Anyone know how that'll work? I really want some feed back from you guys, the refugium will most likely have chaeto and copes. Please leave ideas, opinions, and alternatives to my plan.
Thanks for reading
Happy Reefin

jamie callard · Mar 14, 2016

Following but need to know how to add to ky display fuge. Not sure to go with seeds and plant or let them grow down from the top. Advise appreciated.

nervousmonkey · Mar 14, 2016

MDeVito said:
Hey guys,
Couple quick questions, need some expert advice. Starting up my 57 g rimless SPS dominated build, I have a custom 15 gallon sump with a small space for a refugium. I am in love with mangroves so I need some help from you guys on what to grow the mangroves in, sand only? live rubble and sand? live rubble only? Mud and rubble? Also, I understand the mangroves aren't very useful for nutrient export but I love them. I'm also aware of daily misting, what do you guys think about the idea of an automatic reptile misting machine with RODI water in it aimed towards the mangroves? Lighting will be cheap, most likely a day light 15w LED. Anyone know how that'll work? I really want some feed back from you guys, the refugium will most likely have chaeto and copes. Please leave ideas, opinions, and alternatives to my plan.
Thanks for reading
Happy Reefin

Hey @MDeVito ! Mangroves like fine sand or muddy substrate; think about where we find them in the U.S. and it'll tell you a lot about them. Tides with clean water but not perfect, salinity constant, substrate packed down, full of crabs and sealife, dead leaves falling off trees that have turned to mulm, hot bright sun all day long with afternoon thunderstorms almost every day April through October/November that serve to wash off the salt deposits from the mangrove uptake. So I would grow them in sand only, fine sand that can be packed and stay that way, not a lot of strong current, just gentle current. You can also "plant" your mangroves in no substrate, so they grow the large root systems that we see out of the water. I'll link to an article in a minute that will help.
The misting idea sounds like it could work, as long as each leaf is sufficiently wet to rinse the sand off or the mangrove will die..

Another idea, and I love the idea of a biotope from marine plants, is the idea of a salt grass bed. There are a lot of different grasses you could plant, but one of my favorite is shoal grass; doesn't get super tall, can take pretty strong currents, doesn't need deep sand beds despite what people may tell you. They support cool creatures that behave much differently in the "protection of the shoal grass" vs. the open ocean reefs. LOL. Small red legged and blue legged hermits do well, some wrasses, cardinals, you get the idea, and you can also grow some cool softies and LPS on the sand bed interspersed with the grass and rockwork. It's an interesting biotope, and filters waste pretty well actually.

Here is the link to the mangrove article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/ac/feature/index.php

MDeVito · Mar 14, 2016

Thanks for the suggestions! Any idea on if that lighting will work? Ideally I'd like to do a small sand bed with a small layer of live rock rubble so the roots can implant themselves through the rock into the sand. Think that'll be good? or just sand?

nervousmonkey · Mar 14, 2016

I think the lights will work. They don't need super bright light but mangroves won't do well in low light all the time. You'll be able to tell if it's bright enough.
Yeah, sand with rubble over it will work fine. The fine sand is just for the roots anyway. If you plant the mangrove in the sand like a dart, you don't need to worry about the roots penetrating the rock but to make sure, just plant the mangrove then add the rock rubble on top.