Mangrove Lagoon

[laverda]

I finally set up my mangrove lagoon Sunday. It was a challenge getting the 3 year old mangroves out from my under tank sump. I probably should have moved them a year ago. Several good size branches were broken in the move. The lagoon is tied into my main 300 gallon tank and sump, so no cycling needed. I still need to hang my grow light over the mangroves. I never though mangroves could contribute significantly to nutrient export, but have changed my mind based on how fast they have grown. My mangroves were purchased at RAP almost 3 years ago as populs (sp) without a single leaf, root or branch. I had heard they are slow growing, but mine have grown like weeds once they sprouted there first couple leaves.

I don't have much in my lagoon yet. A feather duster, 6 assorted snails, a small crab and a small pistol shrimp are it so far. I have a flag fin goby in QT that will go in with the pistol shrimp. Not to sure what else will be added yet.

Both tanks.

 

[Crashnt24]

I'm jealous, I was trying to talk the wife into letting me do something just like yours.

Looking great!

 

[C. Eymann]

Beautiful, Im looking to do something similar with my build, 30 gal lagoon/mangrove fuge next to my display.

How did you get such big mature mangroves?

 

[laverda]

Beautiful, Im looking to do something similar with my build, 30 gal lagoon/mangrove fuge next to my display.

How did you get such big mature mangroves?

Thank you! The mangroves have been growing in my sump under the tank for almost three years. I put them in a plastic basket with some miracle mud, medium sand and then rubble and a few larger rocks on top. I use inexpensive red and blue grow LEDs. They were up tight against the LEDs and on top of the LEDs which were screwed directly to the wood under my tank. The leaves at the very top were burned from too much light I am guessing. Several branches were broken off trying to get them out from under my stand. I will dig up a photo of them before I moved them. I have pretty high nitrates and phosphates by most standards. I also dose iron for my ATS. I imagine the mangroves May use some of it as well. The mangroves blocked all the light so my cheats died out.

 

[laverda]

I'm jealous, I was trying to talk the wife into letting me do something just like yours.

Looking great!

Thank you! Good luck! Maybe my photos will help. Sorry they are not better quality.

 

[laverda]

Here is a photo from March 2018, so around 6 months in my care at that point. You can not really tell but there are 2 mangroves in the photo, one behind the other. So just 2-3 leaves each at this point. The other 2 are to the right of these 2.

 

[C. Eymann]

Here is a photo from March 2018, so around 6 months in my care at that point. You can not really tell but there are 2 mangroves in the photo, one behind the other. So just 2-3 leaves each at this point. The other 2 are to the right of these 2.

How often did you/do you mist them down?

 

[laverda]

Only occasionally. Not all mangroves need misting. Apparently these do not but I don’t remember their name. I think it may be red mangroves.

 

[laverda]

I finally hung my grow light over the mangroves today.

 

[Bryan68]

Looks fantastic!

 

[jeffrey750750]

Do mangroves remove phosphates and nitrates better than chaeto? Those are cool, I've seen them at my lfs from time to time

 

[laverda]

Looks fantastic!

Thank you!

 

[laverda]

Do mangroves remove phosphates and nitrates better than chaeto? Those are cool, I've seen them at my lfs from time to time

I really do not know. My cheato died while my mangroves were in my sump, but I think it was mostly because the mangroves blocked all the light.
I know my ATS removes way more than cheato does. My cheato also died when I ran my ATS 24/7 as my nutrients dropped to zero. My corals were not happy either.
FYI my phosphates are 1.3 and nitrates around 30 as of yesterday. It try to keep them at closer to 1.0 and 20.
I will give my mangroves some time to adjust and and if my nutrients remain high I will increase the light schedule of my ATS. I also added a tinny tiny bit of cheato (all I had) to my sump just for the heck of it now that the light is not blocked by the mangroves. I doubt it will grow much.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Very nice. I love nature's filtration.

 

[Perry]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing the progress, freaking awesome mangrove tank, really cool idea!
All the best

 

[laverda]

Very nice. I love nature's filtration.

Thank you. Hard to do better than mother nature!

 

[laverda]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing the progress, freaking awesome mangrove tank, really cool idea!
All the best

Thank you. I am as well. When I was removing them from my sump and setting up the lagoon I kept thinking this is not going to be big enough to hold them very long. We will see.

 

[laverda]

I changed the 1” drain on my Mangrove Lagoon by adding a better screen to it. It consists of a shortened street elbow, a custom made screen to keep Mangrove leaves and snails out of the drain line, a 1” slip - slip bulkhead and 1” super flex PVC sloping down in to my return section of my sump. You can also see my half inch feed line going across the top. I still plane to change this a bit. It is super quiet.

 

[2Sunny]

That is super cool. I have a basement sump that is essentially just housing live rock. I've never seen such success with mangroves before now you got me thinking a mangrove in my basement would be super cool. How deep is the sand bed for them and what kind of sand? Or is it mud?

 

[laverda]

That is super cool. I have a basement sump that is essentially just housing live rock. I've never seen such success with mangroves before now you got me thinking a mangrove in my basement would be super cool. How deep is the sand bed for them and what kind of sand? Or is it mud?

I used a layer of mud, then sand and then rubble. They were in a plastic tray as I planned to move them from the start. By the time I did the roots made what was in the tray a pretty solid layer which I put on top of live rock to get them to the height I wanted in the tank. It is not exactly how i envisioned it but I really like the end result. It is kind of like it the water had eroded the soil away below about a 3-4” layer. I will try to get a photo that shows it better.