mangrove trees

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brovo2zero

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Jan 14, 2005
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I was serfing the web and found a site on mangrove trees in marine tanks ..

It was an interesting aritcle on how mangrove grow how they remove nitrates form the water as well as reduce the load on protine skimmers ..

i dont know if i would grow one in the main tank i would consider it in a sump for extra filtration and nitrate removal ..

Anyways i thought it would be good to start a thread on plants for marine tanks or get a debate on whats good or not in the way of plants ..
 
In theory, mangroves will use nitrate, but they are not really the best choice. Compared to macroalgae like caulerpa, chaetomorpha or gracilaria, mangroves just grow too slowly to make much of a dent in nitrate.

Some people do grow mangroves, usually in a separate tank. They need a lot space for root growth, and also head space for upward growth.

Seagrasses, like turtle grass or manatee grass, are also fast growing once established. They get tall, so you need a tank about 24" for the height of the plants plus the deep substrate they require. I plan to plumb a seagrass fuge inline at some point, but still have plenty to do with the main tank.

Plantbrain occasionally chimes in on the salty side of the forum. He was growing an all-plant, no coral "reef." I'd love to see an update about the tank, and he would certainly have things to say about plants and macroalgae in marine tanks.
 
I've been researching this myself.
Does anyone have article references or sites to support how much nitrate/organic export various algaes and/or plants remove... also any data or articles on benefits of plants vs. deep sand bed vs. live rock for this purpose, lemme know.
 
I have a mangrove sprout in my sump along with about a pound of Caulerpa. I know it will thrive under MH as it does so at my LFS. I'm not going to put MH over my sump!! The mangrove looks cool but I have to think the Caulerpa is doing about 99% of the work!!
 
FloridaBoy said:
I've been researching this myself.
Does anyone have article references or sites to support how much nitrate/organic export various algaes and/or plants remove... also any data or articles on benefits of plants vs. deep sand bed vs. live rock for this purpose, lemme know.
Click to expand...
I don't know of any real science regarding incorporation rates, but here's a quote from Calfo and Fenner's Marine Invertebrates (which also has a section on plants and macroalgae):
"It is surprising to hear aquarists debate the efficacy of mangroves in the marine aquarium as vehicles for nutrient export when their functional abilities can be weighed clearly against their growth, which is painfully slow. [blah blah blah] In wild habitats, they are outstanding vehicles for nutrient export, fixing nutrients in their enormous and collective biomass. In the aquarium, however, there is not a forest of twenty or thirty feet tall mangroves! The scrappy little seedlings that aquarists do have, instead demonstrate leaf growth concurrent with leaf drop at times. The proof is in the pudding as they say: they are weak nutrient export mechanisms [his bold] in the aquarium because they do not produce stable or harvestable mass quickly."

Just because Calfo says it doesn't mean it's true, but it sounds reasonable to me.
 
Thanks, I have read that same article before on mangroves, here's another:
http://scubaraven.com/article_mangroves.htm
but I'm not looking for info just on mangroves, actually looking for comparisons of plant uptake to the other items I mentioned; LR, DSB... searching for someone who has done extensive research or seriously measured results, still looking.
 
I was quoting Calfo because I didn't really have much to add. Call me lame.

Although it would be pretty easy to measure nutrient export by plants/macroalgae (measure dry weight produced, divide by the proportion of nitrogen), it seems tough to measure the output of a DSB, which is gaseous.

Randy Holmes-Farley's articles on phosphorous and nitrate have a little data, and a little more in the links.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but what exactly IS a mangrove?? I've seen several varieties that seem to all be called mangroves. What I have looks like a little palm tree. Others have more broad, round leaves. Others I've seen look almost like a grass with thick round trunk. Having fished a lot in the south Florida region all my life, people call the entire water plant vegitation area between the open water and dry land "mangroves"!!
 
LOL, yes, well I quote Calfo all the time so no one is calling you lame my friend! Thanks for additional links; I will read. FKM, regarding "what is a mangrove," I think the species used primarily here is the Red Mangrove; check the link in my previous post for photos/more info. (by the way, beauty of a blade there; reminds me of Randall Knives here in Florida; my brother and I used to stop in there from time to time).
 
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