Success without a skimmer

by **fihsboy** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:41 pm

I think its pretty much proven now that it can be done. I now have 27 mangroves in my refugium all started out as pods and now have leaves and are growing like weeds, The water parameters have stayed the same since I put in the mangroves. Most of you have read my other post of the experiment, this is just an update. I have one mangrove in my 2.5 gallon and its stable with the mangrove a power head and a small heater. My main tank has 27 red american mangroves and they are all working great. I am pruining them as if they were bonsai trees......which i have a few real bonsai on my back porch so im familiar with it. The trees create a nice shaded area for copepods to reproduce in the refuge and they are doing so, at a high enough rate to feed my scooter blenny. My nitrates are down to 0 and so are my phosphates. I bought some rubble rock to go in the refuge for some places to hide and its like I bought a whole eco new ecosystem. The rock had starfish,pods,worms,and even featherdusters alive in it. 2 bucks a pound.......can't beat that. I have been doing a 10 gallon water change every week on a 43ish gallon system and the water is staying clear and nutrient free, thank you mangroves!

by **dick_headers** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:49 pm

CONGRATS!! I'm happy for ya'!

by **gumbii** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:38 am

i'm thinking of getting some... some guy is selling some locally for 7 bucks each... i don't know if that's expensive or cheap...

by **ocreef** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:00 am

Most Saltwater Aquariums are definitely sustainable without a protein skimmer...However I do recommend one. If choose not to run a skimmer and depending on your set up, I would beef up the live rock, keep an eye on nitrates, and make sure not to overfeed anything. In the beginning, until you get familiar with your aquarium without a protein skimmer, I would recommend doing more frequent smaller water changes.

by **fihsboy** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:13 am

Hey Gumbii, That sounds somewhat expensive. I bought mine on Ebay. They came from hawaii and got here in about two days, with NO shock. I have 26 in my main tanks refuge and 1 in my 2.5 gallon tank that im using to raise copepods.I bought 20 for 14 dollars. thats with shipping and everything. In a 43ish gallon system im running about 80lbs of live sand and about 50 lbs of live rock, 15lbs being in my refugium with the mangroves. I do a 10 gallon water change every 9 days usually. sounds excesive, but i did the same when I used the protein skimmer.

by **fihsboy** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:23 am

BTW if you are interested in the natural filtration..........check out this article..

http://www.athiel.com/lib10/mangrove9.htm

This guy has done tests and it shows that mangroves keep the water CLEANER than a protein skimmer will. The Oxygen levels are higher and the dissolved organics are less than with a skimmer........Sounds like skimmers could be a thing of the past if this catches on.

by **ocreef** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:05 am

Mangrove plants do a great job of maintaining water parameters...they eat up nutrients, keeping the nitrates low and they do return oxygen to the water. They are a hardy bitchin plant with the right care. Red mangroves have the ability to replace sodium ions, which are present in salt water, with magnesium ions. This is a plant that I am currently studying myself. However, we must learn how to care for them properly before getting one. We also need to remember some species of Mangroves will get big, so you will need to know how to successfully stunt their growth and keep them trimmed back, all while still keeping them happy and healthy.

Here is a couple of informative links if you wish to take a look... concerning the mangroves.

http://www.toptropicals.com/html/aqua/p ... ve_eng.htm

http://www.toptropicals.com/downloads/mangrove.pdf

late ocreef.com

by **gumbii** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:06 am

cool... thx fishboy... you should use spell check next time you're typing in a display name... lol...

by **schigara** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:28 am

I have been thinking about using a Mangrove bed for quite some time and I might just use one on my next system but I have had such a good experience with a Xenia srubber, only time will tell. Having a secondary refugium with Xenia is beautiful as a display in and of itself.

Mangroves are proven to work very well. For me though, a mangrove tank is just not very attractive. My Xenia tank is not even half filled out but everyone just loves the look of the pink pulses and my skimmer is producing about a 1/3rd what it did before, nitrates hover on a flat 0 and I have been feeding more just to provide more food for the SPS and Xenia.

I do think either a Mangrove bed or a Xenia scrubber could totally replace the use of a skimmer.

Gotta love an ever evolving hobby such as this. There are no carved in stone philosophies or techniques.

by **ocreef** » Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:34 am

I have taken my BLT1B Precision Marine Protein Skimmer off for quite a while now from my 90 home reef, due to the amount of Pink POM POM Xenia's I have...they do a great job of keeping the nitrates down. They are definitely more asthetically pleasing to look at... and in my opinion are easier to care for the most mangroves.

Success without a skimmer

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