Red Mangroves in Fuge

[Reefing Newbie]

So my tank is finally coming back together and my lfs told me to let them know a week or two ahead of time to order any macros I want for my fuge. I am planning on starting the fuge with macros while the tank is cycling so the macros are needing to be pruned by time I am able to add fish. Now I plan on having chaeto, ulva, red gracilaria, and red mangroves. The fuge is ~30-36 gallons being 36"Lx12"Wx18"D and I plan on lighting with three of these (http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html) bulbs to light the fuge. I think this will give plenty of light. There will be a 4" DSB maybe 5" have to see how this works out. Now to a question that I am unable to find the answer to. How tall do red mangroves get? Will it fit in my fuge if the fuge is under my tank and stand? I will most likely use styrofoam to hold the seed pods in place until they root(tape them to the back side of the tank). I rather not use rock as it may cause detritus build up. Also, would it be a good idea to keep a fighting conch down in the fuge to stir the top of the DSB? Give me pointers on anything I can improve on for the fuge. This is my first full fuge, had a large ball of chaeto before the tank got torn down but that was pretty much it.TIA!

[briankmarsh1980]

Well your mangrove can out grow your house lol
But really your other macro will do better then the mangroves

[Reefing Newbie]

Thanks! I will wait and see what others say. I read you are supposed to trim them frequently but keep one leaf so it doesn't die?

[briankmarsh1980]

Yes you have to trim them but t hey are slow at consuming nutrients compared to macro algae

[thegrun]

The other concern is long term growth. They are slow growers (so they do not export a lot of nutrients) but they do continue to grow. I have a friend who's mangrove eventually (3 years) broke through the divider and started growing into the return section. He had to tear his sump apart to remove the tree.

[Reefing Newbie]

Yep I guess I will stay away from mangroves until I have an extremely large tank with a large fuge(maybe even outdoors) to keep mangroves. Thanks for pointing this stuff out!

[EDJFA]

Good luck growing mangroves outside in Minnesota. Let us know how that works out during the winter!

[Lavoisier]

I was just reading vol. 3 of The Reef Aquarium by Sprung and Delbeek, and they state that the macro (particularly red) are significantly more effective than mangroves. I probably won't use mangroves again after reading that!