Something for my Refugium

[MediaOne]

Hi all! I am currently putting together a 50 gallon refugium for my 90 gallon reef tank. I am going to run the lights 24 hours a day, and have 2 mangroves growing out of it in the long run, maybe more in the start. The tank is 3 feet long, with a glass brace in the middle. I thought 2 when they get bigger cause they can grow out on either side. Anyway, I was wondering what I could put in my refugium that would remove silicates? Do Mangrove trees remove silicates? I know they remove Nitrates, phosphates and dissolved organics.

This is a project to see if I can (long term) remove my skimmer. I am going to remove the skimmer the moment it stops removing skimmate from my system.

Any life at all you could recommend would be awesome. I am going to use 60 watts of light. 2 30 watt grow bulbs.

Thanks!

 

[Bucktronix]

chances are your skimmer will never stop removing skimate, you have a fo system. if they are messy eaters then you may not want to remove it at all. if your tank was a reef it would be a good goal to work towards, but with just fo im not sure.

 

[wasabi]

unless you got a ton of mangroves like 1 per gallon they just look good and are fun to grow.ive go 1 its gown 2 inches and 4 leaves in 1 year. lots of different types of caulerpa will do wonders for your excess nutrients if you harvest it.

 

[MediaOne]

For the first reply, I'm not sure your logic makes any sense there, what is good for a reef tank usually in general IS good for a fish-only. Also, ho would want to leave the food in the tank that the messy eaters left behind? All this can cause is excess nutrients and algae problems long term.

Second, I do plan on growing lots of macroalgae along with the mangroves. It is a long-term plan to get a couple large mangroves sucking off the tank, I will start out with probably 5 mangroves. It is possible that the skimmer will stop removing dissolved organics, all though it is advisable to keep running the skimmer to remove large particulates (Bob Fenner, Conscientious Marine Aquarist).

http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/

Check out John Rice's mangrove sump idea to see how he effectively stopped using his skimmer on a heavily stocked 450 gallon reef tank.

Thanks for the replies,

Enjoy!

[ February 18, 2002: Message edited by: MediaOne ]</p>

 

[Bucktronix]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MediaOne:
<strong>For the first reply, I'm not sure your logic makes any sense there, what is good for a reef tank usually in general IS good for a fish-only. Also, ho would want to leave the food in the tank that the messy eaters left behind? All this can cause is excess nutrients and algae problems long term.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

i didnt mean to leave the food in the tank duh! i ment you may want to leave the skimmer in the tank. you dont need to convince me to remove a skimmer, i dont even have one but if i had a fo system with a big community of fish you bet i would have one. i don't think your refeugium alone will remove the nitrates and nutrients that a fo system would produce. it seems a shame to go to this kinda work in balancing a tank in an eco friendly way and not make it a reef.

 

[Anonymous]

Diatoms remove silicates.

A fast growing sponge might do the job, if such a thing exists. Many sponges use silica to make their spicules.