multi-chambered ecosystem sump

hello everybody, this is my first post here, so i guess ill introduce myself a bit before i get down to this idea.

I am currently on active duty (national guard) stationed in afghanistan. i will be home in february, which is when i plan on starting up a 125 gallon reef system. I have 12 years experience with freshwater (i know this dosent matter too much), and some experience with saltwater (Working at petstore / growing up with a saltwater tank in the house) I have been doing a lot of homework on this plan, and i have decided to go with an ecosystem filtration setup. I am going to build the sump myself, and here is where the idea/question comes in.


I was thinking of having two main chambers of this sump, both with miracle mud, but one being planted with mangrove(s) and the other being planted with caulerpa. has anything like this been attempted before? if so, i'd like to hear some feedback on how it worked.. ect. I want to have the water flow through the mangrove chamber first, as i believe that the caulerpa will be much more tenacious at gathering nutrients from the water. maybe even have the mangrove chamber populated with small hermits and such, if i can build a containment system to keep them away from the caulerpa, and the iwaki pump i plan to use. anyway, i'd like to get some criticism, helpful or not, on how this sounds as a viable filtration system.
thanks,

 

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Thanks for joining and thanks for your service to the USA! [smiley=thumbs_up1.gif]

I haven't attempted what you are saying but I will refer this post to some others on this forum that have an eco-system. I do have a Mangrove growing for several months now on it's own with some beach sand and water from the bay. It is not a nutrient sponge like caulerpa, but it sure is hardy. It has 3 sets of leaves now (started with none) and is happy in the window sill. I had hoped to put it in my 75 gallon, but I don't have it running yet. I just top off water and throw fish food in occasionally. I have done only 2 water changes so far.

I don't see anything wrong with the system you are describing. I think it would work well, although the Mangroves would require more room and light than just caulerpa. I am not sure Mangroves would give you much more benefit than just caulerpa either.

There is a great link in the links library (link at bottom) on Mangroves. CHeck it out!

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WELCOME PFCFISHY,
Good job oversee's mate,,,
I have had my eco running and made some good observations, in my opinion calurpa and mangroves would be overkill, not to mention the lighting mangroves need as stated by Matt.
Based on the size of this sump, which you have not mentioned, would have to be taken into consideration for both cavities for the amount of MM, I would guess for a 175 it would be pretty big, with that I have an idea for you to consider,,,
Why not make one cavity for a in sump Protien Skimmer, skimmer can be used once a week for a day to polish the water,,,
As mentioned, do check out the Library and forum on Protien Skimmers and Product Reviews, interesting stuff there...
Keep askin those questions, it's the only way we here can help each other,,,
Good Luck, and once again,
Welcome to 3Reef

 

the reason i was looking into mangroves as well as caulerpa is because i have heard that there is a lot of beneficial bacteria that seems to flock to the mangrove root system. i havent been able to find any specific studies or research work done to this effect, but i am quite interested in the different applications that could come about from this combination.

 

I've heard about the roots being a breeding area for fish in the wild but haven't heard much about in aquariums.

But, regardless, it can't hurt!

Here's the link I was talking about in the links library:

http://www.twolittlefishies.com/images/mangrove_manual.pdf