Starting my refugium. Mangroves and what else?

Hello everyone.

I am looking to start a refugium. Well I kind of already have one but its very pathetic. ;D

Here is a picture of the tiny plant thing I have in my refug.


My refugium is 1' tall by 1' wide by 18" long. Is that big enough? I would like to put some mangroves in there and also some kind of macro algae.

Eventually I want to have a tang so if I can put in a macro algae that I can feed him that would be cool.

According to reef cleaners mangroves can be grown under a plant light, which would be cool as I already have one of those. Are there any macro algaes that would require nothing more than a plant light?

Thanks!

-Stepho


tl:dr- Is my refugium big enough? 1'x1'x18"
What kind of macro algae should I put in with mangroves, for possible tang food?
Any macros that require only a plant light like the mangroves?

 

Heres a link on Mangroves, very informative. http://www.3reef.com/forums/general...ng-you-needed-know-about-mangroves-52877.html

You'll want some kind of macroalgae like cheato.

 

^yup and from what I've heard, mangroves need a lot more water flow than you'd typically have in most refugium setups. You typically want 10 gallons per hour flow rate per 100 gallons of display tank volume ratio (or 1/10) for the fuge.

 

And they consume alot of Mag too. Luna

 

^it's a good thing epsom salt is cheap then. ;D

 

Thanks for the link. Good information.

50 mangroves was quite a few more than I was planning on having.... by about ten times lol.

I was originally looking at Cheato, but tangs won't eat it right?

According to reef cleaners, its 2 watts per gallon. I am assuming thats of water in the refugium, so I would need 22 watts or more?

I know the link says in my tank I should have 50 mangroves, but thats way too many I think. Would it still be beneficial to put like 5-10 in there and chaeto?

 

Yeah, thats a lot, I have about 10-12 mangroves with cheato in my refug. My lighting is only 2-18w 7100k bulbs. My tang eats the cheato, so does a Fox Face. Luna

 

My tang and foxface also eat cheato, the cheato was dwindling slowly so I had to start my ghetto fuge so it didn't disappear altogether.

I have two mangroves, one isn't looking so good. I have them in the DSB with the cheato but I was recently considering moving them closer to the sump area so they got more waterflow.

Thanks for that link luna!!

 

Any time........Luna