What Plants and Algae are the Best for a Refugium?

I am building a 20 Gallon long sump in January and having a fuge right in the middle of it.

I want to add Mangroves but I don't know the first thing about a fuge. What type of plants and how many should I add in there?

Let the opinions fly!

 

Mangroves will go in a little bit of reef mud... On your 30 you will only need one.
The best macro algae to use is cheato algae because it does not go sexual in your dt

 

Mangroves and cheato put as many in as you want and don't plant them in the mud.

 

You can also do a search and that will give you a good idea on how to use mangroves.

 

So I just let the Mangroves float in the water?

 

Yes, just stick them in some styrofoam and just let them float or you can use egg crate and stick them in that.

 

i like cheato and calurpa. keep and eye on your calurpa it grows fast and can go asexual so prune often, it is a great food source for your tangs plus it is very healthy for them.

 

Chaeto is always a good one. It spreads like a weed if your water is nasty enough, but it only grows in the space you want it to (your fuge).

And by sticking your mangroves in foam or eggcrate, he means like this:

 

Alright, so if my LFS doesn't sell the Calurpa or Chaeto where d you think I should get it from? Online?

 

reefcleaners.org sells all this stuff and they have good articles on how to grow it and keep it. my opinion on caulerpa is negative because its harder to keep from i read due to its potential for overtaking your DT (ive not dealt with it first hand im a noob with macroalgae's)