In July when I set up my reef (120 display and 200 total gallons) I decided to immediately insert Mangroves which I bought e b a y.
Knock on wood with A LOT of time and $$$$$$$$$$$$$ my system seems to be perfect. Looking at pictures from when I first set up the tank I noticed that the root system on my Mangroves have tripled in size. I was shocked. They are all in a refugium and have simple $2 Home Depot light fixture on them with a Home Depot LED bulb.
What is most impressive are my numbers, levels and how little my skimmer skims. I have a feeling the Mangroves have everything to do with it. Phos 0, Ites 0 and Trates 0. My skimmer skims but its not real dirty. I highly recommend Mangroves and wonder why more people don't talk or use them.











Also the only mechanical filtration I have is the Protein skimmer and like I said it is not ever really dirty skimming. Sometimes it is thick brown gunk but that takes some time to get to. I also have a decent amount of groves which could help. There is a ratio that will help, then there is another ratio that will do nothing. One mangrove in 30 gallons of water will do nothing, but 26 will. Ya know?
