So, after digging through some of my old junk and equipment I found one of these. No light, no filter, etc ect, just the tank.

So, after pondering the possible uses, I was wondering if anyone knows if it would be possible to keep a mangrove in the tank...

I was thinking of maybe using sand/mud as a substrate, and having some rock partially out of the water, maybe including a semi-terrestrial crab or fiddler if possible. I saw this at a store and I'm contemplating on using that or something similar to keep the exposed rock from drying out.

As far as lights go I purchased this desk lamp from wal-mart, and while the color for corals is pretty bad my chaetomorpha and xenia in another tank seem to love it.

I'd like some input on whether or not this idea seems feasible. If so, I'll get on setting it up, and if not I may use the tank for something else; maybe a home for that giant gorilla crab the LFS wants to get rid of...

::edit:: Also, I'm not sure if this is the right board. If everything pans out it may eventually be a "biotope" or something akin to one.

Brackish biotope would defenitely be cool. I don't know about mangroves in a tank that size but you could have a piece of wood with some crabs and other cool stuff.

I wonder if there are any small sized semi-terrestrial crabs available that can survive in marine water. Everything that I've read says the commercially available fiddlers are brackish water creatures. Hmm...

The 'scape I had in mind for the tank was a pile of rock to one side with a mangrove on the edge of that, with some ulva or other free floating macro drifting on or near the surface.

Other inverts that come to mind are the nerites and periwinkles. I got a few of both from reefcleaners a while back, and they seemed to like crawling above water from time to time...

You could try it. If you want the mangrove effect why not just by some mangrove roots from a store.

Mangrove roots? Never seen a store sell those before. Something to look into...

Plan B would be to go without it and set every thing up and play around with it for a bit; see what works and what doesn't.

Plan C developed after a temporary bout of boredom induced insanity. I may set up a tank for all manner of "pests" and invaders and see what comes of it. Xanthid crabs strolling through a forest of invasive algae, weaving between colonies of majanos and aiptasia. As a plus it would give me somewhere to banish any potential pariahs. My own personal Isola d'Elba, in a way...

Plan C is sweet.

Well they aren't exactly mangrove roots but more of a carved piece of wood resembling roots. Not living of course. Plan C does sound nice though.

+1 for plan c

I did that once with a 15g.. It was actually pretty sweet.

Okay then, I decided to go with a plan A/C hybrid.

I'll set it up with the filter and a 26 watt 6500k CFL bulb in a clip-on fixture I found at home depot. I'll be looking out for an extra small powerhead to have some flow around the back of the tank, and I'll set up the rockwork to allow the water from the filter to cascade over them to keep the ones out of the water wet.

I picked up a few small rock pieces from the LFS to add, one came with a nice little xanthid crab already. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance...