Quick question about red mangroves

[jaynkeel]

I 've been looking online but not to much info on determining weather a mangrave is dead or not. Looking for input from someone who has more experience with them. When they get brown on the part that sticks out of the water does that mean their dead? I see everyone elses and they look all really green, stalk and all. These the part thats underwater is green but anything out of water is brown and brittle looking. Just got them last week so maybe they need some time to "green" up. They are about 8-10in tall, fwiw.

[cheryl jordan]

Hi, like your avatar and could you provide a pic please

[Zepo.]

Mine did the same, only about half look good and are growing a nice root structure. Make sure the tips are out of the water and your spraying them with freshwater daily. If they have roots growing and are still green they should be fine, if they are completly shriveled up i would bet they are dead.

[jaynkeel]

Ill have to wait for day light to get a pic, right now I tried and the blue is washing the color out in the pic from the halide. They pretty much look like any pic you see except the tops are all brown no leaves yet.

 

Well I threw it on a white sheet of paper so you can kinda see. This is the worst looking one the rest are pretty green up until where they come above water. Then they are all pretty much this color.

[jaynkeel]

Bump, It's been 3 weeks now and no growth on the part out of the water. I tossed the one in the picture, the others are green and seem to have roots growing on the bottom but still are blackish tips sticking out of the water. Since I am new to mangroves I'm still puzzled as to how long it takes for the top to start to green up and poke at least one leaf out. They are in my sump with a regular curly cue flourescent bulb/ 100w equivalent. 12hr photoperiod.

[lasongo]

I've got a dozen in my sump and they are fine. Questions I've got to ask though is specifically what kind of bulb are you using? I've got mine under a GE 6500K bulb (looks like a blue floodlight, but there is also a "curly-fry" version) and is readily available at any Home Depot/Lowes for about $5-7.

 

Previously I had them in an AIO setup I made and they were under the halide and grew fine. Thing to remember is to mist them generally at least every 2-3 days (I do it every day though) with freshwater. They excrete excess salt through their leaves so you need to get it off of the leaves. In the wild, wind and rain take care of this.

 

Also try to keep all their tips out of the water. They will grow submerged, but not as well. As per substrate, I don't personally buy into the whole mud thing. I've got mine growing just fine in the sump with a ton of liverock and a thin sand bottom.

 

If the leaves do turn brown and die, go ahead and remove the dead leaves, but not the plant. Simply, you don't want the leaves falling into your sump, rotting and making a mess of things. Mangrove plants don't grow superfast, so don't give up. It took about 2 months for mine to sprout leaves that a regular terrestrial plant would have done in about half that time, and its vertical (stem) growth is about 2-3X slower than a terretrial plant.

[jaynkeel]

Just the 6500k curly bulb, the same one that grows cheato fine. Here are some blurry pics I took them outside to get some better lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They appear to be healthy to me but just dont seem to have any growth on top? Like I said mangrove noob.

[Rem]

I ordered the 5 red mangroves from Reefcleaners. 2 out of the 5 look exactly like the picture you posted above, brown tips, no visible roots. I zip-tied all 5 mangroves together so they dont just float around and have them about 3-4 inches out of the water. Two weeks later I'm starting to see red little nubs growing at the bottom of each mangrove. So they're definitely still alive.

 

My sump is barebottom with just live rock and chaeto. I'm using GE 60w equivalent Daylight CFL 6500K bulb I bought at Target. The first week I left fuge light on 24/7. I noticed my chaeto was dying, turning transparent at the tips and looking brittle and no visible change with the mangroves. After some reading online, it appeared to be a acclimation problem. After moving the fuge light a few inches higher and turning the fuge light off while I'm at work, the chaeto is darkening up again and red nubs started appearing on the mangrove.

 

Since you haven't seen a change in a 12 hour photoperiod, try leaving the light on straight for a week to see if you notice a difference. Perhaps moving the light closer or further away depending how you currently have it setup.