Mangrove Placement

[Masamune]

I went to the LFS to pick up the parts needed for a modded aquaclear fuge and saw that they had some nice mangroves for sale. I picked one up and assembled a tank from an old JBJ and cooked live rock.

 

I'm going to try and get it to grow aerial roots but I'm not too sure I'm going about it correctly. I have a piece of PVC pipe I can use if need be but for now I've got the mangrove sitting on top of some old liverock with as many of the roots partially submerged as possible. The problem is that some of the bigger roots are 100% out of the water... I'm going to move the rock so all the roots are 100% underwater until I can figure out a better placement. Has anyone had any positive experiences growing mangroves with aerial roots? I've read http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/ac/feature/index.php and am unsure if simply keeping the roots wet will keep the plant happy or if it needs substrate...

 

 

Also, if all I'm doing is growing a mangrove will I need to cycle the tank? I'd say about 1/3rd of the water in there now came from the bag of chaeto and the mangrove (IE: mature water from the LFS).

 

Also, the mangrove seems to have grown in a crescent shape. Might be cool when it gets bigger but for now it's a little odd looking (hence its weird placement in the pico).

 

 

On a side note I found this little brittle star in the chaeto that I picked up today. I've heard mixed things about brittle stars so I put him in the pico for now. The picture doesn't show it but the star has a light/dark band pattern going on. It is also quite small (about the size of a quarter). I'll try and get a better picture later. Keep or cull?

 

[loyalhero90]

Mangroves can go well completely suspended from any rock or substrate. To get good aerial roots attach the mangrove to the PVC pipe with gardeners tape and this will allow you to slowly adjust the height of the mangrove. Each time the aerial roots grow pull the mangrove up along the pipe about an inch or less and this will help with creating longer and usually cooler looking mangrove roots. Once they are at the right length just keep it the same height and allow the roots to grow into the substrate. The roots grow much quicker when in substrate but they perfectly fine and healthy suspended. The roots would be better in the water 100%.

I've had great experience with growing aerial roots using the PVC method and they look pretty awesome. Though they are by rocks they do not really grow into the rocks. But once some got into the substrate they grew faster.

[Whys]

Baby brittles are good CUC. It's the adults you have to glance at sideways.