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Mangroves, aquariums and you!


Giga

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Giga, I have an interest in putting one or a few mangrove(s) in my tank... do you think I could bore a hole in my rock and place some sand in it for them, versus just hoping they do well just place on rock. I read your thread, but still looking for a little guidance.

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So will mangroves grow in freshwater?

Yes-It's where i grew mine, in fresh, and it says it in the guide

 

Hey Giga, I have an interest in putting one or a few mangrove(s) in my tank... do you think I could bore a hole in my rock and place some sand in it for them, versus just hoping they do well just place on rock. I read your thread, but still looking for a little guidance.

you may want a place for roots to escape else it will get root bound

 

no need for sand in hole just shove it in there.

long term no if it's a small hole and the mangroves can't grow arial roots in time

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mangrove are tree's that grow to around 40' max and are not really intended for under the tank sumps/fuges. Display fuge is a different story.

...unless you prune bonzai style ;)

 

fantastic write up btw, giga. great job! it was very informative. i definitely learned a lot about mangroves that i never knew, i have 1 in my display tank. its roots are wrapped around a tennis ball sized rock that i put on top of my rockscape. its under a 70W MH. i just got it a few months ago (rescued it from lfs managers personal tank. it wasnt looking so good, bit it seems to be in full health now. :)

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Harrisonbored

Awesome write up Giga.

Do you think that Red seedlings and/or young plants would benefit from a slow "drain and fill" aquaponics type system? Or would that be too stressful on the roots and better to just leave them in constant/stagnant water?

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you don't want to let the roots dry out, as long as the roots manage to stay under the water a little bit they should be fine-though I've never grown them aquaponicly so just take it slow and see how it goes! The only hickup I may see is that there is no substrate for them to grow in so that may be an issue in the long run.

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How well do you think transplanted red mangroves fair? Like if I were to transplant one grown in saltwater with some more aerial roots started and move it to tank? I know you talk about moving ones grown in freshwater to salt, but what about salt to salt? How can I reduce stress on the plant?

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As long as they're transplanted into the same water type as before its fine. If there planted into the sand or any other media type make sure that once you transplant them you leave them alone.

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I'm wondering if I could grow mangroves. I have LED lights; my tank is 12 inches deep with a sandy bottom, 9 inches of water-could I plant them at the bottom?

 

Thanks :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm wondering if I could grow mangroves. I have LED lights; my tank is 12 inches deep with a sandy bottom, 9 inches of water-could I plant them at the bottom?

 

Thanks :)

 

as long as the tops are out of the water you should be fine. I havn't tested if you can plant them underwater so I don't know if that works, and how deep if it does-maybe i'll give that a go

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  • 3 weeks later...

A great write up and finally some answers about these. You did mention that they are not a great choice for nutrient export. I read somewhere a mention of 1 Red mangrove per 10 gallon of aquarium water. Is that something you think of when you say you need a lot of them :). I am actually thinking of starting a Mangroove forest into a refugium. Is it ok to start the seedling as a float with foam as many places mention. You seem to stress quite a bit on planting. Should i have a low tank/rubbermaid plumbed into the sump so that i can put the Red mangrove seeds right into the sand. Any specific requirement for sand, adding iron or other minerals.

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Oops. I wish I had seen this sooner. I pick up a few red mangrove propagules before I started reefing and started growing them in potting soil. They had been outside for a while and got to a decent height but they froze during a cold front.

 

I have recently started with 2 plants again (once more in potting soil) with the intention of transitioning them to SW is there a method to doing this properly? Like transitioning mollies to SW?

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  • 4 weeks later...

A great write up and finally some answers about these. You did mention that they are not a great choice for nutrient export. I read somewhere a mention of 1 Red mangrove per 10 gallon of aquarium water. Is that something you think of when you say you need a lot of them :). I am actually thinking of starting a Mangroove forest into a refugium. Is it ok to start the seedling as a float with foam as many places mention. You seem to stress quite a bit on planting. Should i have a low tank/rubbermaid plumbed into the sump so that i can put the Red mangrove seeds right into the sand. Any specific requirement for sand, adding iron or other minerals.

 

I need to update the OP to cover fertilizing too-when mangroves are not planted it puts a lot of stress on the seed pod/sapling to put out roots. The reason for this is, once the roots hit the substrate, they put out feeder roots(fine roots). These feeder roots are what help the mangrove(all trees do this) gather nutrients from the substrate. If there are no feeder roots, the mangrove will have a hard time putting out leaves as well. The the leaves help process the nutrients-so if the mangrove is having a hard time gather nutrients-it's gonna have a even hard time putting out more leaves-the amount of roots correspond to how many leave the tree will produce/maintain. That make sense? Also an ez fertilizer is API root tabs. I use these and seachems, and make my own organics tabs. Just careful with the seachems one as they contain chelated copper-so don't go over board with those-and just use the recommended tabs per instructions. For sand not so much- I just like sugar size sand.

 

Oops. I wish I had seen this sooner. I pick up a few red mangrove propagules before I started reefing and started growing them in potting soil. They had been outside for a while and got to a decent height but they froze during a cold front.

 

I have recently started with 2 plants again (once more in potting soil) with the intention of transitioning them to SW is there a method to doing this properly? Like transitioning mollies to SW?

 

just slowly acclimate them-over a couple weeks. I took about a month to do mine.

 

Giga, if I grow mangroves under LEDs in the winter can I put them outside in the summer? TY

 

yep!

 

hey giga, have you tried wiring the stilt-roots as they come down to manipulate where they land?

 

they break rather ez, so I usually just put a sort of slide they can grow against.

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  • 2 months later...

from last trip to PR

 

D6AD4592-1476-43E8-861E-6366228FCAF2-392

501CD67F-546D-4E21-82A0-9D1CE85FD6CB-392

Wow you have seem to come pretty close to my house lol jajajaa . this place we locals call it gilligans island and the island next to it is called "isla ballena", and they are mixed types of mangroves with red and black cool place to go snorkling.

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  • 8 months later...

Okay mangrove experts, I have a hypothetical question about mangroves in a display fuge. Should the set-up be:

 

DT>>>>display fuge (w/ mangroves)>>>>sump with skimmer/reactors>>>>back to DT

 

DT>>>> sump with skimmer/reactors>>>>>display fuge (w/ mangroves)>>>>back to DT

 

????

 

I feel like I've seen more of the former in my limited internet research, but wouldn't you want to give the sump/protein skimmer first crack at the nasty stuff? And wouldn't the root system potentially trap debris if you have mangroves "before" the sump/skimmer? (In my case, the mangroves would be more for display than serious nutrient export.)

 

Insight would be much appreciated.

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Okay mangrove experts, I have a hypothetical question about mangroves in a display fuge. Should the set-up be:

 

DT>>>>display fuge (w/ mangroves)>>>>sump with skimmer/reactors>>>>back to DT

 

DT>>>> sump with skimmer/reactors>>>>>display fuge (w/ mangroves)>>>>back to DT

 

????

 

I feel like I've seen more of the former in my limited internet research, but wouldn't you want to give the sump/protein skimmer first crack at the nasty stuff? And wouldn't the root system potentially trap debris if you have mangroves "before" the sump/skimmer? (In my case, the mangroves would be more for display than serious nutrient export.)

 

Insight would be much appreciated.

 

You basically got the nail on the head. Plus, refugium after filtration gives the various microfauna a better shot at making it in to the DT (which is in essence all a refugium is meant to do.)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I prefer the black over the red mangroves. They seem to have less of a funky curve thing going on when younger. Actually I like the overall look better on mine it seems they have more leaves as well at any one time, might be a reason for this not sure.

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  • Christopher Marks changed the title to Mangroves, aquariums and you!

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