growing mangroves

[johns]

Can someone link me up with some good info on growing mangroves. Is there some good info to follow about how direct the light source should be for growing these. How far away from the light? And should they be directly under or off to a side?

I got a mangrove a little over a week ago and I had it placed pretty close to a 250w MH light source and the leaves started to turn yellow and dry out a little bit. It was probably around 6 inches from the light.

Now I've moved it off to the side slightly more. I also started misting it tonight. Trying to decide if I should move it even further. I cant move the fixture any further up, but I could move the plant off to the side of the fixture more if I need to. But I just dont have any good info on how intense the lighting should be.

 

[Triterium]

Mangroves can handle very intense light if acclimated to it. I'm betting your mangrove was too HOT right next to the bulb.

If you have limited space, perhaps you should install some fluorescent bulbs. The plant can pretty much touch the bulb and be okay.

Make sure the roots are in a sand bed.... this will make the mangrove much happier.

 

[johns]

This set-up exists underneath a stand. I have very limited vertical spacing there, so there is not much I can do about moving the plant higher or lower from the light, but a lot of space 'around' the light. It's a single MH fixture roughly centered on a 4 ft tank, so there is a lot of space with non-direct lighting. Dont have much room for additional lighting where it is located, so I'm guessing the best bet is moving it further away from the light source.

I was told originally to leave the roots simply resting on top of the sand bed, and allow them to grow into the sand. Not sure how good the info I was getting at the LFS was. Should I leave it this way or cover the roots in the sand?

 

[ZippyBoy]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/apr2002/feature.htm

or

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/ac/feature/index.php

I've killed few few plants by not following these instructions.

 

[johns]

Excellent! Some good reading material for tonight - thank you.