I have some questions about red mangroves.

[cherubfish pair]

I'm thinking about hanging a CPR Aquafuge off the back of my 30L IM Fusion tank and putting some red mangroves in it. Would this be a good idea? How much space do the trunks need from each other? Do they need artificial light or will room lights do? There's a vendor on eBay that sells mangroves with roots and leaves already sprouted, is this better than starting with bulbs? How much water depth do they need? How many should I put in a 14"L x 4"W x 12"T aquafuge? How about the small one of these?

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cpr-citr-pro-dx-in-tank-refugium-with-pump.html

 

[Mau]

Hi there,
I can answer only some of your questions, based on my direct experience.

These are trees, and they will grow a lot, given the right conditions. In my low-end brackish tank (very poor in nutrients, only lots of nitrate) one of them has reached 50 cm out of water, that's a total of 70+ cm. Vertically, the amount of water you need should leave just the tip out of the water surface, so that leafs can sprout.

I have always started from un-sprouted seedlings, because I had the chance to collect them myself in Brazil. Already sprouted seedlings are very sensitive to sudden water parameter changes, and easily go into osmotic shock, so unless you know the exact parameters of the originating tank, it's not a great idea.

Also, moving/unearthing mangroves out of ground often kills them, so once in, let them stay! You can plant them very close to each other (10 cm or so), since they'll essentially develop vertically for a long while. Depends also on light. I just have two T5, and that appears to be just enough. These guys come from the tropics... The growth of the typical stilt or prop roots can be stimulated keeping the plant hanging (with suction cups on the tank wall) with the root tips out of the ground, thereby forcing the growth in search of the terrain. My experience with this method however is that they don't last too long...

One last thing: these trees are very slow growers, which, in spite of what is often said on the web, means very poor nutrient uptakers. Unless you plant really a lot of them.

Good luck!

Maurizio

 

[saltwater sam]

Maurizio, do you have pictures of your trees? I would love to see them!

 

[Mau]

Hi Sam,
I'm new to this forum, but as I understand under my contact info you should find the link to my (b)log. Lots of pictures of mangroves I took around the world, a list of books on the topic I liked, and of course the log of my tank. Unfortunately I haven't updated since late 2012... The mangroves have grown so much since then that I had to double the height of the tank adding a plexiglass on top of it! Will take some shots tomorrow, it's time to add some pages to my log.

 

[saltwater sam]

You should start a thread, and post your pics on here! Here's a link to my thread, I have several species of mangroves as well.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2401567

 

[Mau]

Hello Sam,
I went through your thread, that's great! I can see you didn't really need any of the advice I wrote above! Your apiculata looks great!

It's very interesting reading that your experience confirms mine, about the fact that having the roots hanging in the water doesn't work for long. I also had the clear impression that all energy was going to roots, which meant no leaves. Understandably, the plant is not supposed to grow that way, so it suffers. I found that the best way is to start with the plant hanging, and once the roots reach some 6-8 cm, have their tips touch the substrate: at that point they start growing like crazy, but mostly in the terrain. Once firmly established, it will start popping more aerial roots. It's the case of the largest I have, now reaching about 70 cm in total. Multiple branches, and 4 slowly growing prop roots. Mind it, my tank is extremely low-tech: there's only pure sand at the bottom, and I only add some liquid fertilizer every 2 weeks. The result is quite yellowish, burned leaves, at the top.

The whole idea was to create an aerial hunting area for the Toxotes, and it worked in the sense that they shoot at ANYTHING. Unfortunately, what didn't really work was the canopy of mangroves. Also, the fish are way too fast in shooting down crickets and flies, so as soon as I put some on the leaves, they survive minutes max. There's a few videos in my (b)log.

Obviously, the big roots are fake...