light bulb for mangroves

[rogergolf66]

I have a small light I think 5100K from that company online that advertises that it doubles the growth of cheto. in a months time. I don't remember the watage. Will this grow magroves?

Roger

 

[graveyardworm]

Need to know more about the light to attempt a determination. Wattage, type of light, and manufacturer will all be helpful. Mangroves IMO need quite a bit of light to be truly happy. Mine is under 65 watts PC 6500k, and its growing, but not very fast, it does need more light.

 

[rogergolf66]

Well I had mine in my old system under 175W metal halides and I burned them up.

I think this will be trial and error because I have no intention or changing. I don't need it to grow fast just stay alive. I have 4 other types of macro I am growing also that are doing well.

I don't know the watage and bulb I will try and look it up somewhere.

Thanks Roger

 

[rogergolf66]

This is the bulb I am using 75W

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

 

[W Ellis]

I have had mine under a 100w 5500k bulb from home depot for about a month now and they are doing good.

 

[rogergolf66]

well it has only been like 3-4 days and the mangorve stocks are all soft now. should I throw them away?

also do you think I should try again or not enough light?

Roger

 

[graveyardworm]

Did the mangroves come with leaves already sprouting? If so do you know what the salinity was they were kept in? Mangroves are extremely sensative to salinity change. If they did have leaves what do the leaves look like now?

 

[rogergolf66]

my mistake I didn't check salinity in the water it came from. One of the six stocks had very small sprout with 2 leaves. They are wilting. What do you think?

 

[graveyardworm]

Sounds like it may be salinity shock. They are slow growers though, and can take some time before leaves sprout.

Here's some reading.

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

 

[rogergolf66]

will they grow back?

 

[xcreonx]

If the leaves fell off and the trunk is wilted and soft then its most likely dead. If the trunk was firm and green then it may just be adjusting. They can be very sensitive when they've already sprouted.

 

[Sangogo]

I ordered some hardy red mangroves online, which cost me an arm and a leg since they are not native to Japan. (I had also tried growing native black mangroves, but they wilted in no time.)

Mine came sprouted from a plant specialty site, since I had missed all the aquarium store sales. I didn't know the salinity. For all I knew, these had been sprouted in tap water. It worried me, but I prayed for the best and decided to use them anyway.

I rinsed them off in a cup of tank water and stuck them in the fuge which has a plant light over it. Bad move.

The plant light was too close to the mangroves and burned leaves. One was burnt past usefulness (it turned rock hard) and so I stuck the two remaing in my main tank on top of the back of one of my live rock structures, close enough to receive some indirect light from my 150W MH.

This did the trick. The roots grew pretty vigorously to attach themselves to the tank. I get at least one set of big leaves every month and the burnt leaves have finally fallen off. And I never have to clean the leaves of salt like I have seen in some sites.

 

[rogergolf66]

nice. I had some growing out of my overflow in my last tank. I used a 175W MH that worked great.

good luck with them!!!