Mangrove tank

Check out my red algae Botryocladia proliferating on the output of my in-tank filter. It's in a super high flow area but seems to like it there!

Here's another colony that decided it would grow some stalks! You can see a few of my other macros in there too.
 
Thank you! The light is a DIY setup. The two base lamps are actually medical exam lights with two clamp lamps on each. The bulbs are 6 20 watt PAR 38 5000-6000k.
 
Recently I've noticed that seagrasses have become available, and I had always intended to get some. But today, I looked at my tank and I realized that I really don't need it. My caulpera species are sufficiently beautiful, and so easy to care for/manage!
 
I decided to do a survey of my caulpera population. Why not, right? Haha. Turns out I actually have four! I thought I only had three. GCE hooks it up.

Caulpera prolifera


Caulpera mexicana


Caulpera ashmeadii


Caulpera sertularlodes
 
Kind of a crazy day for this guy. I noticed his leaves were turning yellow so I thought he might need some air. I pulled him out of the water I found this long root coming out of the pot. Since the root had lenticels, it led me to believe that it was pneumatophoric. I went ahead and redirected the root to the surface so lil blackie could get some air.




 
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Just be careful doing that to young plants like that, disturbing the roots has a great chance of killing the plant. That is also not a pneumatophore. It would most likely shoot pneumatophores from the root. That root may or may not dry out now as it's built for underwater/substrate and not air, though it may adapt.
 
I actually did notice it getting dry and moved it down. I knew it wasn't a pneumatophore, but a lateral root from which pneumatophores sprout. I hope I didn't kill the little guy! I've repotted him once before and he did fine. I actually put it a new bigger pot so hopefully it does alright.
Any more tips would be appreciated! There's not a lot of info out there
 
Root disturbance is actually the main reason I use pots, to avoid that stress. If you see the pic where I have it out of the pot you can see that the roots are pretty undisturbed, the only root that suffered much harassment was the big one which I turned around. I was able to add more mud to its new pot so hopefully that will help encourage more growth.
 
Roots are the lifeline of trees, and even moving them around like you did can cause undesirable effects. The issue I see is now that the root is above the water/substrate the root won't have the need to go to get O2, thus two things may happen-the most probable outcome is the tree(sapling in ur case) will put energy elsewhere and the root will wither away about the soil line. Or it will force a change and the root will overcome the difference and turn into something viable. Its still a seedling so I would just let it do it's thing and be patient-then at the year mark make changes. I've done a lot of work with black mangrove and they are a lot tougher then red's but they still can decline quickly-I've killed a few figuring things out :uzi:

Edit: also small pots will cause them to be root bound after a short time and it will slow the growth if your looking to put some size and age on these tree's. I let all mine grow in 5 gallon buckets or larger-one tree per bucket-maybe not idea for most people but it's just a reference. Think of it this way-the deeper/longer the roots are underground the taller the tree will be above it. They're directly related to each other. Also black mangroves put out roots at ridiculous lengths laterally and that is where the pneumatophores sprout(aka the root that you now moved)
 
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Check out this guy's black mangrove. He uses really small pots for his plant, as you can see, it's only 3.5 inches. Maybe stunting the growth wouldn't be the worst thing since space is an issue.
 
It was recently recommended that I increase the humidity in my tank to help encourage my oldest red mangrove to produce prop roots. I began to do so last night. Here's some pics of the "sun" coming up this morning!



And if you're looking for 50 seconds of serenity here's the video lol

http://youtu.be/7GALqooX_ts

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Thanks blackradon!

Some of my Asian mangroves are starting to sprout their first leaves.

Here's my Ceriops decandra (short-spurred mangrove)

 
wait till you see my black mangrove-i'll be posting it soon, and yes black mangrove are pretty awesome
 
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