Am I the only person that thinks mangrove tanks are hideous and trashy looking?

[Billldg]

Being from Miami originally, and having been around the mangrove swamps, I find then fascinating. They are beautiful in their own way. I feel its all in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Casket_Case]

That does look surprising awful for an actual aquarium exhibit. The thing that impresses me most when I kayak through them in the wild is the amazing abundance and variety of life swimming through the roots. This build just makes me a little sad.

Yeah I love the oysters, tunicates, mussels, crabs, snails, limpets et cetera growing on their roots. The manatees swimming through the open waterways and all the Sargent majors schooling through the roots. Absolutely beautiful ecosystems.

 

[Jeffcb]

too funny

 

[Casket_Case]

Kinda brings up another question here, what are the water conditions around mangroves like. I imagine that the roots trap detritus and organic matter so that the nitrates/nitrites should be decently high?

It depends where the mangrove is. If it’s in a lagoon between a key and mainland or on the mainland e.g. Tampa Bay Area then you get a lot of parameter swings. But there’s typically fresh water consistently flowing out and it’s the ocean so there’s always water flow but there’s never so much organics that it affects anything. Thousands of mangroves together and all the bivalves, sponges & macroalgaes that attach to them can really clean the water... they’re like the Ocean’s sump.

 

[Casket_Case]

Yes, people from Indiana never travel! Never, ever, ever! Mangrove forests are amazing, so are the large captive displays you find in museums and zoos but I just think seeing them sticking out of the sump of some cheapo AIO reef aquarium looks out of place and tacky.

About 15 years ago I was a consultant working a major acquisition; had a temporary office in Colombia where I would spend 30 days on, 30 days off. Got a chance to see some amazing mangrove forests. Used to also do some large scale motorcycle tours in South Africa (eastern coast) and saw some amazing (and dangerous) mangrove forests...south africa is what got me into reefing.

*EDIT: Florida people don't get to call anyone weird.

Florida man knows no boundries.

Hey us Floridians aren’t weird, we just hit different

 

[Casket_Case]

Yes I have, they have an amazing new store. My sister lives about 5 mins from them so it's nice to visit in person as I travel to Florida quite often. I assume you're talking about the corner lagoon? It's very well done but again, not my style.

I think it looks bad. Huge tank with one mangrove spriggin’ up from the middle. Throw in some more mangroves. Make it look natural. I understand most mangrove tanks start out as a sprig but they’ve got room for more XD

 

[Fish Dr. D]

Any body have luck with black Mangrove? I got both red and black over the a few months back and the red is growing roots like crazy but no leaves. But the black is a fast growing shoot wit roots that I’m sure has some level of benefit to the tank. (Photos are over a couple of months progresses)

 

[fish farmer]

Someone build this.

 

[skydirt]

Someone build this.

On it! Lol

 

[Paul B]

I'm working on it.

 

[Eric R.]

Even the mangrove tank in Waikiki aquarium, the best one I ever see, looks pretty meh. It's like a mediocre planted tank / paludarium. It's educational, but not very artistic. Most others don't look nearly as good as this.

Have you ever seen photos of the mangrove exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences? Incredible exhibit.

Here are some pictures (not mine, photo credit @brad908, who also had an incredible mangrove/macro/reef tank)

 

[Eric R.]

Not to be a killjoy, but I've never seen mangroves on a reef, in Florida, or elsewhere. I think corals are pretty rare in mangrove swamps or thickets -- the plants are very efficient in spreading to capture all available sunlight, and areas under the leaves are dim and full of interesting algal growths and sponges instead of coral (along with other flora and fauna). Their habitat's a problem, too: lots of mangroves grow in brackish water. But your tank build sounds interesting! Are you planning to build an automated mister for the plants, or just spray them by hand?

Here's a great video of mangroves with corals growing among them:

 

[Reef-junky]

Someone build this.

Must be miracle mud in that water

; /

 

[davidcalgary29]

Here's a great video of mangroves with corals growing among them:

I don't think we're disagreeing here, as I often seen scattered corals growing amongst the mangroves (but not many large, colourful ones as the light dims). I've never seen mangroves in a reef, which makes a build that much more difficult to do if you're trying to affect a naturalistic look. If you just want to stick a propagule on top of some rocks and put coral underneath...well sure, I guess.

 

[fish farmer]

I've seen a picture of some massive colorful SPS growing very close to a mangrove forest, couldn't find the image, but found some from the same area of Indonesia