Is this an okay way to grow my Mangrove?

[Leon Gorani]

So I got a new mangrove plant and I put in a new rock into my tank. I placed the mangrove roots somewhat into the rock pores and hopefully this will allow the roots to grow and attach into the rock itself. Is this okay to do? I also tied the mangrove to the rim of my tank to keep it from moving around. Should I just leave the roots as is or should they be more embedded into the rock? Here’s a few pics of how I placed them.

 

[andrewey]

You don't need to worry about embedding them into the rock Actually, if you put the roots into the holes of the rock, it's likely to do more harm than good (roots can't expand downward as it grows, movement of the water might damage/break off the roots). So long as it's secured up top and you make sure to keep the leaves and growth above the waterline and rinse with RO water regularly, you should be good to go (assuming lighting is adequate).

 

[Leon Gorani]

So I got a new mangrove plant and I put in a new rock into my tank. I placed the mangrove roots somewhat into the rock pores and hopefully this will allow the roots to grow and attach into the rock itself. Is this okay to do? I also tied the mangrove to the rim of my tank to keep it from moving around. Should I just leave the roots as is or should they be more embedded into the rock? Here’s a few pics of how I placed them.

Here’s some better pics

 

[andrewey]

Ah- I see now, they're mostly resting on top of the rock. I was afraid you wedged them into the rocks! Looks good to me!

 

[Leon Gorani]

You don't need to worry about embedding them into the rock Actually, if you put the roots into the holes of the rock, it's likely to do more harm than good (roots can't expand downward as it grows, movement of the water might damage/break off the roots). So long as it's secured up top and you make sure to keep the leaves and growth above the waterline and rinse with RO water regularly, you should be good to go (assuming lighting is adequate).

Oh okay I gotcha, I will leave it as it is then. Yeah it secured and I will be rinsing them. Mine are under my AI prime light currently, do I need to use a different light for them? Or just keep it under that one? Not sure if my light settings are okay for the mangrove to grow but I assumed it was okay

 

[andrewey]

That will be perfectly fine for the light. Just make sure you acclimate the mangrove to that light or it's not too close- it's easier to overlight mangroves at first then underlight them. The leaves tend to be pretty telling in whether they are getting too much light or too little. Just monitor your mangrove- if it's growing (slowly) and everything looks vibrant green, you're doing fantastically!

 

[blasterman]

Used to grow them in a large aqua clear backfilter freely suspended in plastic grid. Mangroves grow pretty freely often without much anchor support.

Unfortunately their nitrate uptake is absurdly slow.