The ultimate Mangrove thread!!

[jfoahs04]

Here is a picture of my 10 gallon, UNS60 lagoon. I have 3 mangrove pods that are starting to root but have yet to show leaves. I'll be adding 2 more as soon as the weather gets nicer here (Boston, MA) and I'm not scared of the shipping. Let me try and give some insight to those asking how mangroves can die once introduced to a tank.The build for this tank can be found here.

Thanks for the great insight (your tank looks great!).

If you want a few extra pods, I have few extra (4, actually) in my reef (sg - 1.024) and I'm a few miles down the road from you (East Boston). Long story short, I wanted a pod or two to put in the rear chamber of my EVO purely for aesthetics (not to rely on for nutrient management). Another local reefer offered me a pod and when I showed up to pick it up, he had 6 wrapped up and packaged. Generous, but far more than I need. I may post them for free in another group, but DM me if you're interested. They're about 9-10 inches long with leaves and decent root length.

 

[shrimped]

~9’+ now in my tank.
Apparently growing since 1980s
​

 

[Eric R.]

~9’+ now in my tank.
Apparently growing since 1980s

WOAH!!! What's the story behind this? Looks amazing, though a bit big for the tank... What's your plan for it?

 

[shrimped]

WOAH!!! What's the story behind this? Looks amazing, though a bit big for the tank... What's your plan for it?

not much story, just growin at the lfs since 1980s. I plan to add manzanita branches to make it look like it has thicker branches in the water. Also plan to attach soft coral to it and just get the mangrove to grow. Yea the tank do look a bit small in the pic but it’s a 70g. Hope it’s enough to support it with addition to dosing additives

 

[Sean Clark]

Lighting plans??? Headroom looks a little.... tight.

 

[shrimped]

Lighting plans??? Headroom looks a little.... tight.

I ordered a floor lamp today with a GE grow light bulb. It should shine enough light on it. Or i hope so lol. As for headroom I’m currently stress training it little by little so it grows sideways a bit.

 

[Eric R.]

not much story, just growin at the lfs since 1980s. I plan to add manzanita branches to make it look like it has thicker branches in the water. Also plan to attach soft coral to it and just get the mangrove to grow. Yea the tank do look a bit small in the pic but it’s a 70g. Hope it’s enough to support it with addition to dosing additives

Very cool. I would personally set it up on another tank next to it that's close to ground level and run it like a refugium for your display, so you could appreciate the height without it looking so cramped.

I have some questions about how it was grown that would be really cool to know the answers to, if you have anymore info or can get it from the LFS. Not often you get to ask questions from someone with 30 years of experience growing mangroves for aquariums.

If this was grown indoors, do you know what sort of lighting they were growing it under? Was it grown in freshwater, full salinity saltwater, or brackish (I'm assuming saltwater, since it looks like it was added directly to the tank)? Did they have it connected to any aquariums or just planted by itself? What sort of substrate was is planted in? Did they supplement with any macro or micronutrient additives or add anything to the substrate? Anything else about how they grew it would be very cool to know! I want something like this in my house one day.

 

[shrimped]

Very cool. I would personally set it up on another tank next to it that's close to ground level and run it like a refugium for your display, so you could appreciate the height without it looking so cramped.

I have some questions about how it was grown that would be really cool to know the answers to, if you have anymore info or can get it from the LFS. Not often you get to ask questions from someone with 30 years of experience growing mangroves for aquariums.

If this was grown indoors, do you know what sort of lighting they were growing it under? Was it grown in freshwater, full salinity saltwater, or brackish (I'm assuming saltwater, since it looks like it was added directly to the tank)? Did they have it connected to any aquariums or just planted by itself? What sort of substrate was is planted in? Did they supplement with any macro or micronutrient additives or add anything to the substrate? Anything else about how they grew it would be very cool to know! I want something like this in my house one day.

I would have also just planted it in another tank, on the ground, next to the tank. Just really worried about not giving it enough nutrients, and right parameters to live/grow. I only run a canister filter so I unfortunately cannot reroute plumbing to accommodate for a refugium.

Ngl the lfs that kept this mangrove never gave it any attention what so ever. It was in one of their display ponds located around the far end of it. So far that it becomes inaccessible for cleaning any leaves, or doing any sort of maintenance on the tree. It was grown in your everyday reef tank sand, used nutrients from all the fish crap that was produced by the absolute units of fish they had in the pond, and grown right next to their window. It was just planted by itself. They didnt supplement it with any additives. Grown in 1.026 SG, had em check for me before i took it home.

 

[pluikens]

Here’s a couple shots from today. Does anybody want to help select some pruning locations? I’m definitely happy with the plants height, but I would like to do some work on the canopy. I’d especially like to keep working on getting the plant to fill out the back left corner of the tank. Any ideas?

The pic of the two leaves with a tiny bud is one I pruned a few months ago. It’s been very slow to grow back.

Also my lights are fully adjustable so I can move them around to different parts of the plant. My idea was that this would help promote and target growth in certain areas. I’ll admit I have no idea if that is true or not.

Amazing setup! Do you recall what mounts those are for the lights? They look like articulating monitor/tv mounts.

 

[SauceyReef]

~9’+ now in my tank.
Apparently growing since 1980s
​

This is incredible... Can we ask some questions about this system??

- Just sunlight on all the mangroves above the AI Primes? I never thought that alone would be enough to have this massive tree form
- Curious what preset we have going on the two AI Primes?
- Are they rooted in anything besides rock and or sand?
- Any struggles / suggestions on your part or the last owner?

This could be one of the biggest mangroves I have ever seen in the hobby thus far. I really hope it has success in your system, but I am wondering how you will be providing light for all the upper branches. That must have come from a pretty sunny area whether indoor or outdoor.

 

[i cant think]

~9’+ now in my tank.
Apparently growing since 1980s
​

This is stunning!

Is there anything specific to the care of mangroves? I’d love a tree with Acros and other coral growing in the tank and on the mangrove.
Also how big are their root systems?

 

[Jeffcb]

I had to have one.

 

[DarthChaos]

I have 2 big trees (roughly 8 y/o) and 2 smaller ones.

They are they main filtration for my 190g reef tank. 30g little refugium tank - with garden eels.

 

[joros]

Hey ya'll, I've been ghost following this thread for a while now but finally joined in now that I need something (isn't that how everyone gets here?). Do any mangrove experts have any tips for helping my tank thrive?

Story: I grew my red mangroves on my balcony in Miami from propagules I found washed up on the beach, 2 years ago. I had them growing in a custom built rhino-liner'ed plywood planter loaded with muck and sand alongside some Florida purslane (see attached). I'd inundate the planter with water once a week so that they were always sitting in some kind of mud. I had to move to NYC for 2 years and bringing a little bit of SoFlo with me became a top priority. I built a shelf-situation to hold a 29gal freshwater tank. The idea was to make it freshwater for easy maintenance, but fake a salt water situation with the fish and things as best as possible. I read as much as I could of Julian Sprung's mangrove manuals. As expected, the plants - now a year old - hated being moved from soil to free floating in water. I anchored them from above some oolite limestone rocks to encourage the root growth. There is no substrate other than some sand from the Bahamas (Julian said you don't need any substrate). I have ghost shrimp, mystery and nerite snails, 13 rasbora, 2 bola sharks, a red tailed shark and a leopard plecco that have gotten along now for about 6 months. I have a Felt Electric 86 watt grow light (full spectrum, 5600 lumens). I accidentally burned up the 2 younger generation mangroves I had and I set the lamp timer back from 12 hours to 8 hours per day about 2 weeks ago. With the two trees I have left, I've seen new growth. One plant still has curled leaves indicating it's getting too much light, but I expect that to resolve in a few more weeks since dialing back the light. I've fertilized the tank with capsules buried in the sand twice in the past 6 months. Using a canister filter.

I've been reading about adding Fe and Mg, but I still have a bunch of critters to keep happy. Not sure if adding nutrients will upset the balance. I'm also concerned that my light may not be the best for this setup. My goals are to get some nice roots down within the next year or so and start trimming above leaf couples to encourage more branches up top once the trees are happy. Trying to get as close to a mangrove bush over the top of this tank as I can. It's only been less than 6 months, but am I on the right track? Cease and desist?

 

[Eatfrenchfries]

Any body growing Black Mangroves? A fast grower compared to reds! My black mangrove.

How are your black mangroves doing currently?

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I planted the 4 mangroves in that 20gal tank in my science classroom last fall. They were propagules with one little leaf budding on each when I got them, and hardly anything in the way of roots.

There was little in the way of nutrients, and they didn’t do much for months. Then I started adding extra food, and they leafed out pretty quickly. I’ve now connected a small reef tank below it. The idea is that the reef will be ‘filtered’ by nutrient uptake from the mangroves and aerobic and anaerobic breakdown from the deep substrate bed the mangroves are rooted into. I built what is effectively an under-filter and hooked a very small power head to it (although it needs to be smaller) to provide advection and brings more water over the mangrove roots than they would get if the bed was more static.

As you can see, the system gets several hours of good direct sunlight a day. We’ll see how the corals do in the natural sunlight. I’m thinking of trying some turtle grass in the mangrove tank as well. I’ll post again when it’s all set up and running.

 

[d2mini]

There's some amazing trees in here.

I just got an order from ebay seller "nicetreasurez".
REALLY nice specimens IMO.
They're about 12" tall, nice roots and have leaves.

So I currently have them in a vase with brackish water. Basically a mix of half saltwater and half filtered tap water.

The plan is to slowly get the salt levels up and let them grow out a bit more until at least one is big enough to put in teh tank with leaves above water.

What would be some tips on best way to take care of them in the vase?

 

[Eric R.]

There's some amazing trees in here.

I just got an order from ebay seller "nicetreasurez".
REALLY nice specimens IMO.
They're about 12" tall, nice roots and have leaves.

So I currently have them in a vase with brackish water. Basically a mix of half saltwater and half filtered tap water.

The plan is to slowly get the salt levels up and let them grow out a bit more until at least one is big enough to put in teh tank with leaves above water.

What would be some tips on best way to take care of them in the vase?

Welcome to the club Dennis! My main concern is that there's not much room in that vase for the roots to grow, and it seems from what others have said that mangroves tend to be sensitive to root damage. I've fortunately managed to avoid discovering if this is true first hand so far. I think with the narrow mouth of the vase and the number of mangroves you have, could be better to have a slightly larger container with a wider opening. Brad who used to have the awesome 40g macro mangrove tank started his in 8" glass cube vases.

I've had mine for almost two years, first they were planted in a 20L freshwater tank, and for the last 6 months they've been growing in a 5g bucket with freshwater, sand, clay granules, and plant fertilizer pellets. One is doing just amazing, the others are in varying stages of mildly happy to mildly unhappy, not sure why the difference. For the first year when in the 20L, they were under a full spectrum LED grow light bulb I bought off amazon, then this past summer they were in a bucket outside in full sun, then once it got cold, I moved the bucket into the greenhouse attached to my classroom (I teach high school science). Days are short enough I'll probably setup the grow light again. I only have a 13g nano reef, but once I have an appropriate tank I'm going to attempt to slowly acclimate them to NSW salinity levels. I supplement occasionally with a trace element mix I made from dry ingredients for my planted FW tanks, contains Fe and Mg along with some other traces. Mine seemed to handle being removed from the 20g tank and replanted in the bucket fine, I was very careful with the roots.

My take away is give them plenty of light, keep temps no cooler than high 60s if possible, make sure they have nutrients, and be gentle with the roots, planting/replanting, and go slow when acclimating between different salinity levels.

 

[d2mini]

Welcome to the club Dennis! My main concern is that there's not much room in that vase for the roots to grow, and it seems from what others have said that mangroves tend to be sensitive to root damage. I've fortunately managed to avoid discovering if this is true first hand so far. I think with the narrow mouth of the vase and the number of mangroves you have, could be better to have a slightly larger container with a wider opening. Brad who used to have the awesome 40g macro mangrove tank started his in 8" glass cube vases.

I've had mine for almost a year, first they were planted in a 20L freshwater tank, and for the last 6 months they've been growing in a bucket with freshwater, sand, clay granules, and plant fertilizer pellets. One is doing just amazing, the others are in varying stages of mildly happy to mildly unhappy, not sure why the difference. Last spring when in the 20L, they were under a full spectrum LED grow light bulb I bought off amazon, then over the summer they were in a bucket outside in full sun, then once it got cold, I moved the bucket into the greenhouse attached to my classroom (I teach high school science). Days are short enough I'll probably setup the grow light again. I only have a 13g nano reef, but once I have an appropriate tank I'm going to attempt to slowly acclimate them to NSW salinity levels. I supplement occasionally with a trace element mix I made from dry ingredients for my planted FW tanks, contains Fe and Mg along with some other traces. Mine seemed to handle being removed from the 20g tank and replanted in the bucket fine, I was very careful with the roots.

My take away is give them plenty of light, keep temps no cooler than high 60s if possible, make sure they have nutrients, and be gentle with the roots, planting/replanting, and go slow when acclimating between different salinity levels.

Thanks!
Ya, good point about the size of the vase.
What would you suggest about nutrients? Right now I've just been putting some tank water in there during a water change. I do have some Equilibrium from my son's fw tank.

I also need to figure out if there is a way for me to attach one or two of these to the back wall of my tank, until roots can take hold. AND notch out my screen top. lol My rock is now in and I have a piece that is tall enough. Will probably figure out something in a week or so.

 

[Eric R.]

Thanks!
Ya, good point about the size of the vase.
What would you suggest about nutrients? Right now I've just been putting some tank water in there during a water change. I do have some Equilibrium from my son's fw tank.

I also need to figure out if there is a way for me to attach one or two of these to the back wall of my tank, until roots can take hold. AND notch out my screen top. lol My rock is now in and I have a piece that is tall enough. Will probably figure out something in a week or so.

I think equilibrium is a gh/kh buffer supplement, you'd want something more like flourish. Or you could probably just use any complete houseplant food that includes macros (NPK) and trace elements, as long as that's just in the vase and the water isn't being mixed with tank water. I'm not sure if there are any trace elements that mangroves are particularly sensitive to compared to other trees. I've been using Osmocote Plus pellets, along with occasional additions of my DIY liquid trace mix, but that works since I have a substrate. I've used the osmocote pellets in my planted FW tanks for years without noticeable issues, there's a guy local to me that's been doing it longer as well.

To attach to the back wall of a tank, you could get some sort of magnetic mount then tie or wire it to the mount with a reef safe material. Screen tops are a PITA with stuff like this, I hear ya on that one.