The ultimate Mangrove thread!!

[Tahoe61]

Thanks for the reply the reason I ask is there was a pictures posted on a previous page that had the tank in the window, but a light below the leaves. Typically with plants you want the light on the leaves so I wasn't sure if these were somehow different. I assume this light was for the other Macro algae than.

Another beautiful mangrove tank. Thanks for sharing.
Your system (very nice btw) looks too far from window. Can not hurt to try though.
Mangroves can be incredibly slow growers. I have to add iron to enhance growth.

 

[Luckyduck]

I had my mangrove under a cheap Home Depot grow bulb for about a year. It was enough to keep the plant alive but once I switched to the Kessils it’s really taken off. I do run the Kessil Tuna Sun so it gets the full daylight spectrum. Not ideal for corals but looks good on my macro tank.


I’ve found that dosing iron and manganese have made the biggest difference in my plants growth. One thing I struggle with is getting nutrients and lighting right to make a happy mangrove without crashing the tank.

I also dose Iron and Manganese. I can't get a light over my Mangroves because the red light would spill into my tank and algae would end up flourishing in my display tank as I run it at night opposite the main tank light. I have a hang on back fuge and that's where I grow Chaeto and my 2 mangroves. Fortunately tho I'm pretty sure they get enough light durring the day from my AI Prime 16. I was struggling with them at first until I saw a video on YouTube about making sure to spray down the leaves. I was unaware of that and it seems ever since I have done that they seem like they are bouncing back. It may be hard to see them because of the blue light but their leaves are right above the silver grow light that grows my Chaeto.

 

[Smarkow]

Thanks for the reply the reason I ask is there was a pictures posted on a previous page that had the tank in the window, but a light below the leaves. Typically with plants you want the light on the leaves so I wasn't sure if these were somehow different. I assume this light was for the other Macro algae than.

Awesome thanks for highlighting this reef. I was in need of some reefspiration today

 

[Smarkow]

I’ve been searching high and low for a decent sized mangrove for my build (Mangrove lagoon) with no luck and antsy to get moving with my final vision pulled the trigger on another set of eBay plants. Debated for a week which ones to get and finally decided to go with the description of “fully developed young plants with 2-6 leaves” thinking it would give me a good start on a nice canopy of leaves. I have been super excited to get them and get my build closer to my vision. Well, plants came today-and I’ll just say sometimes size matters! Most of my plants with roots are barely hitting 6”-7”. In all the photos I’ve looked at and seen, I didn’t even realize the propugules could be so short, I guess a product of my land locked naivety. So now I’m loaded with mangroves that I am not even sure what to do with! At least they’re healthy. Any thoughts or experience on how long it will take for them to add some height?

Any updates on how these lil guys are doing?

 

[Smarkow]

Awesome info and photo inspiration! Wish I would had this when I originally started keeping mangroves. I definitely searched and read a ton of threads on multiple forums to get information. Let me attach a few pictures of my pico mangrove build (2 1/2 gallon window sill tank). It’s gone through a few changes in the last year and a half [from an all macro algae and mangrove to sps dominant -seriatopora sp. with mangroves] but it’s cool to see these trees continue to grow once they are comfortable within a tank.

@pelican I stumbled upon your tank thread the other day and I couldn’t help but chuckle cause well I guess great minds think alike. I’m currently setting up a 40 lagoon with the loads of gorgonian species I’ve hoarded over the past few years to accompany some display mangroves. The setup is going to look pretty darn close to yours. To be honest it's great to see what my vision in my head looks like actually created so I’m itching even more to get it set up and running after seeing your photos. Trying to source some mangroves that are slightly larger than the basic propagules you can get to try and jump start some of the vertical growth (I’m hoping to get some good height on these trees for the new build as my ceilings are roughly 13 ft high. I’m going to be pinching the leaves on my pico build to keep them compact to fit with the small sized foot print of a tank their in). Look forward to following along on the rest of your build.

This is wildly awesome!

 

[pgravis]

Any updates on how these lil guys are doing?

The smallest are in the sump under a kessil h380 and haven’t done a whole lot. They aren’t in substrate either, which I think is part of it. The bigger ones, plus some others I’ve picked up are in the main tank under a radion freshwater xr15 and have all added a few leaves. The tank itself went downhill. I think I had some sort of dinos or something. Lost all the anemones in this tank, and about 80% of all coral in the system. I still have the tanks going, but after trying a couple different approaches (blackouts, dosing phyto, fluconazole for an existing bryopsis problem that had gotten much worse through it all) I think I’m going to do a hard reboot soon and use it as a time to redo the basement sump and upgrade the main tank in the system to a custom build. This tank will still be a mangrove tank, but it may come down for a month or two when I can find the time to do it. Coming up on my last semester of grad school and due to Covid, work in the ICU has been crazy, so they may struggle along for another month before I pull them down. Probably more than you wanted to know! Lol.

 

[Smarkow]

The smallest are in the sump under a kessil h380 and haven’t done a whole lot. They aren’t in substrate either, which I think is part of it. The bigger ones, plus some others I’ve picked up are in the main tank under a radion freshwater xr15 and have all added a few leaves. The tank itself went downhill. I think I had some sort of dinos or something. Lost all the anemones in this tank, and about 80% of all coral in the system. I still have the tanks going, but after trying a couple different approaches (blackouts, dosing phyto, fluconazole for an existing bryopsis problem that had gotten much worse through it all) I think I’m going to do a hard reboot soon and use it as a time to redo the basement sump and upgrade the main tank in the system to a custom build. This tank will still be a mangrove tank, but it may come down for a month or two when I can find the time to do it. Coming up on my last semester of grad school and due to Covid, work in the ICU has been crazy, so they may struggle along for another month before I pull them down. Probably more than you wanted to know! Lol.

Sorry to hear that :/
Hang in there. I would say that is more than a few leaves! Mangroves are pretty resilient, maybe you can keep that portion up so you don’t let them fall behind on growth?

good luck

 

[Eric Armstrong]

There is a local fish store here in St. Louis that often gets in octopi in very small sizes. They look so awesome I just had to get one. They aren’t as fun as I thought though. They are master escape artists so you need a special enclosure for them. And I’m not kidding that I never saw it. If you get one you should get a tank dedicated to just an octopus so you can create a natural environment for it to be comfortable and float around. The LFS kept them in floating breeding boxes floating in their frag tanks with no cover. Made me sad for them.

There is another great LFS here that is not afraid to get in very exotic/rare fish. They sell cuttlefish eggs there, which are apparently pretty easy to hatch. I bought one of the freshly hatched cuttlefish. They are truly amazing. Their ability to change color, capture prey, use mesmerizing hypnotic color change patterns. I swear if aliens invade, it will be them and we will be crushed lol.

Just hoping other nerds in this group appreciate the fact that Mass Effect’s reapers were basically designed like giant cuttlefish!!!!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Just checking in on this thread! I've never kept mangroves, but I think it would be dope!

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Here are some more projects I did. I began using mangroves in almost everything. Now these are freshwater displays, but can easily be recreated with saltwater. And some aren’t even mangroves, but hopefully they can provide some inspiration

Here is a nano Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimp (freshwater shrimp that are harder than sps to keep, lol) with mangroves:

Here is a nano cichlid shell dweller tank I made. These two even bred in this tank:

What size nano is the shell dweller tank?

 

[User]

Hi guys

advice needed on when to prune my mangroves in order to have the canopy branch out.

do you have to wait until the apical front naturally branches, then wait until those branches grow leaves, then prune back?

or can you prune back a mangrove that hasn’t yet created branches, but does have several sets of leaves?

I have several growing out and one particular healthy one is at 21”, and has two sets of leaves and a healthy apical bud. But no natural branches yet. If I was to cut this bud back To the leaves, would this induce proper branching, or would it stunt growth?

thanks for any insight!

 

[User]

Should have checked back on page 2- there’s even a link with a pictorial of how to do it.

I think I’m going to let this guy get one more set of leaves, the start pinching and shaping.

 

[pgravis]

Trees are doing great-despite the problems with everything else!

 

[pgravis]

Tank never came down and despite some new problems, the mangroves are thriving. One of our houseplants unknowingly brought in some mealy bugs and they have been a nonstop problem. I sacrificed the main culprit plant, but not before it infected my mangroves. Been spraying them with rubbing alcohol a couple times a week for over a month and they still come back. Need to up my game I suppose, but finding reef safe solutions is proving to be hard. All the more reason to pull the tank down, and give them a good scrub before the reset. School ends in a month, my custom display is at the lfs ready for pickup, now I just need to pass some classes and get through mandatory overtime and get this up and moving again.

 

[pgravis]

 

[This guy is Extra Salty]

an update of my son’s tank.

 

[build_wall]

year old photo of my tank. mangrove has probably 6-7 sets of leaves now. Although I've been dealing with one leaf every few months occasionally going orange and blotchy, wilting, and falling. This ever happen to you mangrove growers? It's not a matter of getting too close to the lights as I've been training this tree with bonsai wire and it's most often leaves further down the main branch/trunk.
Also have an entire group of 10 black mangroves growing together in another tank as a project. Will post photos some day.

 

[Fish Dr. D]

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

 

[User]

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

Nah- the salt build up issue is too much for me. I prefer the reds due to the salt exclusion at the roots- no need to do daily washing of the leaves. In fact, I’ve washed my red mangrove leaves exactly 1 time in 6 months and they are as waxy and clean as anything I’ve seen in the wild

 

[pgravis]

Has anyone attempted a cover of any sort on a mangrove tank? Just lost a clown to jumping. It was the only fish in the tank, so nothing bullying it.