Mangroves

[drnecropolis]

I have always wanted to set up a place for mangroves and tie it in to the main system.

My plan right now is to find a decent sized cube tank (kinda like the tank at Imagine Ocean) and fill them up about 3/4 full and plant about 10 mangroves (isn't it Red Mangroves?)

In a lot of the reading I have done, quite a bit says that mangroves are very poor at consuming nutrients.. That it would take a lot of them to notice any different..

I already plan on doing this anyway since I think it would add something special to my fish room. Walk in there and BAM, a few small trees growing..I just think it would look neat.

So the question is:
If you have Mangroves
How fast do they seem to grow? (Approx answer is fine)
Do they seem to make a difference in consumption of excess nutrient?
What kind of special need do they have? (If any)
Is there a formula to determine how many you would need on different size tanks?


Thanks

 

[moebious]

Tagging along... I too was thinking about doing this down the road. Not necessarily for nutrient uptake but if it does that then great. I want to add a ~10 gallon tank drilled for overflow with a separate pump running from the sump. And set it right next to the DT with a PC of CFL above it. I think it would look nice.

 

[landon]

Tagging along as well. Was just down in Key West and kept passing mangroves with their seeds dangling within reach and asking me to put them in my sump. Never did grab any... Wish I had...

 

[mikesommers]

We were also talking about this. Shauna had found an article that stated that they do help with nutrient export. Of coarse they are not an algae so they do grow much slower there for it makes since that they will use less nutrients. We had found a place to order Red Mangroves from and they were dirt cheap. Main cost is setting up the tank. If I am not mistaken some of the examples that I had found had 8 inches of a sandy mud type mixture in the tank. The tank was drilled at the top. It was set up kinda like a stand alone fuge with trees coming out of it. I think the guy even had some sort of live stock in it. Thats just one example though.

 

[mockery]

From what I've read online red mangroves grow very slow but are cool once they have branched out leaves are everywhere.

There is something called a black mangrove that is more along the lines of a bush and grow much quicker. I think I read about them on rb. I'll see if I can find a link.

 

[mockery]

Here's the link

http://reefbuilders.com/2010/04/08/tunze-mangrove-box-black-mangrove-seedling/">http://reefbuilders.com/2010/04/08/tunze-mangrove-box-black-mangrove-seedling/</a>

More expensive then the reds but might be cool to do a mix.

 

[spacepony]

A note on how 'slow' is *slow*:
I bought propagules several months ago - probably April or May. Of those that grew anything, it took perhaps a month to get root nubs. I gave up on two and tossed them into my freshwater tank (before they really had any growth - I understand you aren't supposed to quickly change salinity on them when they have growth). I left one in saltwater. To date, my two in the freshwater 'took off' and are about 5 inches high with leaves. The saltwater has a good display of roots - it may never leaf (daughter decided it was a teething toy....).

 

[moebious]

I did a search for "mangroves reef aquarium" and found tons of links. One interesting thing; they form salt crystals on the leaves. In the wild, rain usually rinses them off so they would need to be sprayed often. Like what Andy was saying. It would be kinda neat to hook up the ATO to spray the Mangroves daily.

 

[acroholic]

I think it would be a fun project and would aid in nutrient export, but I can't help thinking nothing is better than a fast growing ball of cheato for nutrient export in terms of efficiency.

 

[fish scales2]

moebious;554165 wrote: I did a search for "mangroves reef aquarium" and found tons of links. One interesting thing; they form salt crystals on the leaves. In the wild, rain usually rinses them off so they would need to be sprayed often. Like what Andy was saying. It would be kinda neat to hook up the ATO to spray the Mangroves daily.

ATO spraying the mangrove leaves. I like this idea very much.

 

[hogsnapper07]

Hello guy I have a mangrove tank and if you are looking for efficiency then cheato is the way to go .

My system is simple. It is a 20g long with about 5 inches of muddy sediment. I have a little pump in my sump that supplies the tank so that it created a triccle effect across the roots. As for lighting I have a 175w mh pendant 10k about 2 feet above the highest leaves. THIS IS CRUCIAL if it is too close it will burn the leaves and kill the plant if it is too far away it will wilt and rot at the core. basically act as if they were "happy" plants, follow the same procedures and they will grow fine. They grow very slow like 1/2 inch every month or two after branches start to form.

Make sure you have some little hermits in there too there good at keeping them clean...

ONE BIG THING TO WATCH OUT FOR IS DROPPING LEAVES. WHEN THEY DIE/FALL OFF THEY CAN EASILY CLOG TUBES, PUMPS, AND OVERFLOWS. I LEARNED THE HARD WAY!!

I also have some seahorses/pipefish in there as well they love the slow moving water, love to use the mangroves to cling onto and have no predators/stressors.

I got all of my sprouting seeds and blue legged hermits from my house in Stuart, I don't recommend getting them the way I did but next time I go down I will see who wants some and I can get them from my friend who runs the local marine bio labs and they breed them for transplants. (safe, healthy, and legal..)

 

[jef4y]

If you do the backstage tour at the GA Aquarium, in the reef section they have some mangrove TREES. Decorative, cool, but not really useful from what I can read.

I would be concerned using ATO to spray the leaves though as I would think that dust & junk will collect on them and be washed off into the tank. But I suppose whatever would hit the leaves will hit the water anyhow so that may be a wash (no pun intended).

 

[smoothie]

Something I have also seen is a screen for the mangroves to catch the leaves when the trees are long enough to break the rim of the tank

 

[drnecropolis]

Hmmm that's a neat idea..

Wait until they are taller than the rim and put down screen/mesh around them?

 

[smoothie]

Just like Dave's screen build but with finer screen. Punch holes to fit around the the trees and lay the mesh on them. Have only the mangroves popping out

 

[etoh_is_good]

Getting tree size may take some time. Before my seedling died, it only added more than a couple leaves. From the GA aquarium speaker, I think they started with some trees, not seedlings. So BAM, may take some time.

Bruce