New Macro & Mangrove Tank

[rwhhunt]

Hello, I just started a new 20 G Long Macro/Mangrove Tank today. I was wondering if anyone could post some pictures of their mangrove or macro tank so I can get some ideas. So far, I have about 24" of the tank covered in NO 50/50 light (eventually boosted up to 55 W PC 50/50). For the remaining 6inches of the tank is open with a regular ballast sitting outside. I am planning on making it a pendulum fixture, but right now it clips onto the side with a 10W PC 50/50.
I am trying to get some ideas about how to set-up the mangrove. The macro should be relatively easy..
I was thinking about using some plastic egg crate over the exposed 6", dropping my water level about 1.5", and then rubber banding the mangrove sprouts to the egg crate with their roots in the water. Do the roots need to be intially burried? My goal is to have them grow down to the sand substrate. I imagine this will take several months... Can I let the roots just float in the water and maybe ziptie a couple of them together for added structural strength?

Here is the first night of work, it is definitely a work in progress.


Also, has anyone ever tried growing spirulina???
Thanks!

[Harmsway]

All seagrasses need a deep sandbed, 3-6 inches. However the macros just need to be anchored for appeance only. As far as the mangrove shoot goes. I believe once the roots begin growing you will need a deep sandbed for that too.

Gene

[Seahorsewisprer]

I have never had luck getting mangroves roots to grow in just water, but I know it can be done. Scott Michael recommends in his book to start them in FW under strong lighting....

I saw a guy in our club who shoved the unrooted pods into a piece of styrofoam and placed it in his sump. I haven't seen it for a bit, but it did start to root and leaf out at that time.

I put mine behind a rock and put a very deep sand bed so that the pod is in the sand. As it is rooting, I plan on removing some of the sand to expose the roots, so I can get this knarly root look in the main display..

Your tank plan sounds cool!

[rwhhunt]

Yeah, I am definately adding another 20 lbs of aragonite. I have seen a set up where they had small submerged pots that held the rot system. The roots would apparently start to grow out of the pots and then you could zip tie them together to create the Knarly root system. I am tryin to figure out a way to get the roots to grow down to the susbtrate, but without having ugly pots floating around in the tank, it is kinda a display tank being on the kitchen bar...

[rwhhunt]

Okay, so the more I read about growing mangroves in aquaria, I see that some say that they can't grow in bare water, while other sources say it is perfectly natural and possible to grow in an absence of susbtrate!... I was thinking about using some sort of suspended rockwool or mesh/styrofoam.... Is the substrate neccesary for nutrients or just to guide and anchor the root system????

It would be nice to just have them grow without any substrate untill they reach the DSB. I would like to ziptie the roots together for added support on their descent down...

[kel5944]

I have 4 or 5 in the sump of my 29g. I only planted the biggest in my sand bed. 3 of them have leaves. They all have roots. They seem to be growing fine with and without a substrate. To get the gnarly root look, what I plan to do is plant them, then later down the line dig them up and plant them again with the roots more exposed. HTH

[Triterium]

I can say from experience that mangroves planted in a deep substrate grow much faster than those with roots in the water.
Here is my mangrove tank. Most of the mangroves were planted in August. I had a couple hundred of them. I planted about 60 in the substrate and the rest i just kept in water. The ones in the substrate started growing within a couple weeks. The ones in water lost their leaves and had little growth.

[rwhhunt]

thank you Triterium, What type of substrate are you using?? I am thinking about a ~3-4 bed of aragonite... My main goal (besides them living) is to have to root structure grow down to the sandbed... I may have to do some sort of mid water level rockwool substrate to help them grow to the bottom...

What type of lighting are you using?

[Triterium]

Garden soil mixed with silica sand with a top layer of oolitic sand collected locally. Im using sunlight. If i were you, id let the roots develop in the sandbed for a while and then slowly pull the plants out (maybe a cm every few weeks). Keep the plants attached to some post. That would be faster than having the roots grow down. Mangrove roots generally grow outward anyways and you would need to guide them down.

[cdi919]

does any part of the mangrove need to be out of the water? or can the whole pod be planted?