Mangrove shoots withering

[Alentino]

Hi, is anyone here successful in introducing mangrove shoots into reef tank without having them withering over a few days? Mine always seem to have the leaves slowly turning brown and drop off. is this normal and should i wait and hope that they grow new leaves or should i remove them? I acclimatise them to my tank water slowly before putting them in but it still does'nt work

[roidan]

i think morgan is successful because he uses natural sunlight...mangroves i believe need strong lights to grow well...u can try using a MH to grow them...

but i feel that they gain mass slowly and not really good for nutrient export...

just my personal opinion..others may differ

[Alentino]

thats true.... considering their sluggish growth. have read conflicting reports about mangrove over the net, some say claim that they are so efficient that your skimmer will be rendered useless after a period. but most report says that they will do fine under 40 watts of fluorescent

[roidan]

yeah, it's not widely used here,

maybe u can wait for morgan to share his mangrove experience with us

[DaY]

i remember in The reef aquarium (dunno book 1 or book 2). One of the pic shows Julian Sprung 15 gallon tank with one mangrove growing out from his tank in the middle (mangrove plant was already quite big in size) and i think he is not using natural sunlight for it. Thus it should be possible to keep them under other lights.

[roidan]

yeah..possible is possible..

but whether it can grow as fast as in natural sunlight is another thing

what you want from a nutrient exporter is for it to grow fast so that nutrient conversion into body mass is faster

so the best is provide MH for such plants if possible, the faster they grow, the happier you should be

likewise you can use T5s or PLs or even FLs if there is enough intensity to keep it alive and growing...but it's a matter of how fast the growth rate compared to natural sunlight or MH

[Alentino]

Thanks for the replies guys I too agree with the logic that nutrient export speed equals body mass gained. but its strange that so many articles claim they are such efficient nutrient exporters, hmm......

[Alentino]

and anthony calfo from WWM says regular misting of the mangrove leaves with freshwater get rids of salt deposits and could enhance their growth rate too. I shall try that.

[Golf]

I used to suffer cyano and algae bloom.....after I tried to reduce my lighting from 12hr to 10hr...PLUS adding 4x mangrove shoots into my 4ft tank....abovementioned problem disappeared for last few mths already.

Note : I used only PL+FL.....mangrove shoots seemed to grow in diameter....usually grow new leaves.

[Alentino]

thats good did you acclimate your mangroves or just dump them straight in the water? Did they significantly reduce nitrates in your tank?

[Tanzy]

Julian Sprung's tank with one mangrove also has a plenum underneath. His mangrove is growing under MH.

[giantbicycle]

where can i get them?? pick from margrove swamp? or buy from LFS??

[Tanzy]

If you really want to try, you can get them at Pasir Ris.

They are not worth the trouble though. Macroalgae works so much better.

[Golf]

I did not acclimatize my mangroves...just stick them inside the coral sand, ensuring that the roots is underneath....it survive inside my tank for about 4 mths plus already.

Never measure difference on Nitrates level ...main concern was cyano and algae bloom.

I bought it previously from WATER-CIRCLE (Near Jalan Besar Stadium)...not sure whether they sell anymore now.

Best regards,Golf

[giantbicycle]

If you really want to try, you can get them at Pasir Ris.

They are not worth the trouble though. Macroalgae works so much better.

THanks very much...i think a DSB and mirco algale in a REFGUIN works better for the reducing of N03 right....THANKS...anyway

[Alentino]

My plan for my next refugium would be a habitat biotope, i'm gonna use em all, Live deep fine sand bed, seagrass patch, mangroves and some macroalgae complete with all the detrivores