Rtr! I Think I Need Your Help!!

[BeelzeBob]

so my lfs had a few red mangroves stuck in the back of a marine tank....

i go in there every couple days for guppies and such, and basically watched the mangroves die. he then got a new batch, and just out out of impule I bought them.

my main assumption was that mangroves grow in estuarian enviroments, therefore should do better in a brackish aquarium than full marine.?.?

am i a fool? or did i make some sort of educated guess? i ask RTR because he seems to have the plants figured out.


so.... what should i do? any ideas or tips on getting these mangroves to grow?

Do i need special lights? aquatic fertilizer(s)?

[OrionGirl]

Mangrove is a general name that covers a variety of plants that can grow in varying saline conditions. Some tolerate marine conditions, some don't, some can go from one to the other.

Lighting, as with most plants, is very important. Since the upper portions of the plants should be above the water line, the lighting doesn't have to be as high wattage as to support high light needing aquatic plants, but still, you want more lighting, and it needs to be in the right range for plants--about 6500-7500K.

[RTR]

The hobby standard plant is the red mangrove, which can take FW/BW/SW, but the other species are possible, just not usual.

As OG noted they are light hungry. If you go to the listing of my tanks, there is ref to some shots of a meeting here. The veggie filter setup with emerse Crinums in the picture was originally done for mangroves (while that range was brackish). It started with one shoplight, then as that was raised a second was added to make the setup as shown.

[BeelzeBob]

thank you both.
any specific type of light i should use?

[RTR]

Mine are ordinary triphosphors from Home Depot, and the Crinums bloom repeatedly from Easter to late fall. How they know it is winter I cannot guess - they see no natural light whatsoever.