Mangroves - let's see yours!

melev

melev

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Last September, I brought home a few mangrove shoots, purchased from the Two Little Fishies booth. These were basically a 7" plant with no roots and no leaves, just a green thing. They've been in my refugium ever since, and I've been marveling over the growth, and how they are going straight up to the top of the stand.

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The green section at the base is what I brought home, submerging the end in water and sand. All the rest is new growth.

I've had another mangrove growing in my refugium for a couple of years, but it hardly does anything interesting. And a few months ago, we did a group buy for some from Ebay, and a few of those are starting to grow now.

Let's see yours, and tell us how they are set up around your tank.
 
Marc -

Can you explain a little to me the benefits of having these? I currently have a 3" sandbed, live rock, 2 types of culerpa, and a huge ball of chaeto in my fuge. My Nitrates, Phosphates, Ammonia, Nitrites have never even gone up once after my cycle was done. What would this do to benefit my bio system?
 
For me, mangroves are just something neat to look at. You'd need a lot of them for them to make a difference on the system. In nature, they are nitrate removers, plus their root system is used by fish for the fry to hide in as they eat and grow.

Mine are standing in sand in what looks like a specimen container in the refugium, but if I get the sand higher in that compartment, I wouldn't have to use the support box.

Styrofoam will work as well to keep them upright until they can establish a rooted base.

Here's an article about them from a few years ago:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/ac/feature/index.php
 
I have a mangrove in my fuge as well. stem broke off a while back... so I figured the rest had died. Went in a few weeks ago to clear some calurpa and ran across a stump that was about an inch around and about 6 inches tall. The root system on it is definately spread out on it. I tried to pull it out, and I couldn't just gentlely yank on it.

I have two more that are going to be going in it soon :)
 
I have one in my fuge. I filled a water bottle with sand and stuck in a stub, similar to how you said yours started. I put it in a plastic water bottle because I read that they can grow rather large and cause problems. So, I figured if it gets out of hand, I can just yank out the water bottle, mangrove and all.

It's grown above my light in the fuge and still sprouts new leaves from time to time.

Since it keeps growing, I was thinking of whacking down to a stub again. What do you guys think about cutting it?
 
i read that really good article above. It says trimming to earliy before the center stalk in fully developed is deadly. Other than that i think you are ok to trim but not down to a stub. I would check out that link marc gave it was really fun. Casey
 
I've been meaning to take pics of these for a while, but here are my mangroves.
 
I'll have to post an update of mine. Yours are looking great.
 
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