Best substrate for mangroves

[User]

As title- thoughts on best substrate for mangroves-

1- rock rubble
2- sand
3- miracle mud

This would be in the form of a small section of a 40g display macro fuge. Adding a small suspended ‘trough’ (4” front to back, 22” wide, 2-3” deep) near the top, just below water surface to hold substrate so the mangroves are above water

Fill it with big chunks of live rock, smaller rock rubble, sand, or miracle mud?

Thanks

 

[reef lover]

I like mud myself!

 

[lapin]

Since they come from the coastal swamp type ecosystems try to replicate that; fine sediments with high organic content.

 

[Adam sahut]

Mine do fine in crushed coral

 

[Dos Ocho]

I used Caribsea Mineral Mud mixed with fine oolite sand and Fiji Pink dry sand for mine. I would have rather used Miracle Mud but it is no longer available. Fine sand mixed with some kind of soil-type substrate should work and my mangroves are doing well with the mixture I used.
You may want to look at Floridapets.com too. They sell collected live mud for seagrass setups that I imagine would work well for mangroves too.

 

[reefcubed]

They grow best in substrate used for freshwater planted tanks. Reefbuilders just did an experiment using sand, and planted substrate in freshwater. Both equal size, in jars, in a windowsill. The planted substrate annihilated the sand. I do not know what affect that soil will have on the rest of the tank. Perhaps if you buried it in a container with a lot of other sand, it won’t leach.

https://reefbuilders.com/2019/10/31/freshwater-substrate-vs-aragonite-mangrove-growth-test/

 

[Eric R.]

Instead of starting a new thread, I figure I'd add on to this one.

I'm going to buy several red mangroves with a few leaves/roots, and grow them out in a large freshwater pot with strong lighting, with a plan to acclimate and transplant them into a macro display tank in 6-9 months.


I have a few planted freshwater tanks that I'll use the water from the water changes to water the mangrove pot with, so they get plenty of nutrients.

These planted tanks just have safetsorb clay pellets with pool filter sand on top, with osmocote plus mixed in for nutrients. Do folks think this will work as a substrate for the mangroves? I could get miracle mud, but since this is cheaper and I already have the materials I figured I'd see what people think.

 

[cubereefer]

interested in this as well. i am setting up a 60 gallon fuge cube next to my sump and plan to run mangroves and multiple macros with mud. i picked up 10 mangroves last summer from the beach in FL and brought them home and they have done really well in my sump without anything except some live rock . so looking to try something new as well.