Mangrove in fresh water with nutrients?

nickmealey · May 17, 2021

Hey all,

I've been considering getting some small mangroves and growing them out in fresh water. I've heard they grow faster this way, then I'd transplant them into a tank and very slowly raise the salinity over time. My question is, for those of you who've grown them out in fresh water, did you add anything (nitrates/phosphate/fertilizer?) to the water or was it just a bucket of tap water? Trying to get a gauge on the simplicity of growing out a mini tree with aerial roots...

Ichtha_yo Stuff · May 17, 2021

I grew mine out for about a year in freshwater. I live in Tampa, Fl so I collected them one day on the beach. I didn’t give them a lot of attentio. I grew them outside in a five gallon bucke. I do recall adding some liquid fertilizer once or twice and I did prune one of them which made for a fuller tree. Once I set up my tank I planted them in the aquarium and filled it with rodi and slowly raised the salinity weekly over a month. When I did a water change in one of my other tanks I just removed about a gallon of rodi and replaced it with my water from the water change. Here is a picture of them in my tank. The picture is about a month old.

nickmealey · May 17, 2021

Ichtha_yo Stuff said:
I grew mine out for about a year in freshwater. I live in Tampa, Fl so I collected them one day on the beach. I didn’t give them a lot of attentio. I grew them outside in a five gallon bucke. I do recall adding some liquid fertilizer once or twice and I did prune one of them which made for a fuller tree. Once I set up my tank I planted them in the aquarium and filled it with rodi and slowly raised the salinity weekly over a month. When I did a water change in one of my other tanks I just removed about a gallon of rodi and replaced it with my water from the water change. Here is a picture of them in my tank. The picture is about a month old.

Super helpful, thanks! Great job, they look great in your tank. I might look for some liquid fertilizer...