Mangrove lights?

[Tmm87]

Good evening,

I'm looking to grow some mangroves in the new tank I'm setting up and was wondering if there was a relatively inexpensive bulb that would work. Alternatively, the tank is going to be lit with an AI Prime HD, would this work for growing the mangroves? I assumed they'd be lacking something from the Prime and would require a separate grow bulb.

 

[Spare time]

Whatever will grow coral will grow mangroves. You could go with a kingbo par 38 or luxbird if you wanted something cheap.

 

[laverda]

Mine have grown like weeds under inexpensive ($25.00) blue and red LED grow lights from amazon. Photos in my build thread.

 

[Tmm87]

Whatever will grow coral will grow mangroves. You could go with a kingbo par 38 or luxbird if you wanted something cheap.

Right, but the coral typically wants more blue and I've read that the mangroves like something closer to 6500k. So that's where my confusion came in. Don't want an outbreak of algae in my tank because I'm running a ton of white light.

 

[Tmm87]

Mine have grown like weeds under inexpensive ($25.00) blue and red LED grow lights from amazon. Photos in my build thread.

Do you have a link for it? I was hoping to go with a clamp on style lamp so I didn't have to hang anything.

 

[Spare time]

Right, but the coral typically wants more blue and I've read that the mangroves like something closer to 6500k. So that's where my confusion came in. Don't want an outbreak of algae in my tank because I'm running a ton of white light.

Zooxanthellae and plants both have Chlorophyll A, which peaks in sensitivity in the blue range as well as a bit of red. Mangroves have Chlorophyll B, where as Zooxanthellae have Chlorophyll c2. Mangroves in saltwater tend top have a decent amount of astaxanthin, which is sensitive between 450nm and 550nm (green and yellow).

 

[laverda]

Do you have a link for it? I was hoping to go with a clamp on style lamp so I didn't have to hang anything.

There are all sorts of grow lights on Amazon.

 

[Ozzi-reef]

I am having really great success with a Sansi 40w Daylight grow LED - My mangrove is loving it and up to its 7th set of leaves. It plugs into the E26/27 socket of an Ikea RANARP floor lamp - just got rid of the base and directly clipped it to my tank. This is going to give the mangrove at least 3-4 foot of headspace to grow, after which I will prune it down and it will become a large(ish) bonsai for many years.

 

[Bpb]

May seem obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. Mangroves are plants. Yes. People may grow them for fun since their roots can work in saltwater, but they’re still plants. Grow a mangrove the same way you’d grow a tomato plant. A lot of ways to do it. Sunlight would be best, though it would be impractical. A dedicated plant growing light would be next best, but you may not like what it does for your tank if you like the super blue look. A red/blue only light would work well also, but would be hideous to display for everyone to see. An actual reef light would work as well....I’d personally
Choose some sort of full spectrum spotlight type solution. Hard to also know what to recommend without seeing the setup.