Hey ya'll, I've been ghost following this thread for a while now but finally joined in now that I need something (isn't that how everyone gets here?). Do any mangrove experts have any tips for helping my tank thrive?
Story: I grew my red mangroves on my balcony in Miami from propagules I found washed up on the beach, 2 years ago. I had them growing in a custom built rhino-liner'ed plywood planter loaded with muck and sand alongside some Florida purslane (see attached). I'd inundate the planter with water once a week so that they were always sitting in some kind of mud. I had to move to NYC for 2 years and bringing a little bit of SoFlo with me became a top priority. I built a shelf-situation to hold a 29gal freshwater tank. The idea was to make it freshwater for easy maintenance, but fake a salt water situation with the fish and things as best as possible. I read as much as I could of Julian Sprung's mangrove manuals. As expected, the plants - now a year old - hated being moved from soil to free floating in water. I anchored them from above some oolite limestone rocks to encourage the root growth. There is no substrate other than some sand from the Bahamas (Julian said you don't need any substrate). I have ghost shrimp, mystery and nerite snails, 13 rasbora, 2 bola sharks, a red tailed shark and a leopard plecco that have gotten along now for about 6 months. I have a Felt Electric 86 watt grow light (full spectrum, 5600 lumens). I accidentally burned up the 2 younger generation mangroves I had and I set the lamp timer back from 12 hours to 8 hours per day about 2 weeks ago. With the two trees I have left, I've seen new growth. One plant still has curled leaves indicating it's getting too much light, but I expect that to resolve in a few more weeks since dialing back the light. I've fertilized the tank with capsules buried in the sand twice in the past 6 months. Using a canister filter.
I've been reading about adding Fe and Mg, but I still have a bunch of critters to keep happy. Not sure if adding nutrients will upset the balance. I'm also concerned that my light may not be the best for this setup. My goals are to get some nice roots down within the next year or so and start trimming above leaf couples to encourage more branches up top once the trees are happy. Trying to get as close to a mangrove bush over the top of this tank as I can. It's only been less than 6 months, but am I on the right track? Cease and desist?
Update to FW red mangrove tank (5 months later):
The attached pics show the update after adjusting the light/nutrient parameters mentioned previously.
PROP ROOTS: To encourage prop root growth, I anchored the red mangroves to a small oak beam sitting horizontally above the aquarium using rubber bands. The idea here is that since the bands flex, the trees will feel slight movement from the filter's outflow, encouraging more root growth as opposed to being securely anchored to the beam. I originally super-glued the trees to the beam, then made the switch after 3 months when the root growth seemed slow. The change appears to have encouraged root growth, but this could also just be due to the other parameters being adjusted.
LIGHTS: I initially dialed back my automatic light timer from 12 hours to 8 and this relieved the plants to the point of growing again. Some curled leaves stayed curled on one tree, but all of the new leaves grew normally indicating a more desirable light schedule. Two months ago, I built an extension to my shelf that raised the light source an additional 6 inches. I then adjusted the light back to 12 hours after raising the light. No leaves have curled since making this change.
NUTRIENTS: I initially thought the fish waste would be enough to keep the trees healthy in the 29gal tank. I now have 10 harlequin rasbora, 1 bala shark, 1 red-tailed shark, a leopard plecco and 5 very sexually active corydoras (1 fry has survived so far and is in a separate tank until it is no longer snack-size). I lost 3 rasboras and a bala shark to jumping, so I also built a screen top that has to fit around the mangroves. Back to nutrients - the fish waste wasn't enough, as mentioned above, so I bought Flourish Iron and dosed half a cap per day. After a couple of weeks, new leaves were dark green and healthy. After two months, I switched to what I thought would be a more comprehensive fertilizer - Aqueon Aquarium Plant Food. New leaves then started coming out pale, again. I switched back to the Flourish Iron about a week and a half ago.
FUTURE: I will be moving back to SoFlo this summer and I predict a new mangrove environment coming soon. This is also why I've taken on many new mangrove children (as seen in the pics).
If anyone has any questions about their own setups, feel free to shoot me a message. I've learned a lot from doing everything wrong the first time and would be happy to share what I've learned. The biggest piece of advice I'd give a red mangrove newbie is to not bury your propagules in substrate. They don't need it, and I think the coolest part of growing red mangroves is seeing their roots come down and take hold on their own.
