How Are You Lighting Your Mangroves?

[Dave Legacy]

This week I got in 32 mangrove pods and put them in my 40G Breeder to hold them over until I get my 200G finished. My 40G is powered by a single 20W 24" Fluorescent strip light and I've noticed that my leaves are starting to turn brown.

How much light do I need for these guys? I keep reading they don't require very much light to grow but now I'm not too sure. What lighting setups are you guys using to grow your mangroves?

Thanks in Advance,
Dave

 

[AMS]

I use full spectrum lighting, at 2.8 watts per gallon and they seem fine. If you ask in the planted section they may know a little more.

 

[phlawed]

This week I got in 32 mangrove pods and put them in my 40G Breeder to hold them over until I get my 200G finished. My 40G is powered by a single 20W 24" Fluorescent strip light and I've noticed that my leaves are starting to turn brown.

How much light do I need for these guys? I keep reading they don't require very much light to grow but now I'm not too sure. What lighting setups are you guys using to grow your mangroves?

Thanks in Advance,
Dave

i would recomend 1wpg minimum, as most plants require at least this for healthy growth. But, i have yet to try mangroves just yet. Getting one this weekend, so will keep you updated in a 1wpg tank.

 

[Dave Legacy]

Out of 32 I'd say about 10 are growing leaves and another 10 are trying. The others looked dead before I even got started. My tank is a 40G capacity but it only holds about 7-8" of water at the moment so it probably only has 20G of water, maybe less.

Still I think they need more light or maybe some fertilizer.

This week I got in 32 mangrove pods and put them in my 40G Breeder to hold them over until I get my 200G finished. My 40G is powered by a single 20W 24" Fluorescent strip light and I've noticed that my leaves are starting to turn brown.

How much light do I need for these guys? I keep reading they don't require very much light to grow but now I'm not too sure. What lighting setups are you guys using to grow your mangroves?

Thanks in Advance,
Dave

i would recomend 1wpg minimum, as most plants require at least this for healthy growth. But, i have yet to try mangroves just yet. Getting one this weekend, so will keep you updated in a 1wpg tank.

 

[Little Fish]

Out of 32 I'd say about 10 are growing leaves and another 10 are trying. The others looked dead before I even got started. My tank is a 40G capacity but it only holds about 7-8" of water at the moment so it probably only has 20G of water, maybe less.

Still I think they need more light or maybe some fertilizer.

Were they wrapped with damp newspaper then plastic bagged? Were they still moist when you received them? If 10 of them died before you even work with them, I guess you might have gotten a bad batch of pods. They are probably slowly dying during transit. I heard one pod could take 20 gallon so even if only 10 survived it should be sufficient for your 200-gallon tank.

Some ideas that you might already know but just in case:

1) All leaves have to stay above the water line or they will rot.
2) Spray down the leaves every couple of weeks and remove salt found on them.
3) Don't trim the old leaves until the new ones are fully extended.
4) Iron and magnesium helps but I think the mangroves can extract that from the marine salt in the water if the mangrove population is not kept too high.

I gave my mangroves some fertilizer when they first arrived and all of them grew nicely. A month ago, 3 of them started to wither. I don't think I have enough nutrients in the tank to support twenty something mangrove pods now that they all took root. I'm starting to remove mangroves from my tank and giving them to my friends and co-workers.

 

[Dave Legacy]

I moved them out of the display tank and into a 25G rubbermaid container lit by a 10,000K Power Compact light fixture. The water is heated, they're growing in 3" of sand, and I dumped some fish pellets in the water so hold them over on nutrients until I can find some Seachem Flourish in my LFSs.

Right now they're growing some decent sized leaves but they're kinda browing. I accidently uprooted one and found that they're putting out roots like crazy so at least I know they're alive. I'm thinking what they really need is some iron. At this point I only have 10 with leaves and about 10 more that are trying to sprout leaves but haven't quite made it yet.

 

[Little Fish]

I moved them out of the display tank and into a 25G rubbermaid container lit by a 10,000K Power Compact light fixture. The water is heated, they're growing in 3" of sand, and I dumped some fish pellets in the water so hold them over on nutrients until I can find some Seachem Flourish in my LFSs.

Right now they're growing some decent sized leaves but they're kinda browing. I accidently uprooted one and found that they're putting out roots like crazy so at least I know they're alive. I'm thinking what they really need is some iron. At this point I only have 10 with leaves and about 10 more that are trying to sprout leaves but haven't quite made it yet.

I'm using a 65W 10,000K power compact in my tank as well and I think your lighting should be sufficient. However, leaves that turn brown is not a good sign. My 3 mangroves that died have leaves that turned brown and eventually fell off. Then the pods themselves started to turn brown. How big are the leaves? My healthy ones have leaves 3 to 4 inches long. My sick mangroves lost their good leaves and new ones never grow to more than an inch before turning brown.

 

[Dave Legacy]

1" leaves at the largest, starting to turn more green... not totally though. Is it safe to assume an iron difficency?

 

[Little Fish]

1" leaves at the largest, starting to turn more green... not totally though. Is it safe to assume an iron difficency?

I can't tell for sure but I don't think it'll hurt to supplement with elements and/or fertilizers. The mangroves might have a really rough time during transit and still recovering.

 

[Dave Legacy]

Today I bought some HAGEN "Plant Gro (Iron Enriched)" plant fert, 0.15-0-0, which appears to just be trace elements. Hopefully this additive will help hold me over long enough to mailorder some Seachem ferts. They definetly were shocked by the transit.