when planting mangroves?

[xxL0CKHARTxx]

I will be ordering five red mangroves and one black mangrove seed. My questions are being asked b/c I've tried to grow one. It had two leaves and some roots, but it seemed like it died so I removed it. Now I want to try again but without killing these plants. I have a saltwater reef tank. Current algae is cheatomorpha and codium. My tank is a 29g and 10g sump/fuge only with DSB. The dimensions in the fuge are 11x11. Lighting on a reverse cycle with led bulb 5000K-6000K.
1. Do I just float the plants in Styrofoam or should I plant them in the DSB?
2. When the plants arrive do I (at that instant), add them to the tank?
3. I will end up getting more lighting of course, what lighting period is recommended?
4. This next question is for the black mangrove seed. Is there anything helpful to tell me about planting it?

[falconut]

I've had mine for a few years and they're doing fine. I was told to take the pod, make sure the top is up. Place the bottom in some rubble and the top must stay out of the water. It does take a while, but eventually it will root and then grow a stalk with leaves.

Since my refuge was a 20 gal. tall, I added a small plastic basket with LR rubble. That is where I placed the pods. They have rooted through the rock and out the basket holes and into the sand. HTH

[Ron Reefman]

Come to my house, we have mangroves growing along canals 100yards away. The red mangrove propagules do best if they are stuck in sand or rubble and the top is out of the water. However, I put several in our nem tank and they did just fine with the upper tip 10-14" under water.

Black mangroves are harder to keep. They need air and like being in tidal flats where the roots get exposed to air regularly. They don't grow out into the water like the red mangroves do.

I'd just plant them as soon as you get them. We pick our's up off the beach after laying in the sand for who knows how long? And 95% grow. Good luck.

[Dustin1300]

Tagging along here as I'm thinking about adding a mangrove garden with DSB. How deep of water works best with the red mangroves and is one mangrove any more effective than the other?

[falconut]

Originally Posted by Dustin1300

Tagging along here as I'm thinking about adding a mangrove garden with DSB. How deep of water works best with the red mangroves and is one mangrove any more effective than the other?

As Ron Reefman said, the Red are supposed to be easier. The water should be enough to allow the bottom of the pod to either be in the sand or rubble, while leaving a little of the tip out of the water. I had a plastic basket to raise the pod so the tip stuck out. If I had to guess the water height was about 8" from the rubble to the water surface, but that's a guess.

[dylan87]

my mangroves took forever to get roots after a month I didnt have any so i put them in some walt smith fiji mud to see if that would help now im getting about 1-2 inches a week in root growth no leaves yet though

[notbad]

here is what I did for my mangroves. I biult a flower box of sorts,

out of plexyglass and added an overflow tube to one side. and a flow box on were the water comes in.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...nce/treess.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...once/trees.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...once/tree2.jpg

[kcb1123]

i did a plastic bucket with some sand in my sump, kind of a remote DSB and they seem to love it. I had bottom 3 inches planted and tops were exposed to air, they took off in about 3 weeks.

[xxL0CKHARTxx]

@Ron reefman, thanks for the input. It won't go to waste. Wish we had em growing around here.
@falconut, I was thinking about setting the roots inside my cheato, but just one to see how it does.
@dylan87, ill have to think about the mud. It's kind of like miracle mud right?
@notbad, now that's cool stuff. What kind of sand?
@kcb1123, thanks for the help.
Please fill free to share any tips.!!

[AquaticFins]

From my limited understanding, mangroves are extremely intolerant of salinity changes once they've sprouted...so if you buy them with leaves, it's critical to acclimate them extremely slowly to your salinity if it differs from what the propagules were sprouted in.

It's far better to buy them as un-sprouted propagules for that reason; they'll sprout in nearly any salinity but won't tolerate salinity shifts after they've sprouted.

They'll certainly grow just fine if they've been planted (though make sure it's a deep sand layer and you keep an eye on how big the root system is getting; they can definitely break tanks as they grow), but if you're looking for the aerial roots, it's best to float them and slowly raise them up and out of the water as they grow.

[xxL0CKHARTxx]

@AuqaticFins the one time I bought one it came with wet newspaper so how would I know the salinity to start off with.

[notbad]

I had some reef sand left over in a bag so just threw it in there. I believe it was one step up from fine sand. becouse I have a lot of flow in my tank