Boxed Mangroves

[Jim]

Started up this 40G Breeder in July and just ordered some mangroves. Tank has a single back center overflow box and since its a bean animal I needed to oversize it a bit to fit the 3 bulkheads. I thought that made for a good opportunity to establish 3 or 4 mangroves inside the box that could grow out the top; should be a pretty cool look if I can get them growing.

My current plan is to start them of by holding in place with a piece of styrofoam spanning across the top of the box, but since styrofoam is a zen killer it will have to go eventually. So figured I would take some small pieces of leftover reefrock and drill a bunch of holes through them and put on the floor of the box beneath the plants, once the roots take hold to it hope they can become free standing.

Hope the plants can tolerate the relative shallowness not sure about that.

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

looks good. I tried mangroves when I had my 54 going but they were slow growing for me and I had to break the tank down.

 

[Trio91]

You can zip tie them directly to some teeth in the overflow....it's what I did

 

[JRWOHLER]

I had one in my sump for a couple years but just got to be annoying after a while....I just floated it until it sent roots down and it took hold.

Shallow is fine....maybe just suspend it between your cover and the teeth of your overflow so it grows where you want it.

 

[Jim]

yea just will need to make sure the roots don't find the strainers. I;m happy with the way the overflow turned out overall but I already know one eventual weakness is zero service access. Thanks for the ideas

 

[Jim]

plants finally arrived. hmm they are a lot more mixed in size than i was expecting that makes for a bit more challenge, but they do look rather strong at least.



for now I just got them set up in the frag tank downstairs to grow out a bit. Once i can notice the roots starting to reach i figure I 'll find some way to get them stationed over each of those rocks and hopefully attached. Mainly so I could cycle each one in and out of the DT individually. they'll probably fare much better under the T5s in the basement

.

 

[Trio91]

I have mines rooting under LED's
If you zoom in on the 2nd pic you can see the roots

 

[Jim]

nice those are much greener than mine, I'm already suspicious that a couple of em may have come doa.
Anyway these boys all strapped in position. Taking up pretty much all the space in frag tank that wasn't exactly part of the original plan.



and now ...... we wait

 

[Trio91]

If they are black, soft and wrinkled then yes they are dead....once they adjust to the tank they'll perk up

 

[Jim]

took more than a small amount of patience but pretty cool how these are finally growing out now. Planning to move them outside on the deck over the summer once the temperature is right for it.

 

[Jim]

took out the 3 tallest and planted them outside for the summer. They were getting too close to the light


I figure if they can add a few inches by fall I'll try to anchor them to some lower rocks then