Mangle lagoon

Mangle lagoon · Aug 17, 2024

Greetings. My build is going to focus primarily on the rhizophora mangle, or red mangrove.

This is a long term project. I’ve learned it’s more about the journey than the destination.

Living on some acres in beautiful east Texas, I spend the majority of my time outdoors. But when the daylight gets short or the heat rises in August, I felt I needed a place indoors featuring a unique ecosystem, so the idea of growing trees in a saltwater aquarium really appealed to me.

My goal is to create a large lagoon system designed around the health and visual display of a few red mangroves and their underwater habitat, while using the tanks livestock as the principal nutrient source for the trees. I’m going to try and go with no skimmer or filters and keep a low fish load and a wide variety of inverts. Again, most everything in the tank is essentially there just to support the bonsai mangroves and their needs.

We shall see, should be fun.

Current tank shot - grow out setup.

Specs

10 gallon display

Pistol shrimp
Bumble bee snails
Dwarf cerith snails

20 gallon sump

3 red mangroves
Yellow tail damsel
Sand conch
Emerald crab
Bumble bee snails
Dwarf cerith snails

crazyfishmom · Aug 17, 2024

Very cool setup! Looking forward to seeing how it fills in!

Mangle lagoon · Aug 17, 2024

I started back in early March ‘24 with an order of 3 mangroves off of EBay. I received 5 that were started in saltwater; well packaged with a few sets of leaves and roots a few inches.

My original idea was to cheat and grow out the roots in a small nutrient rich tank on their own. I started out with a 10 gallon, full saltwater, with a liquid fertilizer for hydroponic plants. I had a 30w cheap reef light and suspended the mangroves with some pvc.

My first problem was the lighting. It wasn’t enough.

I saw a YouTube video with Julien Sprung where he describes the red mangrove roots similar to a RO filter. Basically, they take in water and nutrients but repel the salt, but most importantly they need a lot of light to power the mechanism.

Mine looked droopy and sagged like they were in a drought despite being fully submerged. I lost two of them shortly after. I quickly ordered a black box 165w reef light and the remaining trees recovered in a few weeks with leaves standing tall and firm.

Mangle lagoon · Aug 18, 2024

The roots were growing well for the first couples months, despite no noticeable growth at the leaves. They were putting out bright red shoots around an inch a month. And then came the phytoplankton. It was thick. Couldn’t even see 2 inches into the water. The roots also changed to a sort of dense thicket. It was apparent they wanted to be planted and also my system needed some live rock and substrate to balance out the biological filtration.

Mangle lagoon · Aug 18, 2024

I then planted them in a 20 long sump with a few pieces of mixed dry/live rock in late May. The growth tips quickly started to bulge and then a month later had grown new leaves.

Mangle lagoon · Aug 18, 2024

The water is crystal clear and with minimal nitrates or phosphates. I’ve been good about doing 10-20% weekly water changes.

The mangroves are growing well and put out a 2nd set of new leaves in 6 weeks and added 2 full inches. I am working on adding some more live rock and clean up crew. I have some GHA issues, but I understand it’s still a new tank.

The plumbing is a bit unsightly, but this is just the grow out phase.

Mangle lagoon · Aug 18, 2024

At first I tried to acclimate mollies to saltwater for some cheap waste/nutrients, but they unfortunately didn’t live more than a couple months

I’d like to try them again someday, they are pigs, but spend the many of their time cleaning algae.