Mangle lagoon

[Mangle lagoon]

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]

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

 

[Mangle lagoon]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Mangle lagoon]

I pruned one of the growth tips for the first time today. Hopefully it will keep the mangrove more compact starting this early with trimming.

This other one is about to sprout new leaves, then I’ll probably prune it as well.

 

[Mangle lagoon]

The future home of mangle lagoon. 48x36x16.

 

[crazyfishmom]

The future home of mangle lagoon. 48x36x16.

Awesome dimensions!

 

[CHSUB]

This is great and will follow. I’m also doing a mangrove lagoon, 15 gallon connected to a more typical 33 gallon AIO reef tank; connecting the two tanks soon. I have noticed similar results with mangroves planted in soil vs suspended in the water column that you noted with regards to roots, leaves, and growth. I have been working on this since April and finally found success in September. My greatest success with mangroves and my recommendation is to use organic potting soil capped with a thick layer of argonite gravel. My mangroves, 4 small and 1 large, in soil are growing crazy fast! I have noticed zero negatives with regards to water quality. The tank currently has a few leather corals and CUC. Will soon be connected to a tank with a full mixed reef.
I’m very curious how your trimming worked? I’m ready to start experimenting with cutting the small mangroves. You mentioned cutting the growth tip. How did the mangrove response? Im going to do the same and hopefully 2 new growth tips will replace the single one cut resulting in horizontal vs vertical growth?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The future home of mangle lagoon. 48x36x16.

Can’t wait to see that tank filled up!

 

[East1]

The future home of mangle lagoon. 48x36x16.

this looks so cool - is it acrylic? I'm in the process of building a saltwater mangrove terrarium thing out of acrylic and happened across this!

 

[mjszos]

I love this - I've always wanted some mangroves so I'll be following along closely. Congrats on the new tank - has the new system come together yet?

 

[Mangle lagoon]

My original plan to only cut the growth tips didn’t work as hoped. The mangroves only grew new single tips again. I decided to cut one more leaf node down and it’s taken a few months to show any real progress. All three have these similar new double tips forming now. Plus, the roots have been expanding well.

The new tank build is still a few months off, no rush.