Mangrove tank

[MysticBlue]

Hey guys so I’m wanting to start a 30 gallon mangrove tank and I was wondering how to do it? Do I need that expensive mud for them to grow in? What kind of lightning would work. Also it’s going to be brackish water so what kind of fish/inverts can I have? Finally would fiddler crabs and red clawed crabs find this a good home? I have a bunch and I’m wondering if this would be good. Ok a side note could I grow one in my reef tank?

 

[laverda]

I used miracle mud rock and sand for mine. They started in my sump, but very quickly got too big for under the stand. I moved them to a seperate tank beside my display. I feed water to if from my sump which gravity feeds back to my sump. I use inexpensive red and blue LED grow lights from amazon. They have gotten pretty tall now and i need to raise up my light and add another one to cover a larger area soon.
Here is the link to my Mangrove Lagoon. I will try to add some recent pics there.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey guys so I’m wanting to start a 30 gallon mangrove tank and I was wondering how to do it? Do I need that expensive mud for them to grow in? What kind of lightning would work. Also it’s going to be brackish water so what kind of fish/inverts can I have? Finally would fiddler crabs and red clawed crabs find this a good home? I have a bunch and I’m wondering if this would be good. Ok a side note could I grow one in my reef tank?

From what I've heard they'll literally grow on rocks or just about anything else in an aquarium, but they prefer more clay substrate (clay just meaning the substrate is very, very fine/has small particles - like mud - not coarse/with big particles). So, you don't need the miracle mud mentioned above, but it's likely a good choice of substrate for it.

For the lighting, a general rule of thumb with plants is that blue light encourages vegetation growth (i.e. encourages the plant to grow taller, wider, more leaves, etc.) and red light encourages fruiting/flowering. The best lighting for plants, however, is full-spectrum (containing blue light, green/yellow light, red light, etc.) in good percentage and PAR amounts (I've heard the green/yellow light described as being like vitamins/minerals for plants). That said, pretty much any decent grow-light (red/blue or full-spectrum) will grow mangroves (I wouldn't expect flowering/fruiting under normal, indoor circumstances).

As long as the new growth/leaves are above the waterline, the mangrove should grow fine. You can grow mangroves in fresh, brackish, and saltwater aquariums - they do best in freshwater though. So, yes you can grow them in your reef tank.

Some brackish fish you could keep in a 30 gallon (you'll want to research before you put any in, of course): dwarf mudskippers, knight gobies (a few other gobies work too), killifish, mollies, guppies, indian zebra blennies (a few other blennies work too), crazy fish (Butis butis), empire gudgeon (a few other gudgeons might work as well), etc. - for a 30 gallon you could even do something like the leaf goblinfish (a brackish water waspfish - a predator). A lot of sites (including LiveAquaria) have a section dedicated specifically to brackish water fish, and there's a decent selection available (not nearly as large as the selections for freshwater and marine tanks though, unfortunately).

Fiddler crabs and red clawed crabs work fine for brackish tanks, but you do need to provide accessible land for them above the waterline (they require both water and land) - most people do this by having a sand slope in the tank where the top part (which is decent size) is above the waterline.

With all inhabitants in a brackish tank, you need to make sure they can handle whatever salinity you decide to keep the tank at (i.e. some brackish inhabitants need higher or lower salinity levels to survive/thrive). Arguably more important than this, you obviously need to verify that the species you want to keep won't kill each other in your tank, so please check the compatibility of any species you're interested in before adding them to the tank.

Brackish tanks can be really neat aquariums - good luck!

Edit: the link below has some great info on mangrove care:

Keeping and cultivation of mangroves

All necessary information needed for successful cultivation and keeping of mangroves in aquarium, terrarium, vivarium, mangrove as a potplant or in the winter garden.

www.mangrove.at

 

[sfin52]

Hey guys so I’m wanting to start a 30 gallon mangrove tank and I was wondering how to do it? Do I need that expensive mud for them to grow in? What kind of lightning would work. Also it’s going to be brackish water so what kind of fish/inverts can I have? Finally would fiddler crabs and red clawed crabs find this a good home? I have a bunch and I’m wondering if this would be good. Ok a side note could I grow one in my reef tank?

eagle_steve had/has one if you do a search I'm sure you can find details