# Stupid questions.



## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

So I'm working on setting up my first "saltwater" tank. It's actually high salinity brackish but I could go full marine if that would work better. I would like to do a mangrove tank and if someone could point me in the right direction to figure out how to do this I would greatly appreciate it. 
Thanks. 

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Are you looking to buy mangroves? Or how to set up a mangrove tank?

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

How to set up the tank. I found a supplier for mangrove seeds in London that looked quite reasonable. 

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Seeds or pods?

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

Www.mangroves.ca pods I believe.

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

IMO of having over 100 in my refugium back in the day. They are slow growers. They need to be almost daily misted with ro water to deplete salt water creep. The leaves as well need wiped often. They are 100% on the cool factor in looks. And could be a good place to raise pods and other delicate reef inhabitants. 

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

And most pods have to be acclimated to salt water fyi

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

The cool factor is what's attracting me. Lol. I breed fresh water rainbowfish but recently fell in love with the only true brackish water rainbowfish Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis and want to set up a display tank for them. They live in mangrove estuaries and spend the majority of their life in full marine conditions. This means that they are extremely adaptable and not really concerned about water chemistry. So a pretty good introduction to saltwater and I figure I can avoid most of the chemistry side of things. 





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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Of course anyone from Owen sound would love rainbows and lake trout lol. Been there many times when in season. I would say do all the research you can and give it a shot. Your experience in raising should help.

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

I heard about the misting thing. I guess my main questions concern how much light I need, what kind of Substrate is required, what the minimum tank size would be. 
I also would like to have a snail or two to keep the algae down. And I was thinking about macro algae as well but I'm not sure if I can make both work in the same tank. 

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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

You mean like these?


















Head over to Reef Central 
Don't do brackish if you want anything cool... mangroves do just fine at full salinity.

There was a great build thread here, his pictures are gone but the info is super duper. 
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2300906


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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

Awesome. Yea this is along the lines of what I was thinking

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Macro algae can be added. Lighting.. All I use was a 6500kv home depot bulb on a socket. Tank size depends on how many fish and how big they will get. I used pea stone for substrate. Gives the roots breathing room. Be careful as the roots will inter twine and are kinda delicate to breaking 

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

lloydj said:


> Macro algae can be added. Lighting.. All I use was a 6500kv home depot bulb on a socket. Tank size depends on how many fish and how big they will get. I used pea stone for substrate. Gives the roots breathing room. Be careful as the roots will inter twine and are kinda delicate to breaking
> 
> Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk


That lighting sounds about as easy as possible. 
The fish max out at 1" I currently have 40 to 50 of them in a 10 gallon bare bottom tank. I was wondering about the mangroves growth rate and how long they would stay in a very small tank. 
So a basic black gravel would be good but not black sand?

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Mangrove pods float. They need to be shoved into a substrate. You could mix the sand with gravel. Just a thought. 

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

That mangroves.ca site sells salt water pods and freshwater ones. I wish that journal link had pictures! Lots of great info there, it's just that I like pictures. Lol

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

lloydj said:


> Mangrove pods float. They need to be shoved into a substrate. You could mix the sand with gravel. Just a thought.
> 
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I saw a cool article on sticking them through a piece of Styrofoam and moving the pod up as it sprouts to increase the number of aerial roots. Have you tried that?

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Yes that is an excellent way for them to stand and grow roots. Did that and worked well

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

Thanks so much lloydj. I'll keep researching and see what I come up with and I'll be back with more dumb questions as soon as I think of them. 

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## lloydj (Apr 10, 2009)

Anytime. Post some pics 

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## dave pauls (Jun 29, 2010)

Here are some neat egg picutes and a terrible pic of an adult male. I'll do a photo log as I get the real tank going. 

































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