LF: Mangrove Pods
 

Anyone know where I can get Mangrove Pods at a reasonable price? I see JL has them but they are $15 each.

15 is pretty reasonable, I know some people have ordered it from the states and it worked out to be alot cheaper... you have to order more to make it worth while and the only other hassle is customs and duty.

i ordered 100 of them from the states two weeks ago.
they may take a while to arrive.... If they make it....
but ill let you know.They are about 12 inche\s no leaves or big roots on them , so you will have to grow them out .
they cost me under 1.50$ each.
jim

i just ordered 100 pods from hawaii on ebay. shipping cost more than the pods.

Well, today they get destroyed :sad:by canada food inspection agency. how it works is you are allowed to bring seeds into canada and the sellers call them seeds. seed pods however are a different thing, and not allowed. so take your chance when you buy. you may get away with it? some members have.

aww that sucks oh well i guess its a risk.
if for some reason mine make it ill send you sum to cut your loss.:sad:

You have to get the shipper to purchase a phytosanitary certificate and get the pods inspected. I think it only costs around $50 if the shipper is willing to purchase it.

We have mangroves in the store, not pods anymore but blooming. $5ea.

Ken

Ken.... whats the proper way to utilize mangroves?

Dip the roots in your sump or what? I am getting my refugium going soon and wonder if I should go full on chaeto or add mangroves too.


Patrick

If you have "mud" then you can just plant them.

If not, you can just have them floating or semi-sumerged as long as the roots are underwater. Some people just use styrofoam.

Make sure you give the stem a freswater sponge bath ever so ofter, as that is how it expells the salt.

minimal light is needed, and as long as you keep it limited to 2 -3 leaves, it will remain stunted. You don't need a 20+ foot tree growing out of your sump.

Ken

Mangroves can get their nutrients in too ways, either from the water with the roots or from the light with the leaves. The idea is to keep the number of leaves down to just a few like Ken mentioned so they are forced to use the water as their primary source for nutrients.

How many do you require for a system? Or is it all preferential?

1 per 25gal of water will work well.

Ken

really, thats all? 1 per 25g

I'm a little confused why you guys are trying to stunt their growth and SP out of curiosity where did you read this?

More leaves means more photosynthesis which means more nutrients are needed to fix carbon dioxide into a food source. Class C3 plants don't have two ways to get nutrients, they have the pathway of photosynthesis and if you remove the light you kill the plant end of story.

A healthy large plant that has a high rate of photosynthesis requires nitrogen and other compounds to synthesis proteins (As they lack the ability to turn their produced 3-phosphoglycerate directly into a protein compound).

So as larger plants have a greater rate of photosynthesis and thus will have a higher net metabolic rate they will in turn take in more nutrient compounds from their roots. Fat people eat more food why wouldn't fat plants do the same :lol:?

1 per 25 will certainly make a dent but if you are looking for a bit more filtration you can increase that number greatly. I have around 100 running on the 350g so 1 plant per 3.5 gallons.

This photo was taken 03-28-2010
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3850/p1110433.jpg

and this is them right now:
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/163/p1140271.jpg

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/1769/p1140270.jpg

and these are the bro's:
07-06-2010
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3346/p1120034.jpg

09-23-2010
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/6346/p1130989.jpg

Two other quick points:
-Mangroves replace excess intracellular sodium ions with magnesium so having a large stand of them can deplete Mg ions out of the water. Dosing a Mg supplement will counteract this.
-As Ken said spraying them down (A good 1-2 min spray down) is needed every so often. Also watch for yellowing/ dead leaves as the plant pumps excess sodium into these and then undergoes apoptosis to remove them. Make sure you remove these before they start decaying in your water.
Levi

I'm not sure I remember the exact source but this is typical advice for mangroves, I actually haven't seen much to support not pruning. Even J&L recommends limiting the leaves
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=i-mangrove
Not that J&L is a solid source, if I come across something I'll post. Pretty sure though that leaves need to pruned to keep up good nutrient export from the water but I'm no biologist.

J&L is pretty trust worthy so you could be right but it only makes sense to me that the larger they are the more nutrients they require to maintain themselves and grow.

Wish my mangroves grew like this, thanks for the inspiring pics levi !!

Im pretty sure that Levi is right about the non-pruning vs. pruning. Thats first year biology basically.

It is often suggested that the plant concentrates on 'expanding it's root system' when the top is being pruned (thus the root system 'taking up nutrients'), in theory if the argument is valid, I presume so that it is more capable of growing up and out when it is not being 'environmentally restricted' (pruning = similar effect to predators or crappy weather? - beings tend to secure lower more basic needs before pushing through the next steps). However, it makes sense that a plant photosynthesizing more/more effectively (one with more leaves) will be better equipped to expand its root system (because as Levi mentioned, more capable of fixing carbon dioxide, for their carbohydrate needs, food sources and cellular structural tissues. If you don't have the energy needs met to grow, you cant).

So, I can understand where the two arguments may come in, but I think it makes more sense to 'let the plant go'? Maybe someone created the pruning/root structure argument to legitimize the size control of their mangroves? Who knows?

You be the judge.

P.S. I dont prune mine either, and they are growing like champions even in a low-flow fuge full of macroalgaes.

Cheers,

Chris

looks great. lets hear all about your lighting for that crop?