I'm a little confused why you guys are trying to stunt their growth and SP out of curiosity where did you read this?
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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.
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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
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1 per 25gal of water will work well.
Ken
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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
and this is them right now:
and these are the bro's:
07-06-2010
09-23-2010
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