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Unread 02/16/2012, 04:30 PM   #171
BennyFrank
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Lincoln, NE
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Briney Dave View Post
..And I really want to create a tangle of roots but still not have a good way to mount the trees to create the long root growth without the trees falling over all the time. Any suggestions?

My goal is to create a mangrove micro-environment for the students to study but any nutrients that are taken out of the system a nice bonus
I'm trying to do the same thing and here is what I came up with. I drilled the rocks in my refugium and slid fiberglass rods through them; long enough to extend out of the water a foot or so. I then attached the mangrove propagules to the rods using "gardener's tape". This allows me to move the mangroves up and down as the roots develop. So far it has worked great but growth has been verrrrry slow. I've had the propagules submerged for about 5 months and so far I have 2 leaves . The roots continue to grow so I'm hopeful leaf growth will pick up when the roots finally reach the substrate.

Hope this helps. Sorry for the mini-hijack Peter; everything looks amazing as usual!




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