red mangrove pods

[Delphinus]

I've seen a couple setups. I don't know if some are better or worse though.

I've seen as Evan suggested, floating a piece of styrofoam with the roots under water and the plant part above the water.

I've also seen basically a mud sump with sand and just had the plants planted in there like any kind of pond plant. Just fed by a powerhead and drained back into the sump or main system.

What I also saw, that I thought was ingenious, was plastic eavestroughing (for roofs) hooked just underneath the water line, filled with sand and the plants planted in there. This has the advantage that the plants don't have to be very big to reach the water surface.

Now, here is something that might be contestable, I don't know. But from what I remember of my biology/botany -- unlike other plants, mangroves can deal with saltwater because of their ability to shed salt from their cells, via their leaves. This means, if I understand this correctly, that if you want your mangrove to live forever, at some point, the growing tip (where the leaves are) has to be out of the water. I know that at Wai's, he plants his completely submerged. I have not engaged in dialogue about this, but I think that this example is incorrect. Mangroves are not underwater trees. They are trees that grow at the water's edge in saltgwater rivers, or coastal lagoons (where the water level tends to be fairly non-wildly fluctuating). The roots are under the water level, but not the trees. Maybe parts are submerged during monsoon seasons, storms or tides but not permanently.

Jon, your setup with the sump in your basement is basically almost ideal since you can do just about anything. Heck even plant them in your sump/refugium as long as they get enough light. When they're small I imagine this is not too difficult. If they get to be tree size then probably being able to see sunlight would be the best, I'm not sure.

What I'd probably see what I can do in my case, is because I like the look of mangroves (as trees/bushes they are equally as nice, as, say, a scheffelera/arboricola or even a ficus), I will try to make some kind of floor display next to my main tank. Hopefully enough light from my tanks and nearby plant stand for photosynthesis, it would basically look like I have a plant pot next to my tank, except that instead of potting soil in the pot it will be saltwater and mud fed from the nearby sump. (I don't know this is all highly theoretical at this point. I haven't even had a chance to work on my reactor yet from last week! I don't move very fast. And of course everything has to have the management stamp of pre-approval...)

All my thoughts are based on my own observations and thoughts on the topic. I have not done any reading with respect to the boards and such. So everything I've said here is probably wrong. But, like I said I have thought about this idea a lot over the years. I've always been fascinated by mangroves and they are a really neat habitat in nature. I found them as neat to see in real life (with the mudskippers and the fiddler crabs and other neat guys who live in mangrove habitat) as I did the GBR when I was down there visiting my sister last year. (I truly envy my sister, she gets to live where there are these things and they're perfectly normal ... and her (and her family's) attitude is rather "ho-hum" .... and they're all jealous of me "because I can go skiing whenever I like." I guess the grass is always greener on the other side! I could care less about skiing but I'd sure love to be able to go snorkeling/diving in the GBR whenever I felt like it!!! Ahhhhh alas I digress... sigh .... I will shut up now .... ops: )