Help from Mexico!

Just came to say... HELLO!!!
And that i found this forum a week ago and i decide to join cuz it has a lot of info about the micro habit i want to create for my 40G aquarium.

Recently i visit a mangrove forest in one of the most beautiful states: Yucatan, and well, what could i expected? i felt in love of the mangrove flora... and thats now my project.
Im interested on seagrass, like we call those marine plants and also some kind of Macro Algae that looks like a green carpet, similar to Glossostigma in FW ¿did some one knows this algae? heheh

Here is a picture of what i will try, if you help me, of course


This is an Underwater photo of mangrove roots in the Yucatan, Mexico, by R. Butler.

¿could we reach my aquarium look like these?

It is possible to recreate it on a smaller scale. What are the dimensions of your 40g?

its a 100X35X35, brand new totally empty and ready for being filled

I choose this size cuz to arm a bigger tank with mangrove roots will be extremely expensive... at least in my country, legal mangrove roots are not for thin pockets

So I guess my question is, do you want just mangrove roots or live mangroves? Having just the roots has the potential to be easier simply because your tank is not at risk of being cracked by the roots. Then again, one loses all the beneficial filtration of the live mangrove having just the roots.

well... thats a curious question cuz i saw some live mangrove on ebay... but i discard the idea, just because the reason you said: the living roots will crack the crystals, yes, they will free the water from the N compounds, but the risk will be always there, thats why i decide to use mangrove roots only...

i also wonder if you Know an algae that can make a green carpet juts like in the pic
¿do you know some?

Hello and welcome!
I have actually have quite a bit of experience with "forest" plants like Glossostigma. I would actually recommend baby tears too. To setup this kind of habitat, you probably would need co2 injection for healthy growth.

But i want to put some temperate puffer species, like Sphoeroides Parvus... and i need salt, cuz this kind of puffers live in the mangroves with certain Salinity...

Could be easier to represent on Fresh Water with B. Tears or Glosso like you said.... but I'm kind of bold... i need a challenge

Could be possible to make a carpet using caulerpa prolifera or Chaetomorpha? well may be i need to open a topic on The Seaweeds/Macro Algae forum isn´t i?

You might post in that forum. C. prolifera would probably be a better choice. The downside to Caulerpa is that they have the potential to "go sexual," as many say, and pollute the tank, where in the process the caulerpa go white and die. But, there is no reason for this to happen unless they are properly cared for.

This image search has some Caulerpa bed pictures that may be of interest to you.

Well, last night a read a LOT about C. prolifera, and the risk of "going sexual"
happens only when the man abandons the tank routine, specially on nutrients and light... so there is no problem, if we care properly from the tank... there is a girl (i guess) who has a nice carpet of it...

Also i also find Chlorodesmis sp that is another algae that is thiner and more elegant... ¿does it form substrate carpets too?

From what I can tell it makes substrate carpets as well, though, I have seen it more commonly on rocks. You'll have to get other's input on this.

Well, I've read that if Chlorodesmis sp feels comfortable it will become an unstoppable plague and supreme ruler of the tank ¿is this true?

I couldn't tell you for sure as I've never had it. Though, depending on the reliability of the source, it could very well be true.

Ummm i prefer a delicate algae than a plague one... C. Prolifera will arrive soon, maybe it could be with some other algaes... but for now C.p will be my star hehehe

I think that's a good choice. How much of the C. prolifera did you order?

Well they didn't say how much it was, he said: "its enough to cover 10 or 15 cm of substrate" so i guess is a 10X15 portion not too much for 20 bucks... it is ok?