Urgent: Setting a mangrove biotope

[Jungle-mania]

I need to set up a mangrove biotope in my school by the 3rd week of march. So I need some advice as what I should do with regards to the following:

Water salinity
Water change or top up
Feeding
need of live rock

My tank is a 2 feet tank with a stand and I have another tank which I can use as a sump tank. Filters, powerhead, FL lighting, hang on filters I have it too. Filter material is easy for me to get too.

My tank will mainly be using beach sand, driftwood and several mangrove fruits at various stages of growth to create a more realistic feel of the mangrove.

my fauna will include snails I collect from the beach, mangrove clams, 2live mangrove crabs from the supermarket, fishes will be mudskipper (I can catch), silver dollar and archer fishes (from LFS) and other fishes I going to try and fish out.

Need advice on my approach.

[michael lai]

All those critters for a 2 footer??

[BFG]

It is too short a time to create and house these critter that you want to have. The setup need to be cycled 1st before livestock are added. You should have done your homework before attempting to start with this project.

[Jungle-mania]

Erm, it's more like a holding tank for a day rather than for a long term program. Besides I still have about 3 weeks to go, more than enough time to cycle it. As for the fauna, I might not put all of them in, just citing possible examples I want to try out.

[budak]

I don't think live rock is suitable for a mangrove setup though. And what are silver dollars (always thought these are characins)? The mangrove crabs (if I take them to be the edible mud crabs, Scylla sp.) are mud burrowers and will almost certainly kill everything else inside the tank. I have strong doubts as to the sustainability of the setup.

Is it possible to consider bringing the class to somewhere like Pasir Ris Park mangroves or Sungei Buloh instead to teach them about mangroves, ecology etc? There are some excellent guiding services (some free, others for a nominal fee) to point out the animals and plants as they live in nature.

[ryan]

erm how do you intend to connect the main tank to the sump tank? external overflow? in orfer for the mangrove plants to survive they have to be half submerged and half emmersed. hence your main tank water cannot be full and thus you cannot engage an external overflow box.
your best bet now would be external filters to cycle the tank right now. get live sand and live water from someone's established marine tank. salinity should be the same and live rocks just to seed the initial cycling. should take 3 weeks.
please don't put in any archer fish and crabs. crabs might kill everything else and archer fish are not easy to keep.
you should stick to clams, mangrove plants (some LFS sell them with roots and leaves growing suitable for 2ft tank), maybe some starfish, catch some small gobies at shallow waters of mangrove area or any beach at low tide.
other than that good luck.

[linahalim]

The mub crab may not be a good choice as real tidal occurance (high or low tide cannot be simulated here. The set may smell bad too because soiled sea water stinks

I don't think live rock is suitable for a mangrove setup though. And what are silver dollars (always thought these are characins)? The mangrove crabs (if I take them to be the edible mud crabs, Scylla sp.) are mud burrowers and will almost certainly kill everything else inside the tank. I have strong doubts as to the sustainability of the setup.

Is it possible to consider bringing the class to somewhere like Pasir Ris Park mangroves or Sungei Buloh instead to teach them about mangroves, ecology etc? There are some excellent guiding services (some free, others for a nominal fee) to point out the animals and plants as they live in nature.

[Jungle-mania]

OK thanks for all the update. Will get to work on it.