Confusing Crypt's

[Melody]

Crypts - the beautiful low light plants... most of the time... either/or... situational.... but not necessarily...

I'm getting mixed signals from the plant sites. Some species do better with more light, some species do worse with high light, some species can do both but are a different colour in one situtation or another, etc etc etc. That's all well & good, but the information varies for the same species amongst these horrid plant expert people (who live to taunt me :laugh:).

What are the exceptions to the low-light rule and which ones would actually suffer in highish light?

:notworthy:

[OldMan]

You have seen my pictures of aponogetifolia so you have at least been exposed to them. I have them thriving in both low light, about 1.5 WPG and higher light, 2.5 WPG situations. I don't have any experience with them at even higher light and am pretty much a plant killer myself so have no opinion beyond my own experiences.

[Ruadh]

Those C. Wendtii/ brown that I sent to you come from a high light, co2, fertilized tank.

I hope when you get them that you'll see they are very healthy.

[Edgezilla]

The common crypts, wendtii, lucens, willisi, undulata, etc, you see in petshop are tailor more for low light tank. If you put them in high light, 90% of them will look brown / red/ bronze.

That being said, C. pontederrifolia, balansae, parva, pygmaea, usteraina, aponogetifolia can tolerate higher light without them turning all brown/red/bronze. They will stay true to their greenish color.

C ciliata is not a great submersed crypt nor is c lingua.

The wendtii green you got is emersed grown, so expect all the leaves to melt.

[Melody]

Good stuff, thanks for the info everyone. I think I'll do a Crypt pot for the 33G with a few different species and plant the rest in the 90. I just didn't want to have a reverse effect with too much light.

I rather like the shades of deep maroon & red - there's already lots of green from other plants. Many of the red varieties are so red you can only use a bit here and there, but the deep and/or dark reds are a nice break in the green without yelling at you, if you get my drift.

[Melody]

Another Crypt question - is there a standard time it takes for them to recover from a melt? I had a Wendtii red that used to melt occasionally and I wouldn't see it for months, then it would pop up again :rolleyes: . Surely that's not the norm....

[Edgezilla]

No standard time for a melting crypt to pop back up. There is too many dependent variables. Just treat melting like the plant going dormant and it won't come back up until the environment is good enough for it.

I can bring a piece of rhizome to life in a matter of 2 weeks in my emersed setup using the new formula. Back then, rhizome could take a month or so before coming back up.

We are not talking about blackwater crypts of course. I still have to study blackwater for a while longer. Harder to test when specimins don't want to send out runners.

[Melody]

I will just have to be patient then. I'm very good at that. :Waiting:

[Ruadh]

I will just have to be patient then. I'm very good at that. :Waiting:
Mel let me know if any of those Crypts I sent you melt. I'm kinda curious cuz I've moved mine/them around several times in the last year and never had a melt down.
Knock on wood (hits head)

Rick

[Melody]

LOL Be careful - I need that brain!

They look just fine, inspite of my abuse over the past few days. I split them between med-high & low light tanks. We can informally see if the light levels help them recover faster or not while we're at it. I'm sure there will be some shock, going from a premium environment to... well... me....lol.

They sure are big, healthy plants with nice root systems. I hope to see your plants on the auction soon. :yes:

[edinjapan]

No standard time for a melting crypt to pop back up. There is too many dependent variables. Just treat melting like the plant going dormant and it won't come back up until the environment is good enough for it.

I can bring a piece of rhizome to life in a matter of 2 weeks in my emersed setup using the new formula. Back then, rhizome could take a month or so before coming back up.

We are not talking about blackwater crypts of course. I still have to study blackwater for a while longer. Harder to test when specimins don't want to send out runners.

Can you share the formula please. I moved in February to a new apartment and the one tank that was done in crypts suffered a melt down. They've just come back as of a month ago and if this happens again I'd like to hurry the process. It might also be helpful as a buddy in Thailand has promised to send me a box full of crypts.

[Edgezilla]

good amount of light and very little potassium and nitrogen in the dosing. I do my crypt reviving emersed in 100% humidity