Kai Witte

Yup, carbonates are pretty much antithetical to blackwater crypt habitats - kinda like keeping polar bears in a thermal spring...
There are many plants from acidic habitats who have evolved past being just tolerant to acidic conditions and will not grow well in any alkaline environment. Most of these plants don't need it as acidic as in nature to thrive. OTOH, carbonates are not important - so, it's easier to keep them out of the equation rather than adding unneccessary complexity.

kirana1

Dear Kai witte

could you give me the crypt species that you categaries as a black water crypt ???

sorry to asking you this stupid question.

and is there any crypt that can't cultivate emmerse such as c. aponogetifolia, albida , usteriana or striolata

because i am trying to cultivate those crypt emmerse but hey are melting

nico

rs79

I have poor luck with albida submersed and can do nothing wrong when I grow it emersed. It even survived a light frost here that killed african violets.

I'm not sure APO does well emersed. It's got long leaves and lives in fast flowing streams. It's vary hardy and prolific submersed.

UST I don't have enough experince with - I had it only briefly once and was away on business a lot and killed it. I do not believe it will get nearly as big emersed though. And it's a BIG plant.

HeyPK

I had good luck with albida once submersed, but poor luck on a recent, second try. The first time was long ago, and I grew a big mass of it and took all of it to the LFS and essentially gave it away. I didn't know it was hard to grow back then. All I remember then was that I grew it in soil that had a lot of partially decomposed leaves in it and that I was rather parsimonius with nutrients. It is the plant in the background.

Kai Witte

Hello Nico,

I'll try to post a list later.

As already noted, it doesn't make much sense to culture aponogetifolia emersed - it's only vigorous submersed and will flower if it gets enough light.

I haven't encountered problems growing albida emersed.

Also usteriana should do reasonably well emersed. However, there are quite a few distinct strains and it may be possible that your's prefers submersed culture - any pics?

I had striolata growing emersed fairly well a long time ago. It is usually not easy to grow either way (although there are also very different strains) so I suspect that your problems with this species are more general than linked to emersed culture.

mats808

Kai,
For emersed growth:
If using 100% RO/DI water, should you add back any tap water at all or just go with the 100% RO/DI? For blackwater Crypts do you see any problems with a potting mix consisting of ADA amazonia, chopped up sphagnum, and some potting soil? What about 100% amazonia?
thanks,
aaron

AaronT

You want to use 100% RO, rainwater or DI water. Think zero hardness and a pH of 5.0 or even lower. I would leave the potting soil out of the mix as it will add unwanted hardness. 100% amazonia should work well enough. Honestly, I think that's the best way to go as soil and leaf litter have always introduced bugs and other pests into my setups.

Kai Witte

Hello Aaron,

Welcome back to crypts!

Yes, I do mean 100% pure water: no tap water addition, no cheap/old RO unit with bad membrane, whatever. BTW, blackwater fish love it, too! Remember that typical blackwater habitats (in SE Asian lowlands) receive all their nutrients from the rainwater: Thus, the run-off from undisturbed peat swamp forests and heath forests has even less nutrients than rainwater!

I also would advise against potting soil: chances are that it has way too much nutrients added (a sure way to kill a crypt, especially when stressed from shipping) and will start rotting away if not fully rooted within "seconds"...

I've heard that some folks utilizing ADA soil mix Amazonia and Malaya but it would convince me more if somebody would test both brands as well as the mix and show us pics how the crypts fare. Mixing any additional organic matter with any mainly mineral soil may result in fast(er) decomposition - it won't hurt to incubate any moist (not wet!) mix for at least a month before putting any plant in, especially when planning to inundate the soil for semi-emersed or submersed culture.

I'd be more inclined to use Sphagnum as a "top dressing" rather than mixing it into a soil, especially when waterlogged. Actually, I often have some live Sphagnum growing in my blackwater crypt pots.

I haven't got any plant pests from acid leaf litter so far but there is a high chance to obtain small planaria species with collected soil. I've not tested yet wether these pose any problems for breeding fish or shrimps. Apparently not in my set-ups but I'm not feeding heavily either.

mats808

Thanks Aaron and Kai,

Kai,
Do you always use leaf litter to grow emersed blackwater Crypts? It doesn't sound like you like amazonia too much. Is there anything else that works well?

aaron

rs79

I don't know about Kai but the problem I have with "Amazonia" and "Malaya" soils is that they're proprietary.

If I say "beech leaf litter unser sand" anybody in the world can read it and reproduce, or get close eough to work. Saying "Use Amazonia" means "buying amazonia" and why would we want to do that when we typically make our own substrates.

Unless we live at one of the two poles there are plants that grow on the waters edge near where you live. Go look at that and then reproduce it in a way that makes sense to you.

Around here that means "well composted manure under sand" and I'm convinced *any* Crypt will do well with that.

Looking at Kai's picture above reminds me of the way Charlie Drew's "giant red Crypt" grows for him (in the above mentioned substrate) in tanks less than two feet tall.