TommyBoy

Is there a "best" substrate for Crypts?

Is there one that you should NOT use?

Thanks,

DelawareJim

I use about an inch of garden soil on the bottom with a top 1-1.5 inch layer of what ever I have on hand (right now I have plain 2-3 mm gravel in one tank and Flourite in others).

Cheers.
Jim

Bubbs

Nothing fancy, I use 3mm gravel and then stick a plant tab underneath. My crypts grow a new leaf almost everyweek. Its cheap and easy

Xema

Substrate is depending of the specie of Crypt and the way you are growing them.

We can difference 3 large groups (related to soil and water habits):

Neutral: Sri Lanka types (those species which are commonly into the hobby)
Swamp plants: Plants which need low pH and mature organic matter in the soil.
Alkaline: there are few species which need a bit of calcium and magnessium in the soil, more representative are aponogetifolia, affinis, usteriana, and so on.

rs79

I've had best luck with a thin layer of composted manure and a lot of fine beach sand.

JJJohnson

Mine have been growing in Flourite for years, but I have always had the feeling that they'd be happier in something less course...

gheitman

Cryypts are heavy root feeders so a good substrate makes a difference. I've had good success with my C. wendtii and C. spiralis in Flourite which has a lot of iron.

bencozzy

they like a fine substrate over a course substrate but other wise they arent to picky.

i have crypt wendtii(tropica and green gecko) and parva in 2 tanks currently, ones el' natural with a humus base with sms covering and the other has pool filter sand(i did use seachem root tabs in this tank), and crypts do great in them. used to have some crypts in a tank with a mixed size range of pea gravel which turned out to be to big of a grain size for crypts.