Grayum

Has anyone else had very fast crypt growth in a NPT? I have had quite fast growth in my tank at home (not soil, but well established, planted, and no gravel cleans), but the crypt in my betta tank at work is growing out of control! and its only been about 3 days! I have about 4 new leaves, and the larger leaves are already starting to grow towards the top of the tank. Is this normal? also, I have not experienced any of the normal "crypt melt" in either of the crypts I have.

Please note this picture was taken fairly soon after planting, and the water is a bit clouded.



The rest of the pictures can be found here:
aquablog » Blog Archive » Natural Planted (4 Liter)

Let me know what you think

Graham

onemyndseye

Crypts (being heavy root feeders) tend to LOVE the rich subtrates we use for NPT tanks...

I have also heard of collecting natural clays to use for growing crypts though I have no experience with it

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye

Grayum

That makes a lot of sense. The soil I used seemed to be half clay, half soil. Explains a lot.

onemyndseye

Yeah, a rich clay soil is said to be able to grow even the toughest crypts...

There is a stream not far from my house that has a large clay formation in one section... shown here:












The grayish rock-looking material is acutally clay that has been cut through by the water flow. I've been itching to collect a bit of this stuff to use as a subtrate additive for awhile now but I just havnt gotten around to it. I'm going to do a 5Gal bow front before long - Maybe then

Take Care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye

dwalstad

I like your tanks, love the Bettas, and I'm glad to hear that the Crypts are growing well. You must have given them conditions that they like.

One Crypt expert described the fondness of some Crypt species for decomposed Beech tree leaves.

The tank on the right is more cloudy than what I like to start out with. The trouble is that the soil particle settle on the leaves and form algae coatings. If you can, I'd do just a little water changing. Be very careful not to disturb the soil layer. And you can kind of tap the leaves while you're doing it-- sort of like dusting the furniture.

Grayum

I did notice that it settled on the leaves, and I cleaned them, also did a 50% water change. I have learned a few things from this little setup. Anubias grows very slowly, and soil substrates are amazing.

One thing that did suprise me was the banana plant. I read a lot of articles saying they were very hard to grow and needed intense light. Since i have put mine in 4 days ago, it has new leaves, and the orignal leaves are halfway to the surface and getting a very nice red color in the middles.

Graham