crypt melt

F

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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SF Bay area, CA
So what happened? I've had these small generic crypts for maybe 4 months. Held a couple weeks in an established tank before moving them to a newish 20 long w/20 watts. They started new growth after a month of just sitting & really looked to be taking hold. No drastic temp or param fluctuations, 77*, 0,0,10-15 nitrates. Today, suddenly most are leaves melted.
I'm surprised they took so long to melt if they were going to do it. Daylight savings time? WTF? Any ideas?
 
Did you recently perform a water change or add any fertilizer?
 
I don't use Flourish Excel real often, but it has never melted my crypts either. I hope if excel is bad for crypts that one of the plant experts will comment here. Did you move the crypts around at all recently? I have read that moving them can cause them to melt. I have mostly crypts in my low tech planted tanks and of course the growth slows a bit when I move them around, but they don't melt on me.
 
No Excel or any ferts, it's very low tech. It's pool sand, well maybe I'd used a couple tiny root tab pieces at first, very light fish load. Maybe they suddenly ran out & melted in a starvation fit? They've been in the same place for ~3 months, lightly vac'd around the surface but not moved.

The only thing different is a few extra days between water changes. I usually do ~25% every 5 days & it's been 7 or 8 now. I have very soft water, 2 Kh, ~3 GH, pH 7.

Ugh! they were starting to look kind of ground-coverish & nice. I hope they recover.
 
Sometimes Crypts are not happy but you don't know it. They do a little and then just sit around and slowly melt away. Has lot to do with where they are in the tank. You should move them to another place before you lose them. Sometimes too much light is just as bad as not enough.
 
Nothing slow about this melt--a couple lost leaves 1 day, the next almost all melted, 10-12 individual plants. Light is only 1 wpg, 20w over 20 long.
 
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