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crypto's dying

chris1805

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
333
Location
Odijk, the Netherlands
Hey guys i need your help.

For some reason all my crypto's (7 pieces) all died within 3 days, they all turned into slime. What could be a cause of this? I thought it may have something to do with my water quality. I have a 120L tank and i do a 20 liter water change every week on saturday. Now i have been thinking to maybe do a 10L water change on thursday and tuesday and 20L on saturday. Do you guys think this would be a good idea or a bad idea?
Would like some advice on what to do.
 

Linus_Cello

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
276
Location
Washington DC
Could be the water company added something to your water that the caused the crypt melt. Usually around this time, they may switch from chlorine to chloramine (or is it the other way around?); they could be adding other stuff to the water.
 

chris1805

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
333
Location
Odijk, the Netherlands
Since my tap water is really horrible here i mostly use purely RO water and add like once a month a bit of tap water to prevent to KH going down to zero. But i did add a bit tap water on the last water change and the problem pretty much started after that. Now people from my LFS told me to just let the crypto stay because they probably only dropped their leaves and will grow back, is this right what do you guys think?
 

Noddy65

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
99
Location
Sydney, NSW
As culprit said...crypt melt is pretty common when they get moved...particularly if theve been grown emersed...they should come back
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
Even long-established ones do this once in awhile. I have some Crypt. affinis in tanks that havent been moved in 25 years, and occasionally "melt". I suspect in nature it may be a seasonal thing, but in aquaria it seems to be fairly random. Moving them or change in lighting can sometimes trigger it. Sometimes they grow back quickly, other times they may look "dead" for a couple months before resprouting. C. wendtii seems to be the least melt-prone, making it the most widely available Crypt in USA (is this true elsewhere?). Just leave the roots & rhizomes alone, as long as they dont turn to mush too (in which case it really is dead).
 

chris1805

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
333
Location
Odijk, the Netherlands
I did add a couple of dead leaves which made the tank a bit more tea coloured. I suspect this to be the reason than, since they haven't been moved for about 2 months. 2 of the crypts were new purchased but the other 5 were not. The ones i purchases new where actually C. wendtii but i will just leave them and see if they recover. I hope they do since i need them for the hiding spots.
I also started using new food, which i find hard to determine if i over feed them yes or no, could this also be a reason for feeding to much food?

And how about the water change, would it be good to do 3 little water changes a week, or just 1 big one once a week?
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
I use styrofoam rings cut off the top of cups to keep fish food confined in a small area so I can make sure it's getting eaten.
1 change every couple weeks is fine unless you have a really high fish load relative to plant load. Growing plants use fish waste.
Mine will melt if I wear mis-matched socks in the fish room -- best correlation i can find so far.
 

Karin

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
153
Location
Buenos Aires
More water changes are usually great for plants. Crypts will regrow for sure. You can help them by digging into the substrate, near their roots, some ferti tabs. Crypts like rich substrate and stable water conditions.
 

Jay973

Member
Messages
31
Location
New Jersey
I have to agree crypts are prone to shedding leaves it has it's own name crypt melt not so hard to remember...LOL but Karin is dead on crypts are root feeders so root tabs or nutrient rich substrate will definitely be beneficial. Happens to me all the time if I introduce new crypts into my tank.

Do you reconstitute your R/O with Equilibrium or R/O Right? Or just mix with tapwater?
 

Karin

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
153
Location
Buenos Aires
Hi Jay, I do not use RO water, just tap water. It happens my tap water is already very soft. I use conditioner and add just a little fertilizers in salt form, one by one. Root tabs every few weeks (home made tabs).
 

Jay973

Member
Messages
31
Location
New Jersey
Sorry Karin the R/O question should've been directed at Chris1805 per post #3.

Chris1805 - Do you reconstitute your R/O with Equilibrium or R/O Right? Or just mix with tapwater?
 

Martin

Member
Messages
39
Hi chris1805,

I also have a 120 liter (Juwel Lido 120) with some stem plants melting away. I also do 20 liter water changes every saturday.
Later it dawned on me that they started melting at about the same time that I changed from 100% tap to 50/50 ro and tap water changes, about 2 months ago.

It seems that in between the bad stuff in tap water there are some good stuff also.

Obviously with the 50% Ro in my new water change setup, some of the good stuff in the tapwater does not get replenished as it used to be.
The other thing I found is that these melting plants didn't have enough water flow over them, I changed this and started adding some pottasium and trace elements to the tank.
The plants have stopped melting now and I'm hoping that the missing leaves will regrow.

Hope this helps.

regards
Martin
 

chris1805

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
333
Location
Odijk, the Netherlands
Wow sorry never got the announcements of me missing messages. I use 100% RO water and sometimes add some tap water to prevent the kh going down to zero. Have been doing this already for months and never had the problem. The crypto's start growing back slowly now.
 

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