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Crypt melt in established plants

Mattant1984

Member
Joined
13 Jun 2022
Messages
417
Location
Canterbury Kent
Hi all,

I hoping someone can help with my melting issue as its driving me mad!!

I have started to get issues over the last few weeks with the leaves on my crypts melting.
Now I know this is very common in new plants or ones that have been moved about however mine have all been in the tank for 6 months plus in the same place and growing well.
Some leaves are also showing holes.

I have about 4 different types of crypts and all seem to be doing it and all other plants in the tank are doing fine.

Are they missing something nutrient wise? I did see something online regarding magnesium 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

My tank is low tech
8.5 hours of light a day
50% weekly water changes
TNC complete dosed at 30ml 3x weekly
Root tabs used
700 litre tank
I live in a hard water area

Many thanks

Matt
 
Last edited:
Hi Matt, I am not an expert but you dont mention any water parameters. I assume you are in hard water area so I would initially guess you need a more stable iron chelate, I believe the TNC is based on EDTA? There are threads on this. The root tabs may also be a cause.

I had a similar problem last year in a tank established over 10 years with melt starting on one large clump of one species then occurring on two other species soon after. My tapwater is very soft and I dose DIY ferts but when I had the problem I checked my figures on the calculator and realised I was underdosing micros. After trimming affected leaves for 2 or 3 weeks(very disheartening) and dosing higher micros new leaves began to appear and the old ones werent affected.
This may be a coincidence and if someone else has an explanation I would be happy to hear it😀
Hope this helps
Cheers
John
 
Hi Matt, I am not an expert but you dont mention any water parameters. I assume you are in hard water area so I would initially guess you need a more stable iron chelate, I believe the TNC is based on EDTA? There are threads on this. The root tabs may also be a cause.

I had a similar problem last year in a tank established over 10 years with melt starting on one large clump of one species then occurring on two other species soon after. My tapwater is very soft and I dose DIY ferts but when I had the problem I checked my figures on the calculator and realised I was underdosing micros. After trimming affected leaves for 2 or 3 weeks(very disheartening) and dosing higher micros new leaves began to appear and the old ones werent affected.
This may be a coincidence and if someone else has an explanation I would be happy to hear it😀
Hope this helps
Cheers
John
Hi John,

Sorry I forgot to add my water parameters but your right I do live in a pretty hard water area.

In regards to dosing I have only ever used the TNC so I do wonder if I have been missing something all this time?? 🤔
I am not very clued up on the ferts to be honest however I am looking to change over to something different soon as my tank is 700 litres so will save a fortune lol.

It's all very weird why it's happening
 
Hi, I've had exactly the same problem this last week. I have cryptocoryne undulatus and after my last water change and renewing root tabs they melted in like 2-3 days. I thought it must have been root disturbance or something with the root tabs. Anyway after watching countless videos and reading many articles/posts (inc yours.) There doesn't appear to be a specific answer. Some report melting, some say never in years. Theories inc seasonal, even though they don't have seasons as such on/around the equator. They do recognise two though and they're usually called wet and dry seasons. Other suggestions inc root disturbances, chemicals finding their way into tanks, water params changing, temp change.

I checked my water and it was spot on as usual. No changes in temp. No reason why chemicals may have entered the tank. As I said, I thought maybe root disturbance after putting the root tabs in. Then I thought well how come all three plants melted exactly at the same rate and the same time? So I'm putting mine down to something they just do. Like many others I've watched/read putting it down to the same thing. The advice was to cut right back to the substrate and allow them to recover. Apparently crypts are very touchy but are near impossible to kill off completely and will bounce back. There was even one guy I'd say was a professional scaper on YT lost 80% of his plants due to sudden melting. Seems it can just happen unfortunately.
 
Oh and I forgot to mention I use TNC Complete weekly, Profito between then flourish root tabs and easycarbo. Never had a problem and all my plants have done amazing. The only ones affected are the crypts and that was sudden. Everything else is fine. They'll no doubt just bounce back and grow normally again.
 
Oh and I forgot to mention I use TNC Complete weekly, Profito between then flourish root tabs and easycarbo. Never had a problem and all my plants have done amazing. The only ones affected are the crypts and that was sudden. Everything else is fine. They'll no doubt just bounce back and grow normally again.
Funny enough I just read your post!!
All very weird isn't it.

I think I might try upping my ferts for the time being and see what happens.

After reading yours the only thing that has stood out to me is temperature, I reduced mine down from 26 to 24 a few weeks ago so maybe that has caused it 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
 
Funny enough I just read your post!!
All very weird isn't it.

I think I might try upping my ferts for the time being and see what happens.

After reading yours the only thing that has stood out to me is temperature, I reduced mine down from 26 to 24 a few weeks ago so maybe that has caused it 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️
They are very touchy to temp so maybe that could be it. Mine definitely had no change so it remains a bit of a mystery. I'd just cut them right back and enjoy them growing again. :)
 
I see people associating crypt melt in new setups to high ammonia and/or high dissolved organic solids, which end up degrading to ammonia and similar. It is said to be easier to adapt a crypt to a tank change if the tank is mature.

Seeing how you added root tabs and there is plenty of discussion regarding an ammonia dump from those, maybe they are related.
 
I see people associating crypt melt in new setups to high ammonia and/or high dissolved organic solids, which end up degrading to ammonia and similar. It is said to be easier to adapt a crypt to a tank change if the tank is mature.

Seeing how you added root tabs and there is plenty of discussion regarding an ammonia dump from those, maybe they are related.
Hi @LMuhlen

My setup has been going for a long time and I have always used the same root tabs with the crypts so I'm really confused 😕
 
My guess is that Cryptocorynes have got seasonality (dry-emersed / wet-submerged) somehow encoded in themselves. It is possible that they interpret some kind of change (light, temperature, nutrients, organics, etc.) as a sign of dry season coming.
 
My guess is that Cryptocorynes have got seasonality (dry-emersed / wet-submerged) somehow encoded in themselves. It is possible that they interpret some kind of change (light, temperature, nutrients, organics, etc.) as a sign of dry season coming.
It's very clever if they do, seriously impressive really.
 
It's very clever if they do, seriously impressive really.
There are lots of examples of plants that go through cycles of wet/dry. Pinguiculas spring to mind where they produce succulent leaves for the dry season and revert to mucous coated soft leaves for catching insects in the wet season :) No reason why crypts couldn't go through a similar cycle?
 
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