Crypt melt post-water change

[zayackylepga]

Have some serious crypt melt two days after a 50% water change. Would that bring on this sudden melt? Previous healthy leaves as of a day or two before. Parameters stable, with hard water as the main water source around here. Anyone else experience this after a large water change?

[lefty o]

a water change alone should not cause a melt. how long have the crypts been in the tank?

[zayackylepga]

8 months, and have been doing really well. Maybe temp of the water? Did not match it perfectly and the tank was slightly colder after the water change

[lefty o]

yeah, thats odd. it should take much more than a moderate temp change to do anything.

[smoore]

On 11/30/2021 at 8:07 AM, zayackylepga said:

8 months, and have been doing really well. Maybe temp of the water? Did not match it perfectly and the tank was slightly colder after the water change

Zayacklepga,

I don't match the water temp when I do a small water change (20 or 25%).  Did you change more water than that?  Of course my tank is deep, so they may not feel the temp change as much.... it's 24 inches deep.

 

[zayackylepga]

Took about 6 of 15 gallons out when I changed out the water

[KBOzzie59]

What has your fertilizer schedule been?  What are/were nitrate levels?

[zayackylepga]

Pretty up to date with root tabs but little to no nitrates in water after the water change. Would taking out the nitrates with a water change have that much of an effect? I know crypts are primarily root feeders, how much do they actually take in from the water?

[Odd Duck]

On 11/30/2021 at 12:33 PM, zayackylepga said:

Pretty up to date with root tabs but little to no nitrates in water after the water change. Would taking out the nitrates with a water change have that much of an effect? I know crypts are primarily root feeders, how much do they actually take in from the water?

I’ve read that Crypts can actually take in quite a bit from the water to the point where they can actually be grown as epiphytes.  Even take in ammonia directly.

The closest I’ve come to growing as epiphytes is several Crypts I’ve had in a bare bottom tank that was serving as a QT for several weeks.  They did a hard melt in the first couple days when I got them and I just haven’t gotten around to doing anything with them, yet, since they melted so hard I couldn’t even tell what they were going to look like.  Some are supposed to be Flamingos.  We’ll see, but I have my doubts about them being Flamingos.

I've never had any Crypts melt from even whopping big water changes.

Tank changes where I disturbed the roots, absolutely will melt.

[Torrey]

On 11/30/2021 at 9:02 AM, zayackylepga said:

Anyone else experience this after a large water change

50% water change alone?

No.

50% water change, with a chemistry differential large enough to annoy the leaves, and especially if the water current during the change moved any substrate around the roots?

I have experienced that😬

As long as the rhizome was not damaged, the crypts will come back stronger than before.

[KBOzzie59]

On 11/30/2021 at 10:33 AM, zayackylepga said:

I know crypts are primarily root feeders, how much do they actually take in from the water?

I have a couple tanks with crypt jungles that have never seen a root tab.  I'll grab a couple pics when I get home today.

[Dawn T]

On 12/1/2021 at 9:59 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

I have a couple tanks with crypt jungles that have never seen a root tab.  I'll grab a couple pics when I get home today.

I did that, too. Had a crypt jungle that never got root tabs or ferts. It did great until I lost my light once. The tank went a few days with little but the ambient light from the room until my replacement light arrived. Had some serious melted, then it all bounced right back. Stayed that way until I broke the tank down to rescape it early this year. Here's how it looked before rescaping. It had been like this for a couple of years after the light fiasco. No root tabs or ferts of any kind. A single common pleco as the only tank occupant for at least that couple of years (he got to where he killed anything I put in the tank with him, so he remained alone for quite some time).

I'm currently having Crypt melt, though, in my little 5g. I changed the light on the tank about a week or so ago, which increased the lighting from low to medium. The Crypt wendtii 'tropica' started melting by the next morning. Now that the 'tropica' has pretty much melted back, the Crypt parva in one section that it was shading is showing melt, too. (We won't even discuss what my Buce in there is doing.) Ack! I knew from past experience, of course, that depriving Crypts of light for a few days would cause that, but increasing it?

I read a few articles online about Crypt melt. One of them basically said if you look at it wrong it'll melt. 😆 I'm sure it's not quite THAT bad, but you gotta wonder sometimes.... 😋

[eatyourpeas]

Were you swearing when you did the water change? They may be sensitive to potty language... 🙄 Some of my critters are.

Edited December 1, 2021 by eatyourpeas

[KBOzzie59]

On 12/1/2021 at 10:02 AM, eatyourpeas said:

Were you swearing

Off topic but a funny story.

My oldest son hated eating peas, this one particular time (he was about 6) I told him if I could flick a pea in his mouth using my spoon he had to eat them, if I missed I had to eat his peas.  He readily took me up on the challenge.  I loaded a pea onto my spoon and let it fly!  Direct hit, it actually hit the back of his back of his mouth and caused a gag reflex, adding insult to injury by having to eat his peas.

[eatyourpeas]

On 12/1/2021 at 10:15 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

Off topic but a funny story.

My oldest son hated eating peas, this one particular time (he was about 6) I told him if I could flick a pea in his mouth using my spoon he had to eat them, if I missed I had to eat his peas.  He readily took me up on the challenge.  I loaded a pea onto my spoon and let it fly!  Direct hit, it actually hit the back of his back of his mouth and caused a gag reflex, adding insult to injury by having to eat his peas.

I was always battling my mum over eating peas, then I started keeping fish and learned peas are given to constipated fish. I could not resist! 

Did your son ever recovered from that traumatic experience? 😵

[lefty o]

On 12/1/2021 at 10:59 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

I have a couple tanks with crypt jungles that have never seen a root tab.  I'll grab a couple pics when I get home today.

my crypts dont get root tabs either, and they grow like nuts.

On 12/1/2021 at 12:40 PM, eatyourpeas said:

I was always battling my mum over eating peas, then I started keeping fish and learned peas are given to constipated fish. I could not resist! 

Did your son ever recovered from that traumatic experience? 😵

i hate peas. my folks forced me to eat them nasty things when i was a kid. had to stay at the table til they were gone. many a long hour was spent sitting there trying not to puke them things up. good thing the german shepherd would stay at the table until all the food was gone. sneak the dog a few at a time, and all is good. without the dog, i might still be sitting at that table 4 decades later.

[zayackylepga]

More leaves melting every day, just going to keep trimming the melted ones off and see what happens. I just put another LED light in the back of the tank so they might not like that change either. Just gonna have them melt and come back I guess. Planning on rescaping next week anyway. Have aquasolum as substrate and want to put a layer of sand on top. Hate trying to plant/put root tabs in, they always end up floating to the top eventually 

[KBOzzie59]

On 12/1/2021 at 12:00 PM, zayackylepga said:

going to keep trimming the melted ones off

No...   Let them be unless they are spiking your ammonia.

[eatyourpeas]

On 12/1/2021 at 11:07 AM, lefty o said:

my folks forced me to eat them nasty things when i was a kid. had to stay at the table til they were gone. many a long hour was spent sitting there trying not to puke them things up. good thing the german shepherd would stay at the table until all the food was gone

Oh, your parents too... I did not have a german shepherd to eat the peas for me, and if I had forced any of my brothers they would have screamed, resulting in double portions. And they were canned peas, because where I grew up fresh or frozen peas did not exist. 🤮🤢

Good to know you were able to do other things during those decades! 🤪

Edited December 1, 2021 by eatyourpeas

[KBOzzie59]

@zayackylepga

A great video.

 

[zayackylepga]

What’s the reason for not cutting them back? Won’t it take more effort for the plant to regrow if not trimmed back? Just curious, thanks for the input everyone! 

Edited December 1, 2021 by zayackylepga

[lefty o]

On 12/1/2021 at 2:14 PM, eatyourpeas said:

Oh, your parents too... I did not have a german shepherd to eat the peas for me, and if I had forced any of my brothers they would have screamed, resulting in double portions. And they were canned peas, because where I grew up fresh or frozen peas did not exist. 🤮🤢

Good to know you were able to do other things during those decades! 🤪

yup, canned peas, the nastiest of em all! ick!🤢

[Dawn T]

On 12/1/2021 at 1:00 PM, zayackylepga said:

Hate trying to plant/put root tabs in, they always end up floating to the top eventually 

Do you use the sort of root tabs that are inside capsules? If so, have you tried puncturing the capsule with a needle before shoving them under the substrate? It's the air inside that causes floatation. Puncturing the capsule allows the release of air as you shove them in.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Dawn T

[zayackylepga]

On 12/1/2021 at 3:13 PM, KBOzzie59 said:

No...   Let them be unless they are spiking your ammonia.

Any reason why? I just assumed it made it tougher for regrowth if I left it. Ammonia is low tho and could leave it alone if need be

[BrycePilaf]

I don’t have much to add as far as possible reasons for the melting, just that my C. wendtii that I bought 2 months ago from Aquarium Co-op and had been growing great (and never melted after I planted it) decided to melt on me 2 days after a water change. I had also added the tank’s first dose of Easy Green and that might have done it. 
 

I’m bummed it’s melted but at least it looked good when the family was here for Thanksgiving. 🙂