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Crypt problems
Hello all,
I am having some problems with one of my tanks and hope someone can
help. I have a 20g tank with 4 clown loaches and various plants. I am
changing to crypts which are a more familiar plant to the loaches than
the val. and hygro I have had in there. Currently I have planted in the
tank two A. crispus (hybrids, possibly), rotala macrandra, C. wendtii, C.
cordata, and a big clump of green hygro. I have two 15w bulbs over the
tank, a gro-lux and a cool white. I am not particularly happy with this
lighting, but the hygro and A. crispus are doing fine, as is the Rotala.
The crypts, however, are not growing very well at all. The crypts melted
when I first got them, which didn't bother me too much. They are very
slow coming back, however.
I think nothing can be too wrong since the hygro, Aponogeten, and rotala
are doing OK. Are the crypts being outcompeted by the faster growing
plants? How long does the melting act last? I could just be overreacting.
Tank info
-20g high
-30w fl. lighting gro-lux+cool white
-DIY CO2
-hardness negligible coming out of the tap, supplemented to ~40ppm with
baking soda
-pH ~6.5
-temp 78deg
-nitrates ~50ppm, I'm going to step up my water changes to drop this some
-fertilizer I use alternately Seachem Flourish, Tetra Flora Pride, and
Coralife plant food according to manufacturer's directions
-substrate gravel with duplarit K
-undergravel filter
Thanks in advance for any help.
Tom
PS. I recently bought a crypt, about 6-8 inches high, leaves green on
top and red on the bottom. The leaves are about 50% stem and are kind of
slender. This is a C. affinis and not a C. wendtii, as the store had it
advertised, correct?