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Thread: Growing cryptos: rich base fert required?

  1. #1
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    Growing cryptos: rich base fert required?

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    Hi,

    have been growing cryptos from Teo's for close to 3 months now. Despite the time period to allow for stability, my cryptos aren't growing well.

    fyi, those cryptos are willisii or wendtii 'brown'. Those small little ones, for those who know. Teo refers them as the "cocos" (meaning chocolate in colour), so I can't really be sure what they are.

    Anyway, a friend who went with me has great success with the same plants. He suspects that the difference is the availability of base fert. Teo told him that cryptos don't really take in nutrients through their leaves, but through their roots instead. The difference in our tanks is exactly that; my tank is purely ADA aquasoil with no base fert. I don't even put in root monsters. Whereas he does.

    My question therefore: is Teo's assertion true? I'm already pushing in root tabs now but suspect it'll take another couple of months before it takes effect, so asking anyone with experience first...
    Cheers
    Boon Yong

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    Re: Growing cryptos: rich base fert required?

    [quote:973a26ba86="cheeboonyong"]My question therefore: is Teo's assertion true? I'm already pushing in root tabs now but suspect it'll take another couple of months before it takes effect, so asking anyone with experience first...[/quote:973a26ba86]

    Hello! A good page if you are a fan of crypts is the following:
    http://users.bart.nl/~crypts/

    They really do like a good fertile substrate, some of the more delicate species are grown by folks in strange stuff like decaying leaves, altho this isn't done in a fish aquarium and these species usually aren't sold to hobbyists.

    I and others I know have grown C. wendtii without substrate fertilization but it is much slower and stunted. Here in the US we have a product called Jobes Palm and Fern Spikes, they are slow release fertiliziers but unlike aquarium root tabs which usually don't have nitrogen or phopshate, these have both. The reason we use the Palm and Fern variety is that they are lowest in urea (NO3NH3) which can easily cause green water.

    I am interested in what root monsters are, we don't have any information over here on ADA substrates and I am very interested. I've heard the ADA Aquasoils affect pH and that makes me think it has peat in it? I believe I've read the Powersand does have quite a bit of peat, this would provide nutrients similar to our Jobes spikes.

    A good number of people over here use mineralized soil as a substrate, a 1" layer covered with 2" of plain gravel is recommended. Soil can be very tricky to manage though, as it is very variable depending on where it is collected from. This is a little off the beaten path and requires quite a bit of reading to do right, Diana Walstad's "The Ecology of The Planted Tank" (I think the title is right) is required reading. Other plants that prefer a fertile substrate are the Echinodorus genus, the Aponogeton genus, Barclaya longifolia, basically the rosette plants. All plants seem to benefit with a little something extra in the substrate, this can be as simple as a little peat/mulm at setup or something much richer.

    Good luck,
    Jeff

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    Base fert is definitely the main factor for the diff between your crypts and those of your friends. Putting in a root tab will help greatly.
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    Crypts

    Would root monster be of any help? Mine seems to be losing their new leaves.
    Cheerio,
    Sleepy_lancs
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    Initially, I did not put in any fertilizer to my crypts. I did not know that they were heavy root feeders. However, after seeing how well others look, I insert 1 fertilizer ball each to a few selected ones. Initially, their leaves started rotting which I guess was probably due to increased nutrients in the substrate. But after a couple of weeks later, the leaves got bigger and a nice glow to it. Subsequently, I did a check in the net and found out that crypts are usually grown in nutrients rich bottom in the wild.

    Cheers!

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    Re: Growing cryptos: rich base fert required?

    I am interested in what root monsters are, we don't have any information over here on ADA substrates and I am very interested. I've heard the ADA Aquasoils affect pH and that makes me think it has peat in it? I believe I've read the Powersand does have quite a bit of peat, this would provide nutrients similar to our Jobes spikes.
    root monsters are a type of fertiliser, shaped like a ball, which is slow release. The name is given by OCEAN FREE, which is a brand from Taiwan. It contains many minerals, including nitrate and phosphate, specifically for heavy root feeder plants.

    ADA aquasoil contains peat and does lower the ph. Initially, the ph will drop dramatically but slowly climb back over time as the peat effect wears off. my ph was 5.5 at one point.

    I've not tried the POwersand before so can't comment.

    thanks for confirming my suspicion about cryptos and root feeding...
    Cheers
    Boon Yong

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    my crypts are grown in fluorite only. previously no base fert, but now using ada amazonia as base fert..(peat replacement) and they do fairly well still

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    After using ADA Aquasoil along with the ADA PowerSand special it does have quite a certain positive conspicuous effect on the crypto.For my case i have 3 species of cryptos and its growing very well.

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    I've use ADA powersand and aquasoil to grow cryptos , they make a difference . I've inserted E15 into the substrade when i need a boost or two, well they did help but wasn't ideal so i use the long stick tab from ADA too. Mutil long bottom are inserted around and they works wonder. Can aslo try the Iron long bottom heard it's perfect for crpytos which are very dependent on their roots to get their nutrients.

    Cryptos ain't difficult to grow but they thrive better in good conditions. IMHO they are very slow growers so do let them have their time to slowly grow , over feeding them doesn't help them grow any faster. They do not like shifting too much and too much water change, they melt when there is drastic change in water condition.
    Cheers!

    Benetay

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