*Pic Heavy* Crypt Problem, Please help!

[philipraposo1982]

I have been dealing with this issue for as long as I can remember (tank has been running for 10 months).

Symptoms:
- leaves are deteriorating
- first stage is the healthy leaves starts to show whitish or yellow or light green marks on leaves, see pic.



-from these areas, things spread and forms small holes.



- these holes keep growing and eventually the leaves die off completely.
- seems like "crypt melt"


I have not moved these plants in a long time and some have been in spot since day one. This is a slow process and generally doesn't effect ALL leaves or ALL crypts i have. I have very many crypt species.



Not sure it is related but my Cryptocoryne Balansae (Cryptocoryne crispatula 'Balansae') crows well but only a few leaves at a time. max maybe 5 leaves per plant. then as new one comes the oldest one dies off. sad.

The balansae leaves deteriorate much quicker compared to other crpyts. and it looks like more brown spots which start it off. then eventually the entire leaf goes really wilted and melts off. i don't have a leaf currently looking bad on these plants so i can't get a pic.

My crpyt spiralis crows nice and doesn't seem to be effected by either of these symptoms. instead the long leaves grow straight up and then the end wilt. not like a normal bending due to weight of the plant but rather a more stressed out look.

I hope some crpyt / plant experts can help me out.

I run no co2 or excel and if its simply a co2 problem than I will just deal with it as I don't plan to add any of the above. But in the case that its nutrient related I will work to correct it if I can.

I dose potassium, phosphates, and micros once a week at the following amounts.
k2so4 - 1/2 tsp
kh2po4 - 1/10 - 1/8 tsp
plantex csm+b micros - 1/4 tsp

i water change 50% a week and my nitrates normally read in the 10-20 range, I have never seen my nitrates hit that reddish 40ppm range.

temp is 80-81

lighting is finnex planted plus @ 24" above the substrate on for 10 hours a day.

if you look in my tank you won't find algae unless you looking with a magnifying glass and spot some gsa on the glass or the odd anubias. I don't have algae issues.

Flow in the tank comes from my eheim pro 3 2075 - g160. i removed the spray bar weeks ago. all plants still have a little sway and flow seems fine imo.

Substrate is safe t sorb, I always wondered if this could be the culprit. I do use diy root tabs and maybe I am not using them enough. Does this look like a nutrient deficiency?

Since crypts are my favourite plant and I have so many its important to me to try and grow them as good as I can.


Thanks for the help!!

 

[Mick.Dk]

I see a loach in one pic. Could he be "hammering" the leaves, thereby damaging them to be prone to attacked by fungi and bacteria???
Some Clown loaches do this, I know for sure by own experience on several occasions.
Crypts. like to be well fed (so root-tabs are benefitial), but most common types can usually manage quite well without added CO2.

 

[Martin in Holland]

If I see how dark the leaves are, it looks like you could be running to much light above your tank.

 

[EnderUK]

How big is you tank. Might be a lack of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Trim the dying leaves off and up the dosage of your Ferts. Try and get some Nitrogen in there., you should probably be aiming for "roughly" K : N : P 10:10:2 in a low tech tank. You can get raise the light or get some floaters to help lower the light in the tank.

 

[alto]

Substrate is safe t sorb, I always wondered if this could be the culprit. I do use diy root tabs and maybe I am not using them enough

I'm not familiar with that substrate but crypts do like a nutrient dense base; check your root tabs & see if they are dissolving/breaking up - I cleared out a tank recently & discovered root "tablets" that I might've sold on as "like new" (bad batch I suspect).

You say there's no algae but the leaves in your photos do look to have various algaes - trick of the camera/monitor perhaps but definitely look different than any "melting" crypt leaves I've seen/had.

If you don't want to add any CO2 (gas or liquid) then you need to balance the lighting relative to the plant's biggest nutrient need - carbon - which plants preferentially uptake as CO2 gas dissolved in the water column; lowering the tank temp to 75 - 76F will help the plants as more CO2 will be dissolved in the water column (from the atmosphere/air).

You don't mention fish load in the tank, the ammonia they respire is more available to plants than nitrates ... if your tank is actually running at 10 - 20 ppm, I doubt N deficiency (in the water column) is your main concern, OTOH if you do add KNO3 as suggested, it may benefit.