I've just purchased several cryptocoryne balansae, 2 clumps of plants were in great condition leaves around 30cm looked great aswell as another smaller plant.On planting after around a day or so the leaves started to melt which I've read can be the case (crypt melt).but on researching more on it it looks like I had planted to deep covering the crown.is this true as the 3 other types of crypt in my tank have all been planted the same but never experienced any melting.so I pulled them out to try to replant with crown showing and it seems I've just made a bigger mess. Alot of the tall flowing leaves have fallen off and now looks horrendous. Any advice on what to do , replant as it was ,leave and let it do it's own thing or anything else.
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Crypt help
- Thread starter Steveb7
- Start date
Just trim all the leafs that seem ready to melt - which may literally be ALL the leafs (when balansae decides to melt it prefers to be decisive 
)
I’ve not found that crypts care much about deep vs exposed crown (most Echinodorus are quite definite about having an exposed crown - though some loose soil seems more acceptable than weighty gravel or dense fine sand) ...
though having said that, I use Tropica Aquarium Soil substrate which is far more porous (& oxygenated) than a more densely packing substrate
(previously I used a nutrient rich base such as Tropica Growth Substrate with fine gravel, but then the gravel isn’t as deep as I might go with Tropica AS so don’t recall planting the crypt crowns that deep)
Do be carful about mechanical rhizome damage (especially fine root damage) when planting, removing (pulling?), replanting ... at this point I’d let them settle for a couple months before contemplating additional moves
)I’ve not found that crypts care much about deep vs exposed crown (most Echinodorus are quite definite about having an exposed crown - though some loose soil seems more acceptable than weighty gravel or dense fine sand) ...
though having said that, I use Tropica Aquarium Soil substrate which is far more porous (& oxygenated) than a more densely packing substrate
(previously I used a nutrient rich base such as Tropica Growth Substrate with fine gravel, but then the gravel isn’t as deep as I might go with Tropica AS so don’t recall planting the crypt crowns that deep)
Do be carful about mechanical rhizome damage (especially fine root damage) when planting, removing (pulling?), replanting ... at this point I’d let them settle for a couple months before contemplating additional moves
That’s already a relatively deep sand substrate
It’s possible that the exposed roots are already damaged so I’d just leave well enough alone - they’ll grow down anyway and you can cover any exposed bits later if it bothers you (they will harden and look slightly yellow to brownish etc)
There’s some melted leaf gunk in the crown, I’d carefully siphon that away over time - ie remove what comes easy, but don’t cause any mechanical damage
It’s possible that the exposed roots are already damaged so I’d just leave well enough alone - they’ll grow down anyway and you can cover any exposed bits later if it bothers you (they will harden and look slightly yellow to brownish etc)
There’s some melted leaf gunk in the crown, I’d carefully siphon that away over time - ie remove what comes easy, but don’t cause any mechanical damage
I’m sure they will recover
These sound like they were healthy plants (& certainly look nice) so will be fine (even if they lose all their leafs - a natural crypt reaction to changing conditions)
If you’re able to very gently lift them from the substrate (and you really want to make it all look better) they’ll survive that as well
It’s recommended to trim toots back when replanting - as shown in these Tropica photos
https://tropica.com/en/guide/get-the-right-start/planting/
And video
These sound like they were healthy plants (& certainly look nice) so will be fine (even if they lose all their leafs - a natural crypt reaction to changing conditions)
If you’re able to very gently lift them from the substrate (and you really want to make it all look better) they’ll survive that as well
It’s recommended to trim toots back when replanting - as shown in these Tropica photos
https://tropica.com/en/guide/get-the-right-start/planting/
And video
