Crypt melt ?

[clarkm]

Hi all , had a question. Would changing my light from a t5ho to finnex planted plus cause my crypts to melt. They were growing nice and bushy with the old light but after a month of the planted + they have become very scraggly looking and the leaves are like wilting. Will it come back or should I get rid of it.

 

[trennamw]

I'm extremely new here but I always research a lot before trying and what I keep coming across is that crypts almost always melt when you move them? Saw this on various websites and on YouTube. The technique "cut off everything melting and focus only on how healthy the new growth is" served me well with my first set of crypts that I was sure I'd killed. They're beautiful now after about 5 weeks.

 

[clarkm]

Ya but I haven't moved it at all. Planted it 4 months ago. Grew great for first 3 months and them a month ago I changed lights and it's declined since then but all other plants growing good

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

What size tank... what's the distance from light to substrate?

Crypts are heavy root feeders. Are you using root tabs under them? What ferts are you using?

Although crypts are low light tolerant, meaning a lot of hobbyists grow them in low light non-CO2 environments, adding CO2 to the equation will grow them lush. Or at the very least, adding a liquid carbon source like Excel or Glut.

Edit:
To answer your question more specifically, changing conditions can cause a bit of a melt. Like spectrum changes due to the extra red in the planted+. It's conceivable that the leaves were adapted to the previous light conditions and it's now adjusting to be most photosynthetically efficient with the new lighting. Give it some time, the Planted+ is a great LED fixture.

 

[clarkm]

Thanks for the Answers. It's a 58 gallon tank and 18 inches from light to substrate. Eco complete fine grade. Been using seachem root tabs , seachem flourish , and flourish trace for 3 months now. I all ready dose 20 ml of I straight metricide 14 every morning. I guess I will let it be for now and see what it does.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I know your plants appear to be all low light tolerant plants and wouldn't require too much in terms of ferts... But when you run out of your liquids, consider switching to dry ferts. I use the PPS-Pro kit from GLA. It will be more comprehensive than what you're using now. To my understanding, Seachem Flourish is mostly micros with very little macros. Your tabs have some macros too, but not sure if it's enough. Because your picture of the crypt sorta looks like a deficiency in macros... Like N and K. I'm not really an expert in this area. Rivercats, OldScales, or Fresh2O would be best to chime in on that.

 

[schoeplein]

Sounds like a condition of too much light. It will most likely wilt before acclimating. If the leaves become "soggy", prune them from the base of the plant and leave it alone. More light generally means you need more of everything else (CO2, Micro & Macro nutrients). I loosely equated going high light earlier to giving a person adrenaline, but not increasing their oxygen supply.

 

[Fresh2o]

I have crypt wendtii red a pair of 20g long tanks; one with a dual t5 NO and the other a Finnex FugeRay. Honestly, the ones in the t5 NO tank look much better. Compact size and shape, nicer coloration. Aside from the occasional root pellet, no ferts in that tank.
The crypt wendtii red in the tank with the FugeRay have larger leaves, some of which reach the surface. They also have less red and are prone to algae growth on older leaves. This tank has pressurized CO2, PPS-Pro, Glutaraldehyde, and root pellets.
Now this is only one species of crypt and some do much better in higher light (e.g. - C. parva). But this is just my experience with this particular species. I suspect it is the juggling act that comes with higher and more effective light.
I would do as suggested by others and trim off melted leaves before algae gets a chance to settle on them and keep an eye on it. I am having issues with nutrient balance on another plant (AR mini at the moment) so it is still a learning process.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I currently have crypts in two tanks. A low tech fluval edge and in a CO2 injected moderate lit tank. The tank that has CO2 and moderate light is a 26g bow front lit by a Current Sat+ and Fluval Aquatic life & Plant LED fixture. The substrate is Floramax and I dose PPS-PRO with no tabs. In the fluval edge, my crypts are bushy but stay short on their own, while in the 26g, they're growing HUGE! I don't know sometimes... Because everyone says the crypts need root tabs, but I never used them here. They were transplanted from the fluval edge tank and didn't melt either. Totally different lighting and conditions. But I think the holy grail is CO2...