# Crypts taking over...



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

For folks who don't think C. wendtii can get too large or potentially take over a tank. 










It's on the rear corner of my Oceanic 50. In another couple of weeks it will be to the surface, at which point I'll pull it out, pull out some of the smaller plants to re-plant, and do it all over again.  A beautiful plant with a minimum of care. There is also a narrow leaf Java fern behind the wood amidst the Crypts.

Here's the whole tank for reference:


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Bert H,

I just broke down a 30 gallon, same problem with C. walkeri 'Lutea', it tried to take over 1/2 the tank. BTW, nice aquascape....I think I see some hardscape lurking in there somewhere?


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## maknwar (Feb 28, 2008)

I had a single plant of wendtii that took over the whole right half of my 75 gallon. The roots were just as big!!!! Good luck getting that out without redoing the whole tank.


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## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

I have to join the ranks of those who just recently thinned out a crypt jungle. Man...the root systems that they throw out when they are left alone is something else.

Doesn't look as good now as it is thin...but it'll grow back. ;o)


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

> BTW, nice aquascape....I think I see some hardscape lurking in there somewhere?


Thanks. Yeah, there's 2 pieces of wood in there, one in front of the wendtiis, and another on the left (with the petites on the top).



> I had a single plant of wendtii that took over the whole right half of my 75 gallon. The roots were just as big!!!! Good luck getting that out without redoing the whole tank.


I know what you mean, but I discovered that if you bury thin, flat pieces of slate in the substrate as a 'boundary' for the roots/plants, it maintains most of them in the desired area. At least, I no longer get the runners showing up on the other side of the tank.


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## Dryn (Sep 6, 2007)

Looks like the c.lucens I cleared out.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

A 2 ft tall section of C. wendtii (bronze) as thick as my forearm comes outta my 46g at least twice a year.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

I had the same experience, with C. wendtii taking over about half of a 29 gallon tank.

At the time that was happening most of the other plants went into a rapid decline. I speculated that the crypt was using allelopathy to clear the way for its expansion. The water column nutrients were at the same levels that they had been for a year or more.

I posted my speculation at Tom Barr's forum and didn't get a lot of support. So, have any of those posters here who had crypts take over a tank noticed any significant die-off of other species?

Thanks.

Bill


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## MoonFish (Feb 12, 2006)

I cut the light and didnt' fertilize for months and months and months asnd all I had left was a crypt bottom and some bolbitis.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

> So, have any of those posters here who had crypts take over a tank noticed any significant die-off of other species?


Not in my tanks. The large mass of Crypts tends to shade out nearby plants, but that's not allelopathy. I try to have low light plants like Anubias and ferns nearest to the Crypts to minimize light loss issues.


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## RI chiclids (Dec 11, 2009)

hey bert good lookin tank!!also what are those low growing plants front left?im looking for a plant like that for my foreground,id also like to add some lower growing reds say less than 8 in. any suggestions?


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

Whatever you do, pull them out of the substrate real real slow or, you might wind up with green water. I would keep the filter cranking and do a 50 % water change following. I wish I could get Wendtii to stay green like that. Everytime I buy a crypt that is green, it will turn into a brown or bronze version over time. I have had to pull out huge clumps several times as well. I thought they were supposed to be slow growing?

Very nice tank by the way!


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## RI chiclids (Dec 11, 2009)

i think that the light intensity has something to do with the crypts turning red or bronzeish,with my old planted tank i had 3wpg ,same as i have now,and all the wedtii i had started off green but soon turned bronze.the people at the lfs said it was probably the light.now in my new planted tank the wendtii i have is ,you guessed it,turning bronze


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

> ...what are those low growing plants front left?...


Those are petite nanas. The foreground is B. japonica on the right, and the petites on the left.



> Whatever you do, pull them out of the substrate real real slow or, you might wind up with green water. I would keep the filter cranking and do a 50 % water change following.


Everytime I do a major uprooting, I do a gravel vac in the area and a major water change. I've never (knock on wood) had an issue with gw because of the removal.


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