# My aquarium (Crypt only)



## illustrator

I thought it would be nice to show my main aquarium, now that plants are doing well. This is not meant to be a show-aquarium, but rather a plants-and fish tank. It is a 200 L aquarium. The monster-plant in te middle is _Cryptocoryne usteriana_. This plant is almost too large for the aquarium, since leaves stick partly out of the water and then dry/damage under the tl-light. On the right is _C. aponogetiifolia_. The lower plants are 3 different clones of _C. affinis_. The left and right _C. affinis _are very similar to each other but the middle one is much darker and also a bit larger. I wasn't sure of it's identity at first, but it flowered last summer 

The aquarium is rather low-tech: simple filter, no heating, and just river sand on the bottom. There is a small school of _Ameca splendens_ as only fish. Besides these there are a few apple snails ald two small crayfish.


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## Patriot100%

You sir are my hero. I always wanted to try a crypt tank, but with dirt. How long did it take for your crypt to get that big assuming that it melted in the beginning.


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## illustrator

This crypt never melted, but I re-started from small plants several times. It grows fast, but I think that it took about a year to get to this size from a starter plant of 15 cm. Note that the aquarium is about 45 cm high. The plant is so large that the middle of the aquarium is the only place where I can more or less grow it ...


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## Patriot100%

Can you trim it back some?


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## illustrator

Of course I can, but I don't want to ...

- I find it much nicer to grow it as a mature plant with this impressive size (individual leaves are about 30 cm, with a leafstalk of another 30 cm; the rhizome continues as a "stem" above ground of about 10 cm high)

- It provides shade for the dark _C. affinis_, this plant gets very damaged leaves in the direct TL-light so it needs to be underneath other plants (or I should change the lightbulbs for something less strong, which is difficult to do in a factory-made aquarium)

- _C. usteriana_ is one of the crypts which can (theoretically) start flowering as a submersed plant, but only large, mature plants will do this, if ever. I would love to see this.

- The large leaves which float at the surface give very good shelter to young fish, which I need to breed _Ameca splenden_s (an endangered fish species). The young fish are the first days hiding above the leaves, so in very shallow water where the adults don't go (and where the water is warmer because of the TL-lights - in nature the sunlight would do the same).


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## ferchu22

Very nice tank! I really like crypt-only tanks! I'm trying to do mines, slowly but smoothly I'm covering every place with crypts.

BR,


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## Patriot100%

ferchu22 said:


> Very nice tank! I really like crypt-only tanks! I'm trying to do mines, slowly but smoothly I'm covering every place with crypts.
> 
> BR,


I would like to see that!


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## king kong

This is what it's all about, crypts are here to stay I just hope their native habitats hold for further study and discrete collecting when possible. Very nice!


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## totziens

Nice tank. I wanted something like this in the past but it didn't work out - the crypts roots I was given grew nothing (yeah, someone gave me the roots only). How do you control algae? I find crypts grow pretty slow and sometimes algae attacks the leaves. I always need fast growing plants to reduce algae from attacking crypts.


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## ferchu22

In my case, the best to avoid algae in crypts and also in anubias (and I have to cross my fingers) is not to have many fishes (according to tank size, obviously).



Patriot100% said:


> I would like to see that!


Sure! I'll post it once it's finished.

BR,


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## Patriot100%

You can also control algae in crypt tank by reducing the light. Crypts don't need much.


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## totziens

Now I can see why my anubias are badly attacked by algae. It's not so bad on crypts (sometimes crypts are not attacked at all). My tanks are often full of too many fishes - sometimes unintentionally as they breed. Thanks. Great hint. Possibly too much light too as I have foreground plants in the tank that I try to grow. I'll try crypt tank without foreground tank soon and see how it goes.


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## countcoco

That's a very nice old-school layout and your strains of c. affinis look wonderful.

I have a few questions about your lighting:

1. How many total watts do you have over the tank?

2. What is the photoperiod?

3. When you mentioned the TL lamps are those just standard fluorescent tubes? I feel like a lot of the European hobbyists use Philips 950 TL lamps which I'm assuming are somehow different from standard T8 tubes.


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## illustrator

Algae control: well, Ameca are algae-eating fish, so there is nothing I need to do. The back-glass (background is a black plastic plate which is hanging outside of the aquarium) and some stones are covered by thin layer of algae which is constantly grazed.

I had a major problem with cyanobacteria, which only reduced with a treatment with Blue-Exit (Easylife). The last bit gradually disappeared. In another, smaller aquarium I still have cyano-problems.

Note that I carry out weekly water changes of 1/3 to 1/2 of the water.

I actually add filamentous algae (from a nearby spring) as fish-food!

Light: This is a German factory-made aquarium of the brand Juwel. These are really nice tanks, high quality and easy to work with but with some peculiarities. One of them is that only Juwel-TL lights fit in them, which are of course more expensive than standard TL-lights! There are 2 40 W TL-lights (T8 ), color "life-glo" (something between cool white and a plant light). Fotoperiod about 12 h, but I tend to change this to 10 h in winter.


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## JKUK

Love the tank, it reminds me of the way aquariums used to look way back.

P.M. sent.


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## WeedCali

I love your tank! I have a C. Usteriana potted in a 3" terra cotta pot inside my 36g. so you have your plants in nothing but sand? no root ferts?


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## illustrator

No root ferts, but the sand is in the aquarium for a while now: when I go through with my finger it leaves a small brown cloud.

A side-note on the snails: About half a year ago I added some small apple snails (_P. diffusa_). These were hiding most of the time when I started this thread, but now they reached adulthood and are very active and visible. I guess that I got them "just in time" as import into the EU and transport withing the EU have recently been banned. Legally, I can continue to keep and even breed them, but as far as I understand, I am not allowed to give them to anyone else (the legal text is vague: "further spread" is no longer allowed, and there is a big debate on European forums what exactly is meant by "spread"). So the common apple snail may well become one of the "classical-but-no-longer-common-aquarium-species" - just like _C. affinis _but with a different reason.


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## fishfan

JKUK said:


> Love the tank, it reminds me of the way aquariums used to look way back.
> 
> P.M. sent.


I thought the same thing at first glance! One of those 'classic' tanks you see drawings of in old books.


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## illustrator

news: usteriana is going to flower for the first time! I hope that the tip of the spathe doesnt dry/die because of the TL-light next to it. 

Kicked the snails out because of incompatibility with the somewhat nippy fish.


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## Luffy

Man, that's awesome. I have had a great time growing crypts. I was lucky enough to find an overgrown pot under some bigger swords for three bucks. I have no idea what kind they are, probably young undulata. Some day soon I'll get a nice big tank where I can spread them out into a crypt feature tank. For now they're packed into a five gallon where they're growing into a nice little jungle.


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## illustrator

And here it is! The plant itself is a monster, and most leaves become damaged because they are so big that parts stick out of the water and then dry. But this flower makes it worthwile


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## SheriWaldron

illustrator said:


>


Absolutely beautiful!!


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## Capt. Colton

Really nice tank! Love the simplicity.


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## illustrator

Thought that I should show my other aquarium as well. The small foreground plant is _C. affinis_. The sword should grow a bit still, preferably to the surface or just below.

The crypt-only aquarium went to some dramatic changes. My treasured _Ameca splendens _were suffering from a disease for over a year and finally died out some weeks ago. I then moved _Xenotoca eiseni _"San Marcos" from the smaller (planted) aquarium to the crypt-only one. Although both fish species are closely related and rather similar in behaviour: _Ameca_ is more herbivorous. The switch to _Xenotoca_ caused a blooming of filamentuous algae. I now experimentally introduced a single domestic platy (_Xiphophorus maculatus_) to test agression of the _Xenotoca_, which are potential fin-nippers. If this goes well I plan to increase the number of platy's, and hope/expect that newborn _Xenotoca_ are too large to be eaten by the platy's. I don't expect newborn platy's to survive but intend to keep the _Xenotoca_ going with the same goal as before: to help maintain endangered fish species. The platy's are then an algae-controll mesasure.

Considering how these Goodeid fish are behaving I am no longer convinced that the smaller aquarium is big enough to allow the normal (partly territorial) behaviour of either _Xenotoca_ or _Ameca_. Both species together is going only more or less and I find it a difficult combination in the long term, mainly because I like to have a larger group of either species and 2 large groups together become very difficult to select in a way that all size-classes are represented (= I think the best for long-term maintainance). I am currently keeping a small group of domestic guppy's in the smaller aquarium, but might switch to another species some day. First I like to try to combine guppy's with some fish which leaves their young alone, I suspect that white cloud minnows might be appropriate.


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## Plant Freak

Awesome!! Beautiful Spathe!! that is from the C. Usteriana?


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## illustrator

... and _C. aponogetiifolia_ flowering. The flower is a bit past it's prime and the tip is dried because it touched the TL-light, but I anyway like to show it. Like _C. usteriana_, it had no problems growing a 40 cm high spathe to reach the water surface. Plant grown submersed.


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## fnyb

Fantastic, Paul - really beautiful flowers, both C.usteriana and this one of C. aponogetifolia.

Just got a C. aponogetifolia myself, but looking for one or two C. usteriana, but this is not a trade thread


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## fnyb

illustrator;642215
[U said:


> Light:[/U] This is a German factory-made aquarium of the brand Juwel. These are really nice tanks, high quality and easy to work with but with some peculiarities. One of them is that only Juwel-TL lights fit in them, which are of course more expensive than standard TL-lights! There are 2 40 W TL-lights (T8 ), color "life-glo" (something between cool white and a plant light). Fotoperiod about 12 h, but I tend to change this to 10 h in winter.


Can't you use ordinary T8 36w Fluora L 77 ? I use these together with T8 36W 940, the plants grow very fast and I too have no algae problems


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## countcoco

illustrator said:


> Thought that I should show my other aquarium as well. The small foreground plant is _C. affinis_. The sword should grow a bit still, preferably to the surface or just below.


I love the way this tank looks! It's a great example as to why the oldschool way of arranging plants and maintaing a tank is soooo effective.

Could you give us more information about the dimensions, lighting, parameters, etc for this aquarium?

My c. affinis had been doing really well until I totally rearranged the tank about a month ago. After that it was rotting like mad so I moved it back into an emersed jar culture where it does surprisingly well.


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## illustrator

First: the plants in my aquaria are growing very well. Because of this they need frequent trimming and thinning and my aquaria don't look the same for any longer time. I took the amazon sword out of the smaller aquarium because it grew more dense but not taller and I wanted it to reach the surface (or nearly so). In this place is more _Hygrophila_ now. The _C. affinis _stand in front is smaller so I could add two more different _C. affinis _clones, one on the left and one in the middle. This so I can compare them under the same growing circumstances. The total layout is a bit messy because of this.

Dimensions of the smaller tank: 
80 x 35 x 40 cm.

Filter: inner filter consisting of only spunges. The upper one is cleaned at every water change, the rest only a few times a year.

Water changes: about every three weeks, about a third of the water.

Water parameters, basically local spring water: 
pH: 7,5-8
NO2 not measurable
NO3 5 mg/L
kH 12'dKH
gH 19'dGH
temperature: 23-25'C (regardless if the heater is on or of)

Lighting: 2 T5 tubes with reflectors. It's a factory made aquarium from Juwel, only Juwel TL tubes fit in. They are on for about 12 h/day.

On the bottom is local river sand, about 3 or 4 cm in the back and only 1 cm in front. This sand is known as slightly basic. No additions, other than a few stones. No wood of any kind.

Background: none in the aquarium, just a sheet of black plastic which hangs on the outside. The hind glass has some algae grown on.

Inhabitants now: 9 white cloud minnows and some 15 or 20 half grown apple snails which I feed heavily and which grow like crazy. So also again changed. The other fish moved to the bigger tank. Guppies did poorly because of some parasite or disease which left the white clouds unaffected. So no more guppies for now.


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## niko

This is great! So nice to see a tank that is not in steroids and doing well.

Can you post a picture of the crypt only aquarium as it is now?

Thanks!


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## illustrator

Here it is, photographed today. It is still crypt-dominated, but I added a few branches of _Hygrophyla corymbosa_. These fill some pathes between the crypts and make a nice contrast with the darker crypts. The main plant species is still _Cryptocoryne affinis_, with 5 or 6 different varieties (!). The tall plants are _C. usteriana _(middle) and _C. aponogetiifolia _(right). Fish are a large reproducing group of _Xenotoca_ "San Marcos" and a single pair of domestic platy hybrids. There are also subadult apple snails, but they don't do well because of being nipped by the fish. Technique is unchanged.


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## illustrator

Just to show you that the aquarium is still crypty ... I removed the _C. usteriana _because it was getting too big and the aquarium is now even more dedicated to _C. affinis_. There are now 7 different clones in it, and a recently added one of which I am not sure yet if it is different from the others. Other species are _C. aponogetiifolia _and a single _Hygrophyla_ branch for contrast. There is still a bit of _Najas_ floating around but that will gradually disappear (eaten by the fish). I reduced the light by putting a black plastic netting around the neon tubes because it was too bright for some of the _C. affinis_.

The fish are the same, only the platies are gone. Of the apple snails there is only a single shell left which I ddidn't get to removing yet. The background is covered by a red algae, which looks much better in real life than on the photograph (in the somewhat dim light it just looks like a very dark background).

_This is not an aquascape, it is a botanical garden in a glass cube_


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