# Crypt only tanks



## rajah_22

Share your crypt only (or crypt dominated) tanks here! I know there are some great ones out there. We need to see more of the aquascaping possibilities with crypts.

Here a few of my past and present crypt tanks. Some people just don't get why you would want a tank with only crypts but I figured folks around here would understand!

Mr. Aqua 33 gallon

























20 gallon long

















15 gallon


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## Lornek8

Nice tanks. In the 2nd to the last picture on the right, what is that crypt? The one that looks pinkish with green edges.


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## serenityfate1

Lornek8 said:


> Nice tanks. In the 2nd to the last picture on the right, what is that crypt? The one that looks pinkish with green edges.


Looks like crypt petchii pink, but i can be wrong.


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## rajah_22

Lornek8 said:


> Nice tanks. In the 2nd to the last picture on the right, what is that crypt? The one that looks pinkish with green edges.


That's actually C. albida. It turns that color under very high light. The same plants currently are mostly lime green with some bronze stripes. Under low light they are completely green.


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## rajah_22

I would love to see some other crypt dominated tanks if anyone wants to share. 

I am currently re-booting the 33 gallon and could use some crypt aquascaping inspiration.


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## HDBenson

I'm very taken by the 33g!! I love the stump in it especially! I have a stump in one of my tanks I've been wanting to use like this! I'm going to dirt my 26g bowfront soon(I caught the dirty fever and can't turn back!). I do love some crytps and would like to create something like this very much. What are your lighting/fert specs rajah 22?


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## rajah_22

HDBenson said:


> What are your lighting/fert specs rajah 22?


Glad you like it! Lighting is 2 x Finnex fuge ray LEDS. They are raised above the top of the tank a bit so it's not super bright. I've had issues with algae on the rocks in there. 2 x 24 in T5s has also worked fine on that tank.

For ferts I don't dose anything. The substrate is worm castings topped with play sand. I find this cheap and effective. I also added in some red clay, dolomite, K2SO4 and CSM+B to the substrate. Not sure if those things help all that much (I've had crypt tanks with and without those additives - good results with both approaches). I find that these type of substrates do great for a few months and then seem to kind of become less effective - like something runs out. At that point I add root tabs or restart the tank if I want something new. I'm too lazy to dose ferts and do lots of water changes...

That 33g also has pressurized Co2 which really speeds up crypt growth rates and seems to promote production of runners.


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## HDBenson

That's awesome! I've never heard of using worm castings in planted tanks. My parents use it in pots for crotons. Do you use heating cables under the crypts? What are your water params?


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## illustrator

This is crypt dominated. There is a water sprite fern and some moss as well (a big clump of flame moss and some bits of "messy moss", which is something I collected here in Slovenia but I didn't try to identify it yet. It grows very slowly but steadily, I also haven't decided if it has some added value for aquaria. The name is something I made up.) And oh, there is some bits of Bacopa as well which I am one by one removing. They did better with some CO2, the aquarium is now again low tech and they are declining anyway.

There are currently 9 species/varieties of _Cryptocoryne_ in this aquarium. The fish are suitably asian: zebra barbs and odessa barbs. For those who remember my old topic: the inhabitants have changed rather a lot. I tried a soft water setup before but gave up because of fish diseases and because I didn't manage to get some rarer crypts to grow in the long term. This is just my local tap/spring water again. A surviving softwater crypt is still emersed in the window sill.

Some crypts are still having some emersed leaves and most should grow a lot. I plan to add a branch or two with x-mas moss in the back.


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## illustrator

And this is crypt only. eh, ... with for contrast a singly _Hygrophyla_ branch straight in the middle (who said something about the rule-of-thirds?). There are just two species of crypts: _C. aponogetiifolia _and _C. affinis_, but a wide variety of the latter one. Before I had also _C. usteriana _in this aquarium, but this plant grew too big. There is only one fish species:_ Xenotoca _"San Marcos", which is not entirely plant/crypt-friendly.

Almost no technique: build in (factory - Juwel) filter with mainly perlon fibre. No heater, no CO2, local tapwater without additives. 2 TL tubes, which are wrapped in some black mesh to reduce the amount of light (would be too strong for some of the plants otherwise). The substrate is pure river sand from a local river. The only fertiliser is some pellets of dried cowdung (for the vegetable garden) which I occasionally stick in the sand when I feel that the plants develop deficiencies, and some fish-poo of course. Compared to what I described earlier in the separate topic this is even more down to earth, but with better growing plants.

p.s. I finally managed to make a photo that gives a realistic impression of this aquarium.


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## rajah_22

illustrator - those are gorgeous tanks. I admire the simplicity in your approach. Well done. What species of crypts are in your first tank? Also, what is the temperature range on your tank with no heater? Thanks for posting. 

C. aponegetifolia and C. usteriana are two species I would love to grow in the future once I can set up a larger tank.


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## rajah_22

HDBenson said:


> That's awesome! I've never heard of using worm castings in planted tanks. My parents use it in pots for crotons. Do you use heating cables under the crypts? What are your water params?


Worm castings work well. Some people claim they need to be boiled first (to remove ammonia I believe?), but I have used them successfully straight out of the bag. You don't need to go overboard with it though as it probably does leach a lot of nutrients at first.

No heating cables are used. I keep the temp around 75 or so. I actually don't know the water parameters because I don't own test kits. I just use water straight from the tap. I may be lucky in that my tap water is good, but I also think many crypts are more adaptable to water conditions than we give them credit.


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## rajah_22

I recently set up a new crypt tank that houses Botia kubotai loaches, tiger barbs and harlequin rasboras. It is sort of an asian stream themed tank with high flow. I will try and get some pics soon.


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## HDBenson

Excited to see this new tank! I've always wanted to do loaches as well. Particularly kuhlis.


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## illustrator

rajah_22 said:


> illustrator - those are gorgeous tanks. I admire the simplicity in your approach. Well done. What species of crypts are in your first tank? Also, what is the temperature range on your tank with no heater? Thanks for posting.
> 
> C. aponegetifolia and C. usteriana are two species I would love to grow in the future once I can set up a larger tank.


I am trying a bunch of crypts in this aquarium at this moment. I will probably keep fewer in the future. What is there now:

_C. beckettii_ "Petchii"
_C. cordata_ (obtained as _C._ x_purpurea_)
_C. crispatula_ var. _balansae _"Brown"
_C. nurii_
_C. spiralis_ var. _caudigera_
_C. spiralis_ var. _spiralis_
_C. undulata_ (regular form, obtained as _C. willissi_)
_C. undulata_ "Broad Leaves" (triploid form)
_C. wendtii _(obtained as _C. bullosa_)

The aquarium without heater is still around 22-25'C because of the room temperature + heat from the lights. In summer it gets a few degrees more. I have one of the_ C. affinis _for a long time at 16'C at my job, it grows very slowly then, but survives well. So there is no need to worry if the temperature would drop a few degrees once in a while.


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## Kalan850

Real great thread I'll post mine tomorrow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Kalan850

125 gallon semi high tech crypt tank






it's seen better days but I'm getting her back where she needs to be.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## rajah_22

illustrator said:


> I am trying a bunch of crypts in this aquarium at this moment. I will probably keep fewer in the future. What is there now:
> 
> _C. beckettii_ "Petchii"
> _C. cordata_ (obtained as _C._ x_purpurea_)
> _C. crispatula_ var. _balansae _"Brown"
> _C. nurii_
> _C. spiralis_ var. _caudigera_
> _C. spiralis_ var. _spiralis_
> _C. undulata_ (regular form, obtained as _C. willissi_)
> _C. undulata_ "Broad Leaves" (triploid form)
> _C. wendtii _(obtained as _C. bullosa_)
> 
> The aquarium without heater is still around 22-25'C because of the room temperature + heat from the lights. In summer it gets a few degrees more. I have one of the_ C. affinis _for a long time at 16'C at my job, it grows very slowly then, but survives well. So there is no need to worry if the temperature would drop a few degrees once in a while.


Any pics of the C. balansae 'brown'? Curious what that looks like. I have some that has nice bronze coloration and was wondering if this was common. Most of mine stay totally green.


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## rajah_22

Kalan850 said:


> 125 gallon semi high tech crypt tank
> View attachment 32146
> it's seen better days but I'm getting her back where she needs to be.
> 
> Sweet tank! Whats the substrate and lights? co2? Share a list of the species you have in there when you get a chance.


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## Tyrone

Beautiful tanks Rajah! In the OP, 1st pic, what is the crypt in the back-right corner? 3rd pic, what is the crypt dead center?

One more question, in your experience and knowledge of crypts, are there any other species of crypts that stay small like crypt parva or close to that?


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## Kalan850

rajah_22 said:


> Kalan850 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 125 gallon semi high tech crypt tank
> View attachment 32146
> it's seen better days but I'm getting her back where she needs to be.
> 
> Sweet tank! Whats the substrate and lights? co2? Share a list of the species you have in there when you get a chance.
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you rajah. The substrate is Eco complete really like the stuff but it seems as though it only lasted about a year. I am using flourish root tabs at the moment. Lights are actually t8 6500k, two 48" dual bulb Home Depot (super reflective diamond plate type) shop light fixtures. I do have pressurized co2 running about 4 bps. I will try to list the species sometime soon.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


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## rajah_22

Tyrone said:


> Beautiful tanks Rajah! In the OP, 1st pic, what is the crypt in the back-right corner? 3rd pic, what is the crypt dead center?
> 
> One more question, in your experience and knowledge of crypts, are there any other species of crypts that stay small like crypt parva or close to that?


Thanks! In the first pic the back right plant is actually just a C. wendtii, likely the brown or bronze form. The crypts center in the 3rd pic is actually something I picked up unlabelled from the LFS. It looked very different when I bought it, and honestly I don't know what it is. One guess is C. lutea. Other guesses would be welcome! It's a nice looking plant with neat stripes whatever it is.

Regarding small crypts, I don't know of any that stay as small as C. parva. Some of the hybrids with parva in them, like C. willissi and C. lucens stay somewhat small, but not nearly as small as parva. It is hands down the smallest species to my knowledge.


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## Bluefin

rajah_22 said:


> Share your crypt only (or crypt dominated) tanks here! I know there are some great ones out there. We need to see more of the aquascaping possibilities with crypts.
> 
> Here a few of my past and present crypt tanks. Some people just don't get why you would want a tank with only crypts but I figured folks around here would understand!
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> 15 gallon


sweet tank,,,crypts rock :hail:


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## illustrator

After posting a picture last time I decided that I should do some aquascaping, so I added some wood. In the meantime some pf the crypts have also grown a bit. This is how it looks now. I found a small empty corner and added some C. cordata (Dennerle, in vitro culture). 

In the long term I plan to again reduce the diversity of plants in this aquarium, but I want first to see which ones grow best. I reduced the amount of moss (moved to the other aquarium) and removed the water sprite (which did do better in softer water + CO2).


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## illustrator

rajah_22 said:


> Any pics of the C. balansae 'brown'? Curious what that looks like. I have some that has nice bronze coloration and was wondering if this was common. Most of mine stay totally green.


In my aquarium only the young leaves are brownish, mature leaves are normally green. There are three different clones in trade here (nursery Las Lucanas): "green", "brown" and "red". "Red" is really a lot darker, but also grows more slowly and is not as robust in my set-up. I think that "red" would be really striking in high light with CO2.


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## Patriot100%

Great inspiration. I'm setting up a 80 gallon tank. Hopefully I can find some nice crypts to fill it in.


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## Patriot100%

Finally planted my crypts yesterday. Now the wit begins as they grow in.


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## sbalabani84

Anyone still have a Crypt only tank? Let's revive this great thread!


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