I just bought a bunch of Crypocryne Becketi at an aquarium auction and I don't know how to take care of them. Does anything need to be added to the gravel to make them grow? Room temp is around 70F is that warm enough? Is a ten gallon tank tall enough? Do plants need a filter if there's no fish in the tank?

If you can get some root tabs or seachem flourish/flourish excel that is about all you will need. You also need some surface agitation to stop the water from going stagnant possibly a small air pump. You will need to dose more regularly if there are no fish in the tank as no waste is being absorbed by the plants. What is you wattage per gallon for this tank? A 10gal tank is a good size you do not really need to worry about height as you can always trim the plants.

I don't have a tank light but I have the tank in front of a south window so that should be enough light. Would an air stone be good enough or would a aquaclear be better. I am concerned about putting plants in with my fish because all my tanks are healthy and I don't want to introduce any parasites or problems. How deep should the gravel be?

An air stone is sufficient but if you wish to cut down on water changes then i would use a filter. The substrate needs to be fairly deep are you doing a planted tank or just this plant? Generally 2-3inches of gravel is enough.

Do you have to do weekly water changes with a plant tank like you do with a fish tank?

I bought Crypocryne Becketi, anarachis, horn wart and java moss at the auction. I don't know anything about plants. I didn't know what the plants were when I bid on them. I haven't even thought about looking at the plants at the pet stores. But it was the end of the auction and I got them at a good price. Now I have to learn how to take care of them and figure out what to do with them. Right now their all floating in a bare 10 gallon aquarium.

I'd like to be able to safely put them with fish. I'm thinking about buying a couple 300 or 500 gallon stock tanks this summer for some of my goldfish and would like to put some plants in there. Now that I have these plants I'm thinking about setting up a plant tank and I would like to grow enough for my stock tanks this summer.

You can get away with monthly water changes if it is a plant only tank. Do you have some driftwood or a large rock to put the java moss on? You can wrap fishing line or cotton thread around it and the dirftwood/rock to help it latch on, I would use fishing line that way you do not have to remove it. To plant the plants group into a group of 3 stems so say you have 6stems of one plant you group it into 3stems and 3stems and plant that way. Remember 3 stems per planting is a good rule. Taller plants in back shorter in front. If there is very little or no root growth trim about 1-2inches of the bottom this helps encourage new root growth. Usually with stem plants, be sure to have about 3-4inches distance between each plant other wise the roots can grow into each other. It is also good to scalp the gravel make it thicker at the back as taller plants go in back and shallower at the front.

Hope that helps.

oh natural sunlight may not be enough if you can get a desk lamp that takes screw in compact fluorescent bulbs that is good, any type of fluorescent bulb will help a plant any other types such as incandescent and actinic will do jack to plants. A good lamp that i know you can get in the US is the compact fluorescent lamp from wal*mart i think it is $20.

I remember reading somewhere that crypts don't appreciate being subjected to frequent water changes as they are adapted to stagnant waters in their natural setting. Also, if the water's quite hard, they have a tendency to disintegrate in the notorious "crypt melt" phenomenon. Soft acidic water's their preference.

Interestingly, crypts actually become much hardier when they're only partially submerged. They actually thrive the most when in bog-like conditions (shallow water only coming up to their crowns and abundant atmospheric humidity), growing to sizes beyond what they usually appear in pet shops. They also produce their unique flowers only at this state.

How can natural direct sunlight from a South window not be enough? That's a lot of sun. I was wondering if it might be too much. Since you live in Australia you might get more sun from the North window. Living in northern USA I get direct sun from the South window.


I have plenty of fishing line that I can take off my fishing poles for the java moss. How fast does java moss grow?




Then would it be better to have the tank only 1/4 to 1/2 full so they can grow out of the water? Would it be better to have the crypts in a tank by them selves and have the anarachis, horn wart and java moss seperate?




Which applies to Crypocryne Becketi?

Java moss will grow fairly quickly given enough light, while you may get full sun i was just saying that full sunlight may not grow anything as well as if you had an artificial light. Yes we get our full sun from the North but it is not that bright here that is why i was questioning it

That depends... do you want to maintain the crypts as specimen plants or as aquarium decor? If you're interested in simply keeping them as they are and not as part of an aquascape, I'd say keep them by themselves with a thin layer of potting compost under a 2-inch layer of gravel, plus the shallow watter and covered tank. Eventually, if they do thrive, they'll begin taking over the whole tank. They also don't require as much light and aeration when grown in a bog-type terrarium as opposed to keeping them as aquatic plants. You could even do away with CO2 entirely.

I read Gary Elson's article in Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine about how the biggest and lushest Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia he ever had (he said he had very little success maintaining it submerged and that it was one of the hardest crypts to keep even in pampered conditions) in his collection was the one which ended up forgotten in his daughter's "beginner tank" in which it stayed for over a year in a corner of the room, sitting in half an inch of dirty water and an hour or so of sunlight from the window every day.

Although of course, I'm pretty sure that's not something you'd want to copy... the point of his sharing being that crypts are a horticultural contradiction... they could seem to be so fragile and delicate in some aspects but at the same time, prove to be among the toughest of plants. Speaking of which, if your crypts do "melt", you could still save the plant by digging out their rhizomes (root systems) and replant them in damp compost. If they stayed damp, plump and white, they'll still be capable of sprouting new growth even after a year and a half of dormancy... something even swordplants and Anubias can't do.

Ok, I guess that I don't get why artificial light would be better than sunlight. I don't even have aquarium lights for my fish. My aquariums get the light that comes through the windows. So I don't know anything about aquarium lighting and the benefits of artificial light.



I stopped at 3 pet stores today and the only seachem flourish I found was the seachem flourish Comprehensive. One place had root tabs but they were sold out. I could check some other pet stores for the flourish excel tommorrow.

I've been watching the water to see if the plants bought any guess with it. I saw a couple small snails, one gammarus pulex and what might be a planarian.

I'm not sure how I want to maintain the crypts yet. I'm keeping my options open. I have enough crypts that I could do both and I might. I got 12 crypts for $10. I was told that was a steal.

A bog-type terrarium sounds interesting. Will any compost work? There are so many different potting soils, dirts and composts that when you go to buy one, you have 5 or 6 different types of the same thing to chose from.

Oh sorry i should have made things clearer you only need one of the products i listed i just gave you a variety to choose from.

I did some shopping today. I got a 75 watt fluorescent light, seachem flourish Comprehensive (Only one store had seachem and it was the only one they carried) I hope it's Ok. I got some tiny clay pots to ancor the Anacharis and some potting soil.

If I bleach the crypts will that hurt them or make them melt?

Would it be safe to put shrimp in with plants that have been bleached?

will bleach hurt the crypts? I'm getting the strong feeling it might. The plant might not survive the drastic pH spike a bleach soak will cause.

here's a notion... don't put any live animals of any sort in your planted tank yet for at least a month and a half. That'll give time for any attached parasites to die from starvation due to lack of a host and also allow the plants to become firmly established and rooted in your tank. It might still carry the risk of pest snails though... got any Potassium permanganate? Or alternatively, just wash and rinse the plants thoroughly with a mild liquid soap.

If you do put in plants that have undergone a bleach soak, throw in plenty of Sodium thiosulfate as a dechlorinator first before putting the shrimp in. ST is relatively safe to use without too much risk of overdosing unlike chloramine binders.

Where do you get Sodium thiosulfate?

Wouldn't Stress coat work as a dechlorinator? Or prime?

Sodium thiosulfate is a basic dechlorinator that is widely available at pet shops here in our part of the world. It's basically a simple solution of granulated ST dissolved in water that you add during water changes. d_golem also knows of it, and you might get granulated crystals of it in a chemistry-supplies shop if none of your pet stores supply it, but I'm thinking that it's likely you'll be able to get some of the aquarium-standard solution. I've been using it myself for years and have never seen any adverse effects on my fish.

I ended up finding Sodium thiosulfate on aquabid and it just came today. Now that I have it how do I use it? It didn't come with any instructions and the discription on aquabid said to mix 1 pound in a gallon of water and it should treat between 30,000 and 150,000 gallons of water and use 1 drop of stock solution to remove the chlorine from 1 gallon of tap water. I got 1/2 pound and don't want to mix the whole thing just to use a few drops.


I have some of my Crypocryne Becketi panted in a ten gallon tank in front of a south window and there's some stringy alga about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long growing on it. What can I do about this alga?

My, you actually got that much?

I guess you better whip out the calculator then and start dividing the grams-per-gallon ratio. Or alternatively, you could mix the whole batch already and keep it in storage, so that you'll have it ready anytime you'll be needing to do a waterchange. It's my understanding that the dissolved ST dechlorinator could be stored indefinitely in opaque plastic gallon jugs kept out of direct sunlight at room temps.

As for the algae... have you tried my suggestion of hand-washing the plants with mild liquid soap? Or perhaps, you could let the shrimp you're adding [later] to deal with the algae.

I got the smallest amount that was listed which was 1/2 pound. All the other listings were 1 pound, 4 pound and 8 pounds. I like to use teaspoons for measuring my stess coat. So it would have been nice if there would have been instructions included so I could measure it out in teaspoons. I'm not good enough at math to figure that out.

I hand washed all the plants before I put them in the aquarium. All this alga grew in the last 2 weeks. Do you suggest that I pull out the Crypocryne Becketi when they get alga growing on them and washing them as needed? Is it bad for them to have alga growing on them?

I got the shrimp today. But I put them in a different tank. Maybe I'll add some later when the waters good.

Then maybe you just mix up the whole ST batch then... And keep the lot as a reserve source of instant dechlorinator (just remember to shake the jug before using it each time as some of the crystals may have settled)

The algae just grew in the tank? If so, is it a light growth or already very dense? If it's just light, you could let the shrimp deal with it.

So far the alga grow is light but it's getting heavier. I can't add any shrimp yet because the water readings are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 40

Using Sodium thiosulfate is sounding complicated. Why would using Sodium thiosulfate be any better than using stress coat or prime?

because there's less risk of adverse effects to the tank's inhabitants if you accidentally overdose. I do it all the time.