A personal blog about Cryptocorynes, waterplants and fishkeeping.
Another recent addition to my slowly growing collection. In comparison to the C. auriculata, It was in emersed form, but It was smaller. It is growing much faster and right now It would have 6-7 leaves.
It was labeled as “Golden ring” ´Bukit Ibam´, but I found out that the other websites rather use the name “Yellow ring”.
Again, substrate is a mix of beech leaves and Seramis. So far seems fine to me.
I got this Cryptocoryne in March/April. It was in submersed condition and had a nice pattern – Tiger stripes as the label said. Soon after it converted to emersed form it lost these stripes. But I am still waiting when the plant grows larger, so who knows.
Substrate is a mix of beech leaves and Seramis.
It was my first blackwater Cryptocoryne. Although I’ve read it was easy to grow, I was a little bit worried. I got in a submersed form but It converted quite fast. Now It fills one pot (approx. 8cm in diameter) and in another one it is starting to thrive too. As I wrote in previous post, I have it in a pH about 4,5 and EC approx. 350 μS/cm and substrate – beech leaves.
Sorry for a dirty pot. I have realized how the pot is dirty after taking a photo and during editing the images.
Due to a long business trips I had no time to update my site. I have written some posts in Czech… and now for something completely different – English update..
So… here it is.
Plants are growing just fine. I am trying to do a regular changes of water and from time I measure water parameters. As I wrote before, some new species are making me happy. But more on that topic later in a new post. I have uncovered my glass cover a bit more to lower humidity and for better air circulation. Some of my plants really resemble submersed condition. It is time to toughen up!
Oh, and I nearly forgot… My C. wendtii ‘Green Gecko‘ got nice reddish pattern on leaves also in an emersed form.
It is time for an irregular update. So, here it is.
I wish I had more time. Some Crypts have flowered and of course I missed it. But some C. wendtii(s) flower quite regularly. Also a mystery Crypt, that is similar to C. pontederiifolia flowered 3rd time during this spring. I was told It could be C. undulata (?) – I will write a new post about this Crypt and include some photos.
I wanted to try LED lighting – to be more precise LED chips. I have decided to use cheap Chinese ones from eBay. Maybe in future I will try CREE LED chips. So far I am satisfied with Chinese LED chips and I will add more. I mix a warm white and a cool white color.
During this summer I am will try to get more rare Cryptocorynes. In last 3 weeks my collection expanded a little bit (Hurray! I am so happy. 🙂 ) and I added Cryptocoryne sp. “Yellow Ring” ‘Bukit Ibam’ (well, it was labeled as “Golden ring”) and Cryptocoryne auriculata “Tiger Stripe” ‘Central Sarawak’. I have used a substrate based on Beech leaves mixed with Seramis (clay based substrate) and peat. A friend calls it a “German mix”. It seems to grow well. C. auriculata converted to emersed form quite fine and fast and has 3 new leaves. C. sp. “Yellow ring” was already emersed. I keep it in my blackwater setup with pH under 5 (usually 4-4.5) and EC around 350 μS/cm. Oh, and my C. minima has many new plantlets (it is in a pure beech leaves substrate… covered with sphagnum moss).
It has been quite a while. Bad news – no new species. Good news – I am upgrading my emersed setup.
My emersed setups changed a lot in time. Baby steps – 4 liters pickle jar and several small pots for various plants. Then in approx mid. 2011 it was a 30 or 40 liters old and leaking tank. In 2012 I have changed it to another 40 liters tank and finally in mid 2012 (?) I used a 80 liters tank (current setup). But as you know it yourselves – it never is enough. Therefore I added several “temporary windows setups” – or lets call it DIY window domes…but they are becoming more permanent than temporary.
I am planning a new emersed setup, a bit larger (at least twice ?)…in the near future
My current setup is placed near window (but you cannot have too much light, right?), so I also use a Compact fluorescent light bulb (32 Watts, they write it is 2250 lm) with metal reflector all over. I have not found a perfect fertilizer yet, but I am using a local NPK fert or I mix it myself.
DIY window domes are placed on the window ledge.
As a substrate I used several mixtures – mostly mixture of clay, soil and flower soil.
There are just tiny plants due to the recent changes in light and nutrition. It will regrow soon.
October 2013
January 2013
2012
First experiments
In emersed form it is not that beautiful, but I added more light. I am looking forward to see how it changes.
Since January it grew a lot. Hoping to see a spathe next summer.
Here it was in my emersed window setup.
I have Cryptocoryne albida (or C. costata if you prefer) for some time. It grew quite big, but since I neglected my tanks during summer it was nothing fancy. Recently I have started to add CO2 and PMDD again and the results came quite quickly. New leaves are turning red/brown and the plant became huge.
It is placed in my tank “Metamorphoses“.
During last year I put my Flamingo(s) into several tanks to propagate it and to try it in different conditions. This one is from a low tech tank (in fact, most of my tanks are low tech). It is in approx. 40x25x25cm tank, without CO2 (never added), clay based substrate mixed with gravel, tiny hang-on filter and just a 9W bulb as a light. It is on the table near the window so it gets an “extra light” from there. Except of several Dennerle Cryptocoryne tabs (for roots) I do not fertilize it (my fish do the job).
I would say the results are satisfying. Plant is approx. 15 cm wide, healthy, quite pink and only old leaves tent to go brown/green.
Update, 2014,Feb 04:
Recently I measured some water parameters, so here they are:
