Water Wisteria - help/suggestions?? Very puzzled right now!

[TifNee837]

Okay y'all. So I'm finding myself a bit puzzled

The puzzling plant? Water Wisteria.

And the puzzle - 

These pics were taken on June 30th, of my 60 gallon community tank (livebearers, otos, corys, assassin snails and two 2" BN plecos). Note all the decently sized, very green Water Wisteria.

This next pic is of my 5 gallon Heterandria Formosa hex tank, 2 different dates. Note the nicely colored Wisteria in IT, as well.

Now I don't have a pic of when I FIRST put the Wisteria in my betta tank, but, it was about 3-4" tall, 2-3" wide. Had a few places it looked to be melting back a bit, but, it was "extra" from the 60, the betta tank needed more plants, so in it went!

 

And THIS is what the Water Wisteria looks like as of now, in all 3 tanks.

 

So. The 60 gallon was where it started out. And it started out as 5 plants, no bigger than the tip of my index finger. And then became massive - both in size and number!

I was able to plant my 5 gallon, a friends 45 gallon, my grandfathers 30 gallon, and sold more than 30 plants that were btwn 3-6".

 

And now? Now I LITERALLY have absolutely NONE in the 60 gallon, only small ones in the 5, and just one big one in the betta!

Tank parameters info - 
Temp (all 3) btwn 75-79°F
pH (all 3) btwn 7.2-7.6
Ammonia and Nitrite (all 3) 0
Nitrate (all 3) btwn 20-60
GH (all 3) = 25-27
Kh (all 3) = 2-3

Water source parameters {from the tap - well water} 
pH less than 6 (I have crushed coral in my filters and mixed in the substrate in all 3 tanks)
Ammonia and Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20
GH = 21-23
Kh = 1-2

I use Easy Green, Easy Carbon, and root tabs for my swords and my 4 or so aponogeton plants.

 

So. Thoughts?

 

And there are a few other plants that are behaving in a similar way but almost reversed

But I want to solve the wistetia mystery first! 😊

[Lizzie Block]

@TifNee837 Wow! looks great in the betta tank! I've had a similar experience with this plant - I think it may be *Water Sprite? 🙂 I'm fairly sure anyways. For me, it would do well for some months and then start to brown and die off, but not before sending out tons of new stems as some type of last ditch effort to save itself. Hmm.

But, I've found it to do better in softer water than hard. Not sure of the reason.. Just lived like a year longer. Difference of probably 10 or 15° GH. I thought ok maybe it just prefers soft water. Also, Water Sprite is also a prettyyy heavy feeder, so potentially it could not be getting enough nutrients. Especially if you do lots of water changes or have a lot of other plants in the tank like me. 

These two variables are what I've changed and had success with when I found my water sprite wasn't doing well, even under high lighting.

I also hear it does well floating in the water column instead of rooted. I have not tried it. You could try to snip a piece off the top of the big plant and try it floating in your 60 gallon and see how it does! 

Lizzie. 

[Cory]

How much easy green are you dosing? Is it possible the nitrates are coming from food and not from the easy green meaning you could be deficient in other compounds in which you aren't testing for? 

[TifNee837]

On 9/15/2020 at 1:30 AM, Cory said:

How much easy green are you dosing? Is it possible the nitrates are coming from food and not from the easy green meaning you could be deficient in other compounds in which you aren't testing for? 

@Cory in my 60 gallon I use 9-12 pumps of easy green every 5 days (it's about how far in btwn my water changes are - livebearers 🤦🏻‍♀️)

In my 5 gallon and betta tanks I do one pump (weekly)

 

I also have pothos, lucky bamoo and hosta in my HoBs on the 60, and then just pothos on the 5 and betta tanks.

 

I had only recently started dosing more than indicated on the bottle because I was thinking that the pothos and such had started taking the nutrients before the tank plants even got the chance to.

 

**BUT** I will say - my nitrites in my 60 gallon HAVE gone down a bit and have stayed at 60 or less.

 

But it's entirely possible I'm lacking elsewhere.

I'm just not sure what to look for..

[TifNee837]

On 9/15/2020 at 1:30 AM, Cory said:

How much easy green are you dosing? Is it possible the nitrates are coming from food and not from the easy green meaning you could be deficient in other compounds in which you aren't testing for? 

Definitely wisteria - the stems and leaves are broader/larger and more spread apart.

At one point, I had a whole breeder box full of small ones floating (this was a box designated specifically for plants to 'grow out' - some had even started to grow up and out of the water! - but they have all since been planted.

I also used the in my breeders with fry (as well as java moss)

Then I got hit with columnaris, which wiped out virtually all my fry so I had no need to keep any in the breeders, so they got planted.