# Issues with Hygrophila difformis



## Aquarist_Fist (Jul 22, 2008)

Hi, I hope someone here has good advice for me. This is getting a little ridiculous. I bought a couple of stems of water wisteria about three months ago and planted them into my aquarium. However, they showed no sign of growth and didn't really fit in anyways, so I decided to take them out and put them into a low-light, no-gravel 5.5 tank wrapped with a lead plant weight. 

Well, a week or so ago, I took them out again and replanted it into the main tank. And the damn thing just refuses to grow! During all this time, the wisteria has not grown an inch. I understand that throwing them in a standby tank does not further growth, but c'mon! Wisteria is supposed to grow under any condition.

Current parameters are: 

Tank size 15g (long)
Light 9h total: 3h 28W - 4h 56W - 2h 28W, some floater cover

PH 6.5 
GH 1-2 
Temp 82F 

CO2 ~30ppm 

3x/week KNO3 + KH2PO4 
3x/week Plantex CSM+B 
2ml Excel daily
Flourite


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## AlaskanCorydoras (Jan 1, 2009)

I've found that whenever you move wisteria it tends to lose quite a few of its leaves, then start to regrow from the bottom. They also like a high quality growth substrate, and occasional "fertilizing" (I simply feed my fish over the wisteria, the sinking pellets take care of the fertilizer. . .) Once in the plant substrate, they should do well enough if left alone. They're pretty hardy, and adapt readily to different light levels and water conditions.

I see that you're using the flourite substrate, which is what one of my tanks use. . . its doing quite well in that tank. Perhaps you are simply trying too hard. . . you are using an awful lot of addatives.


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## starrystarstarr (Sep 6, 2006)

the first time ii go that plant it didnt grow for me at all. i ended up trashing it. i tried it again recently and it finally caught.


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## Aquarist_Fist (Jul 22, 2008)

Hm, interesting. Did you buy from the same source the second time?



AlaskanCorydoras said:


> I've found that whenever you move wisteria it tends to lose quite a few of its leaves, then start to regrow from the bottom.


Yes, I'll leave it alone for a couple weeks. Maybe it just needs more time.



> I see that you're using the flourite substrate, which is what one of my tanks use. . . its doing quite well in that tank. Perhaps you are simply trying too hard. . . you are using an awful lot of addatives.


It really sounds more than it is. The fertilizer routine is standard EI as per Tom Barr's teachings.


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## brion0 (Sep 28, 2008)

Grows well for me, give it some time maby it will take off. I put trimming in a 20L, 1 wpg, with plain gravel, it still grows, but kinda slow.


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## rpayer (Jun 9, 2008)

If you can't get that weed to grow something is not right! j/k!!

Check out the tank in my sig... 48w of T5HO, no c02, flourite, flourish and excel and I still have to do a massive trim every week or two.


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

I placed a stem of hd in my 5 gallon Tom Barr type low tech setup with Seachem Onyx Sand and leonardite and mulm underneath. Only 14 watt 6500 compact fluorescent light bulb in canopy for 8 hours. No c02 injection. Once a week macro and micro EI style. In three months the HD spread from one emersed leaf stem form to a submersed leaf form and totally smothered my tank. The stuff is like a weed. I had to do a major trim as its leaves had literally spread like wild fire like adventerous shoots and leaves had shaded out all other plants. If you have problems growing this, then you have serious issues.


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## anthonysquire (Jul 18, 2006)

I've got hygro growing in a 55 with 150 watts of metal halide light and mine is looking more like a carpeting plant. When I bought it it was in stems but over the last 4 or 5 months it has died off at the stem and starting growing horizontally instead of vertically. I like the way it is growing though!


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## tropicana (Dec 15, 2008)

maybe u put stress on the roots, i noticed that when u move plants around alot the growth would stall.. try not to move it for a while maybe it might work, i remember when i bought my microswords they did not grow for a while, thoguht they would die..


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