[TexasTornado]

I have some water wisteria in my aquarium and the leaves toward the back of the plants are turning brown on the edges so i plucked them off. How do you care for this plant? How much light should it get...i have a plant light in the hood. My ph is about 7. Should i fertilize? I am using Flourish Excel-Organic Carbon but it dosn't seem to be making a difference. I have 3 tiny Tigar Barbs and 1 Blue Dwarf Guarami in my 20 gal tank.

 

[Rebecca]

From what I've read, water wisteria is incredibly easy to grow because it is so adaptable and hardy. It can adapt to many different light conditions. It seems you don't have to fertilize it. If it gets out of hand, trim it by chopping off the root part and then re-plant it; it will grow a new root system in no time. Someone wrote that they cut off a large part of the top part of the plant, but it died after that.

It likes any temps between 65-82 degrees, and pH levels of about 5-8. It can even grow out of the water if you let it, and then you can take that part and plant it in a garden or whatever, and it will root and be beautiful.

It's great to maintain the health of your tank because it absorbs large amounts of wastes and also helps control algae.

Since it does grow so quickly it's better for tanks 15 gallons or larger, so you're fine there since you have a 20-gal.

 

[TexasTornado]

I'm so dumb!!! I thought the leaves were dying because the plant was turning kinda brownish. I started pulling off the "dead" leaves and the brownish stuff started rubbing off!!! I'm guessing that it's just algae. I'm i right? If I am, how do I get it off my plants?????

 

[Ziek]

probably is algae because i get that on my swords. i have a twig sucker and a clown pleco that eat the algae off the plants without eating the plants themselves however with something with small leaves like wisteria maybe a couple otocinclus cats might do the trick. they are very small and don't grow very much however they are also somewhat hard to keep. they are the type of fish to randomly die even in the best tanks from what i've seen. in my tank i found if i make sure there isn't any extra food there is very limited brown algae growth so make sure not to overfeed. i have some panda cats in my tank and i don't count them in my feeding amounts to prevent over feeding. seems to work well with that brown algae. hope this helps

 

[Biarsha]

I have wisteria in my tank and my 2 albino plecos just love hanging from it. They love the algae growth on the leaves and are surprisingly gentle leaving the leaves intact.(the albinos do grow quite large) My other plecos aren't that interested with it. My tank has neutral ph and temp is around 26.5 deg celsius and the wisteria thrives. I agree with Ziek and otocinclus cats are a good choice but they do seem to be very finicky. My clown loaches also seem to like it but not as much as the plecos.

 

[TexasTornado]

ok so my plants have been doing great, but this week they started losing leaves!!!!!!!! LOTS OF LEAVES!!!!!!!! They just break off and i have to fish them out! What would make my wisteria do this??? I have good water!!

temp 78
nitrates 10ppm
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
ph 7
20 gal tank
3 tiger barbs are the only inhabitants right now

 

[Lupin]

Hi Sarah.:wave:

I may have miss these details though.:mrgreen: How many wattages does your light have? Have you considered adding fertilizers to ensure sufficient nutrient supply?

 

[fish_4_all]

Here is my experience with Wisteria:
Your nitrates are most likely not 10 even with a good liquid regent test kit, dose them at up to 10ppm 3x a week if you have at least 2 watts/gallon. I know your test kits says it does but you likely need more, especially at higher than 2w/g. I have around 3 and my wisteria used up nitrates way too fast.
Second, Wisteria also sucks up iron, PO4, and K. They need to be dosed at an equitable ratio with NO3.

Before changing anything, how many watts do you have right now? If you have the standard fluorescent then it shoud be about 1.5 w/g in which case you will need fetilizers to keep everything happy, especially with that light of a bioload.

 

[TexasTornado]

My bulb is a Flora-Glo 15 watt. I just bought what the man at the store told me I needed.

You can add nitrates?????? Having live plants is new to me and they looked so beautiful till about 3 weeks ago and now they look gross. The leaves turn kinda clearish or stay green b4 coming off!! Also they used to stand up and almost reach the top of the water but now they droop over...

 

[Lupin]

You can add nitrates?????? Having live plants is new to me and they looked so beautiful till about 3 weeks ago and now they look gross. The leaves turn kinda clearish or stay green b4 coming off!! Also they used to stand up and almost reach the top of the water but now they droop over...

Yep.:thumbsup: Potassium nitrates. I heard they are the ingredients used for gun bullets.:blink: Still have to learn more on guns but I hate touching one..lol..:mrgreen:
The way your plant acts, it looks like Cryptocoryne rot, a disease wherein plants thrive and then beginning to wilt after a few days or months. I doubt it though. Hope fish_4_all and Andrew come to your rescue. As I don't know much about plants.:mrgreen:

 

[fish_4_all]

If this a 10 gallon tank then yes you can dose nitrates and probably need to as well as almost everything else. I would start with pottasium and nitrates for certain as this sounds like a shortage of possibly both. daose lightly until you find the plants are responding. Then tweak them if you don't see much growth. Don't forget the water changes! Weekly if you can.

The main thing, don't give up! We will help you find the problem and correct it. It takes time and can be a headache but it is well worth it.

Ok, crypt rot is normal in a changing tank, I have had it happen 6 times with same crypt and now it is huge and GEORGEOUS!
I also forgot one key thing, in all planted tanks you need a micro fertilizers, Seachem Flourish, Leafzone, CSM+B, anything that will provide iron and other needed traces. This could also be a trace deficiency especially with the droopy stems.

 

[Lupin]

Hi fish_4_all.:wave:

It was 20 gallons, not 10. Glad you could help Sarah.:thumbsup:

 

[TexasTornado]

Awesome!!! Thanks!!! :yourock:

 

[fish_4_all]

DOH, missed that, you need more light for Wisteria. 0.75 watts/gallon won't grow it unless you have an absolutely perfect tank and do perfcet dosing which I can't even come close to.

At that lighting, you can grow crypts, anubias and other really low light plants but not much else. To grow wisteria you really need at least 1.5 w/g. Is it a possibility to upgrade your lighting?

It is odd but plants will thrive for a time because they will live off their reserves but when they are gone they won't do well and will basically fall apart.

There are easy ways to upgrade lighting if you have a second hood, maybe a hood with sockets for screw in bubls where you can use 2, 20-25 watt compact flourescent screw in bulbs, making sure they are 6500K. I use a 48 inch shop fixture over my two 10 gallon tanks and i can grow just about anything. They are only $20-25 and would give you about 5 w/g of light which on a 20 gallon gives you medium to medium high light depending on if it is a long or tall 20 gallon.

If you can I would recommend upgrading the lighting. I hate to see someone get excited about plants and then submit to low light plants and hate their tanks because they don't grow plants. Let me know what you can find and i can do whatever i can to get you the light you need and the advice you need to grow plants quickly and if you want, as easily as possible.

 

[TexasTornado]

Yes I can definitely upgrade the light!!! Do I just need a new bulb to fit my hood or will I really need a new hood too? It'll be a couple weeks b4 I can get one...the hood I have now you just pop in the bulb.

 

[fish_4_all]

It will only take 15 watt bulbs unfortunatley. Until you can gte another fixture, do you have a desk lamp, a reading lamp or any light that you can out a screw in compact flourescent in? If you do, get a 25 watts 6500k bulb and place it over the tank, in front of it or wherever it seems to give the most light on the wisteria.

Before you get a new light, what are you looking for as far as growth? mild and noticeable/ medium to fast/ wild and trim every other day?
Can you afford to buy a fairly lagre amount of fertilizers? I know a site that you can get enough fertilizers of everything you ned for about $40 with shipping and that will last over a year, some of it lasting 2-4 years.

Let me know what you really want and we can try to get you there with the least painful headache.

 

[Lupin]

A new hood isn't really necessary. It is if it fits only one light tube. Oh that reminds me. Was it bulb or tube? I prefer tubes as they can cover almost the whole area of your tank.

 

[TexasTornado]

Unfortunately I can't afford much right now...I'm a nursing student with no job at the moment...BUT I have a shop I get my stuff at and they give me really good deals because I'v spent SO much money there in the past.
If I know what I need to get I'm sure I can find it there.

It's a tube and goes from one end of the tank to the other!

 

[Lupin]

Oh ok. Good luck.:thumbsup: Let us know if you got additional light tube.:mrgreen:

 

[fish_4_all]

Ok, 15 watts. Is this a 20 tall or long? What are the dimensions of the top?