Encrypt/Decrypt Confusion - Blank Decrypts

New to Encrypt/Decrypt in CI4. Having a strange issue where doing an encrypt/decrypt as a test on the view page works as expected. But if I save the encrypted data into my MySQL table (varchar 255 column), when I decrypt the data, it comes back blank. Looking for any pointers or a fresh set of eyes to point out my mistake.
On page (view) works:

PHP Code:

<?php
$orig = '4444333322221111';
$encrypter = \Config\Services::encrypter();
$key = hex2bin($_ENV['encryption.key']);
$ciphertext = base64_encode($encrypter->encrypt($orig, $key));

?>

<p>Original: <?= $orig; ?></p>
<p>Encrypted: <?= $ciphertext; ?></p>
<p>Decrypted: <?php echo $encrypter->decrypt(base64_decode($ciphertext), $key); ?></p> 


This produces:

Code:

Original: 4444333322221111

Encrypted: QjH3ZJIaPX7N1G+VJMACMcaWZOyIWgvKGSSpNtayyytlMt04reCNuCFB7xe2Hse5CQOYswBDWxpjXHxJoMW3jDwMcs5zWV/S

Decrypted: 4444333322221111

But if I save the data to my table, like this:

PHP Code:

$post = $this->request->getPost();
 $encrypter = \Config\Services::encrypter();
 $key = hex2bin($_ENV['encryption.key']);

$ccdata['cc_num'] = base64_encode($encrypter->encrypt(cleanCCNum($post['payment_cc']), $key));

 $this->paymentModel->replace($ccdata); 


and try to bring it back later in my controller with:

PHP Code:

$orig = $payment['cc_num'];
 $encrypter = \Config\Services::encrypter();
 $key = hex2bin($_ENV['encryption.key']);

 echo '<p>Original: ' . $orig . '</p>';
 echo '<p>Decrypted: ' . $encrypter->decrypt(base64_decode($orig), $key) . '</p>';
 die(); 


I get: 

Code:

Original: 2OklJexxXUZIK9uPGOHE//Bc9BIHoCc5BUD5KOva3pgCYkqyivIB+MJlbJJJSE6/5yxnf5H3h/zVhJtcCoMc8js/tq3674E4

Decrypted:

So it appears to be saving correctly, but decrypting is returning an empty string.

Any help is appreciated!