java ferns

[stonedaquarium]

hi there...

i would like to find out if too much light is bad for java ferns. i got some windelov and java ferns that had its leaves turn brown... which was kinda weird since almost all of my plants were growing like crazy, plus i dose (potassium, iron and trace minerals 2x a week. 1 cap full each dosing ) plus 10 hours of light at 2 watts per gallon along with co2 diffusion (1-2 bps)

water parameters is ph 7.0 (sometimes drops to 6.5 after co2 ) ammonia is 0 to 0.25 ppm.

the leaves seem to turn brown and grow holes then algae starts to grow on it... which i had to constantly prune to avoid the algae from spreading.

can someone help me with some tips or if there is something im doing wrong... thanks

[rlove250]

I don't know any technicalities about why the leaves are going brown, but when I grew Java Fern, my older leaves would do that, mostly when they had baby plants growing off of them. I would just trim, because it grew so fast, i didn't worry about dying leaves.

Doesn't seem like you have too much light. Maybe some more experienced people can help.

(BTW, im looking for some Java Fern freebies in the kamloops area!)

[neven]

nitrates are the issue. Java ferns brown and get wholes (call it fern melt personally) when nitrates in the tank bottom out. You need to increase feedings a bit to provide more fish poop, or what i do is increase the kno3 dosage.

[stonedaquarium]

thanks neven... so is there still a chance for me to save my ferns or should i just throw them out? i feed my tank 2x a day... as per nitrate dosing would the seachem flourish nitrogen work?

[stonedaquarium]

neven, do you know where i can get some macro fertz for my plants... i guess i might be off on the nitrates i will try dosing with flourish nitrogen hopefully that helps. currently im dosing on flourish potassium, iron, and the regular flourish excel... I guess the same condition happened to my windelov ferns as well.

[PaulCheung]

You can contact MyKiss (Pat) of Canadian Aquatics. He got macro fertilizer. I got mine from him.

[roadrunner]

I have the same problem with java fern and windelow. My nitrates seem to be low every time I check, so I've been told to dose more ferts. It's been only few days, so I can not say if it is working yet.

[stonedaquarium]

so i decided to go IPU to get a nitrate test and some flourish nitrogen. I guess my nitrates were pretty low about 20 ppm. which was kinda low considering the bioload i had in my tank. about 12 mollies, 4 cardinals and 8 amanos, plus feeding of 2x a day. I guess having a heavy planted tank with about 10 steams of cambamba, 5 steams of crypts, 5x5 bed of riccia, java mosses, ferns, anubias 8 wisteria stems and 10 steams of rotala and 3 amazon swords must have really eaten up the nitrates. well i decided to dose a capful a day for my 20 gal and see if my ferns recover...

At first i thought it was due to the BBA draining the nutrients from my ferns but now i guess it must be the nitrates. which also puzzles me how the BBA still manages to grow on the ferns considering the phosphates in my tank is 0.25ppm. should the phosphates be lower to completely halt it from growing on my ferns?

[neven]

20 ppm is where you want it to be for a planted tank, you'll need to test the tank before a feeding, and before you dose, and at different times during the week. If nitrates remain consistent and dont drop below 5 ppm, then it can maybe be a water circulation issue aswell.

As for BBA, phosphates are not an indicator of BBA, they are an indicator of proper tank maintenance if anything. The sticky about black brush algae explains what can cause it.

[jumboshrimp]

For nutrients, I find that Equilibrium from SeaChem works well for my plants and it doesn't change pH.