Flourish and yellowing Java fern

[mommy2girls!]

Every time I add .5ml flourish to my 10 Gallon tank 1 of the largest leaves turns yellow and dies within the week. I have lots of new leaves coming out of the rhizomes when I dose. Is this fertilizer causing an imbalance or are just old leaves dying off and growing new stronger ones? Is it coincidence that it seems the fertilizer is causing this? Some of the new leaves look slightly curled. I don’t have anything special like co2 or strong lights. Pics were taken during water change so there’s bubbles everywhere

 

[corys30]

Were the plants grown immersed? If so, how long have you had them?

 

[FreshyFresh]

Java fern is so slow growing, it's hard to say. I used to dose flourish and excel, but I never found them to do anything astonishing for the rhizome plants I keep/kept in my particular setups. Just leaving them be with good lighting, regular water changes and decent lighting on 8hrs/day is all I needed.

 

[mommy2girls!]

I have no idea how they were grown. They came in a dry tube from petco. Ive had them since ~July. The ones that are turning yellow/white are the original leaves it came with. Just thought it was strange that the plant would be fine but not growing. Then I add flourish and boom yellow leaves with 2 or 3 new one coming up from the rhizome almost instantly. I even tried no fertilizer for 2 weeks then add it and next day yellowing. All of the shorter branches in the pic above are new. Only the real tall ones are original. I guess I was just looking for reassurance that I’m not creating an imbalance in my tank.

 

[corys30]

When you grow plants immersed like the ones in the tubes, the leaves will die off when you put them in water. I think that the leaves will be fine once they have all died and new ones have taken their places.

 

[mommy2girls!]

So you don’t think the yellowing has anything to do with the flourish? And I can continue to use it?

 

[corys30]

yes

 

[fishorama]

The leaves in your 2nd pic look healthy except for maybe a couple on the far right (skinny smaller? old leaves?). Java ferns are slow growing like others said, but also slow dying. The old leaves may not adjust to your tank conditions. It looks like you have another variety of java fern (windelov?) to the left of the regular fern. It seems healthy too. Is that losing old leaves or maybe you've had it longer?

Just cut off any yellowing or other unhappy looking leaves very close to the rhizome. They won't heal.

Ferns often grow baby ferns along the leaf edges of old leaves but that doesn't look like what happened in your first pic...& Really your tank is too small to support a bunch of even slow growing javas.

I don't use ferts with ferns or anubias, I forget what other plants you have. You might dose only half if you don't have faster growing plants.

BTW, how is you ember tetra doing? Any improvement yet?

 

[mommy2girls!]

Actually the Java is the oldest first plant for the tank. The yellowing tip shown in the first pic has completely turned white on the whole leaf and starting to brown. The whiteness ran down the entire spine then spread through the leaf very rapidly. I’m going to clip it today. A second large leaf has started to yellow on the tip also. But then again those are both leaves that came on it from when I bought it last year. I would have thought it would have lost the old leaves a long time ago. The windelov hasn’t had any issues beyond the bba that came about right after I got it. After stressing a while on what to do I decided to clip the half that had bba and hope the lone leaf would survive. In my opinion it’s doing well now. The other little one is anubias nana. It seems to like my tank quite well. The embers like the Java the best. In the night they stand straight up and down and blend right in with the plant. All the little leaves in the second picture are new ones that have grown since in my tank. I read the babies that grow on the leaves are if the plant feels endangered it propagates itself for survival. Mine are all growing from the rhizome which means healthier plant. At least that’s what I read. I have a friend just waiting for me to have too many growing plants so she can get some.
According to the dosing instructions it says 5ml for 60 gallons once or twice a week. So that’s .83ml for 10 gallons. I figure I have about 8 gallons actual water volume so the dose would be .66ml I add only .5 once a week for easier measuring. Sometimes every other week. A lot has been diluted even more this past week with extra water changes. I originally got the ferts for the hornwort that’s still melting in the snails tank.
so mama ember hasn’t had any change to her white patch. It doesn’t seem to be going away yet but it’s definitely not bigger or worse. She is still up to her normal behaviors. She plays eats hangs out with the others. I’m watching her parameters close today because yesterday I stole half her filter media for the snails tank. I got 12 ramshorns to add to the bladders and it was too much for my sponge to handle. But so far so good. Fingers crossed and lots of water changes.

 

[fishorama]

So, did any of us ask what Flourish ferts you're using? There are several different 1s...They're not all the same. So what are you dosing exactly in the Flourish line? How much & how often?

Side note, I'm glad your ember seems ok so far!