Help, java fern melt?

webcricket

(So chill.) No wonder it's freezing
Mar 22, 2006
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Syracuse, NY
Tank info: 10 gallon, 20 watts CF lighting (11 hrs day, bulbs only a few months old), dose liquid P, N, K, Flourish, and Excel daily (easier for me - dose at recommended dosing, except I add a bit extra K). Inert substrate. Nitrates at 10-15 ppm. No inverts (puffer tank). Tank shot in my tanks in signature for plant info. Excel dosing began on 10/6 (this is the only change recently).

Here's the story...I first noticed a dying/browning plantlet down in the roots near the rhizome 2 days ago - I figured it wasn't getting enough light, and was small enough that I wouldn't concern myself with removal until next water change. Yesterday I noticed a brown leaf in with some of the newer leaves on the plant. Figured I just hadn't noticed before. I was running late and couldn't remove at that time. This afternoon - numerous leaves are brown/rotting - and it seems that wherever a browning leaf touched another leaf, that leaf also went brown at that spot. Some went brown from stem up - others went brown in the middle. I've got old and new leaves effected. It honestly looks similar to crypt melt. No other plants appear to be in distress - the only other issue was an aponogeton crispus leaf touching a browning java fern leaf that also rotted.

Pictures (the thin leaf in the 2nd picture is the aponogeton leaf):
IMG_0621.jpg

IMG_0624.jpg


I pulled the java fern driftwood from the tank and trimmed out all of the effected leaves. There was also some dead roots which pulled off easily that I didn't notice while it was in the tank, so no clue when those started dying.

Any ideas what is causing this? Deficiency of something?

I'm doing a 40% water change as soon as I'm done with this post.
 
I should add that my lace and narrow leaf java fern in the same tank seem to have no problems. The narrow leaf is newer, but the lace was put in at the same time as the problem fern.
 
Typically speaking java fern leaves will brown with age and start growing plantlets. Eventually the leave falls off and the plantlet would go off floating until it manages to get ahold somewhere. I have one floating in my 50g as we speak that I haven't figured out what to do with just yet. It is kinda hard to tell from pics if that is what is going on with your wide leaf java. The narrow leaf looks to be melting to me though. I'm wondering if maybe its the Flourish Excell or possibly too much iron in the water. I don't really think it would be iron though since the only thing your dosing with iron in it would be the flourish and if your like me you probably don't have an iron test to check with.
 
I wish this were just a case of leaves getting old. Unfortunately I have new leaves (still with the clearish growing tips) falling victim. It seems to have radiated out from one spot. I read in another forum that a speculative cause was too much potassium in the water. I have dosed extra potassium the last couple of months as the plants were growing so well I thought they might need it. I'm cutting back to the regular dose for now.

I don't feel it could be an iron overdose, our tap water doesn't have a high content, and my substrate doesn't have any, so the only source is that Flourish.

I thought of another change at the beginning of the month... I removed a good bunch (10 stems at least) of anacharis from the tank. I'm wondering if that (being a nutrient hog) was absorbing some nutrient (maybe the potassium) that was being overdosed all along, and now that it isn't in there to suck up that nutrient, the fern is melting. I did replace the anacharis with some aponogeton bulbs which are growing like mad, I figured they would help balance the tank out. I'll have to look into the anacharis thing...
 
jennfier said:
sorry, off topic: love your cat staring at you in the 2nd pic. :)
I just noticed that after you mentioned it! She's adorable!!!

Sorry, back on topic. Webc, I've noticed my java fern does the same thing. I overdosed iron once and all my OTHER plants turned brown, but not java fern. I moved some of it to another tank with a different light, and it looks much greener. So maybe part of it is lighting. But they're still growing well, so I just figured that's how java fern looks :huh:

Hope someone call tell you what we're both doing wrong.
 
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I think I'm going back to the drawing board on ferts...something has to be off. This particular fern has always grown well (even before I was fertilizing), and fast for a java fern. Aside from the pearl grass, everything in this tank is low-light and slow-growing. I feel something has to be in excess with that anacharis gone now. Nitrates alone went from 5-10 ppm to 10-15 ppm after it's removal.

I think perhaps I'll do another good water change tomorrow and start up with the minimum recommendations on the ferts. Well, aside from the nitrate...the current dose keeps me at 10-15 ppm which is a good value. Unfortunately I have no tests to measure anything else being added. If the plants ask for more of something, or I get algae in response to something being too low, I'll adjust from there.

The cat adores me, LOL. Well that, and she likes anything to do with the fish since I keep some organic fish-shaped cat treats in the "fish stuff" cabinet for her to eat whenever I go in there to do something. She was really just being nosey about when the treats would show up. :p:
 
I also experienced the same thing.I just let the leaves turn black and then after some time,new plantlets appear.but,unfortunately the original java fern I bought rot.i assumed that they were not able to adopt water condition of my tank.
 
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