# what's wrong with my java fern?



## splat (Nov 17, 2010)

almost all my java ferns have black dots all over the leaves. any idea what i might be missing for ferts?


----------



## alym (Apr 21, 2010)

Spores...
It's reproducing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Congratulations!


alym said:


> Spores...
> It's reproducing!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

splat said:


> almost all my java ferns have black dots all over the leaves. any idea what i might be missing for ferts?


If they are rows of spots on the underside of the leaves, they are spores. If they appear as brownish/black random spots/holes on the topside of the leaves, it could be Java fern melt which is indicative of 0 Nitrates.

Best regards,

Stuart


----------



## alym (Apr 21, 2010)

CRS Fan said:


> If they are rows of spots on the underside of the leaves, they are spores. If they appear as brownish/black random spots/holes on the topside of the leaves, it could be Java fern melt which is indicative of 0 Nitrates.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Stuart


Stu knows his plants better than anyone!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## roadrunner (Apr 25, 2010)

I had the same thing happening to my java. Somebody on the forum mentioned it may be because of low nitrates (sorry, I can not remember who it was) When I tested for nitrates it was really low. Now I keep my nitrates higher and java seem to be doing much better, but it took a while for me to see the improvement. So keep nitrates higher and be patient.


----------



## splat (Nov 17, 2010)

ya, it's on the top side. i thought nitrates should be kept low? for the fish? mine are around 20


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

for planted tanks aim for around 10-15 ppm if you are EI dosing. Java ferns normally do fine as long as there nitrates, thats why crs fan said 0 nitrates = melt


----------



## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

nitrate is vital to plant growth. java fern, in normal cases, are water column feeders. However, if the java fern root start going beneath the substrate/gravel and there is a lot of mulm build up in there, java fern can grow without water column ferts. Sames goes for Anubias. The roots are not only anchor roots, they do take nutrients up for the plant. I use a fair amount of heavy root feeder plants in my grow out tank to assist in keeping the gravel clean and oxygenated. In my non fertilized, no CO2, high light tank, Potassium and micro are the 2 main deficiency.

ADD: plant uses inorganic (mineralized) nutrients. If your test kit is picking up organic N, the plants cannot use that and will need to wait for the nitrifying process to convert into usable nutrients. 

off topic, I add 8 to 9 ppm of NO3 daily and the NO3 is still bottoming out in my crypt/sword/fern tank.


----------



## splat (Nov 17, 2010)

how do you add N03?


----------



## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

potassium nitrate is the easiest way to add NO3 but not readily available as government has put a restriction of the sales of KNO3. flourish nitrogen is another source, but cost more for what you get compare to using dry fertilizer.


----------

