I have Java Fern in my tank, most is attached to driftwood, a little on small rocks and some in the Fluval Stratum substrate in the tank. Light is on for two 4 hour periods a day and I never read any Nitrite or Nitrate in water with test strips, KH and GH fairly high water neutral. I noticed after a few months of strong growth that the leaves were developing holes, This was also happening to some of my crypts but not to the same extent. I got some Easy Green (previously I had only used root tabs) and started weekly dosing 4 weeks ago. About week 2 of dosing I reduced the light periods from 4 to 3 1/2 hours to help with new algae growth.
Would there be any reason besides mineral deficiency that the ferns developed holes? (Stocking is cherry barbs, panda corys, one hillstream loach and Ramshorn snails) How long should it take to observe new growth with Java Fern, and should I just keep dosing and expect that to work?