My Windelov Java Fern is not doing well

[Slinkydog]

I bought some plants last month. An anubias gold coin and a windelov java fern for my turtle tank. but the windolov isnt doing so well. i do admit these are my first live plants in my aquarium. i got them specifically because  it said beginner friendly. hard to kill. sounded good to me because I'm not so good with plants. So the java fern started in the middle-ish of the tank when i noticed it started to get transparent leaves then brown. I tried to look up what was wrong and saw that it liked low light so i thought maybe that was too much light in the middle. (I have a single long florescent light for my tank)  So i put it in the back under the basking house to block the tank light, it gets some natural bounce light from the window. nothings improved except i think i see a bit of green. will it come back or is it toast?

(the anubias coin is doing fine)

(i also have fish in the tank to make fertilizer 😉 )

[lefty o]

have you done any water testing? added any fertilizer? java ferns are generally pretty hard to kill, but if there is not enough nutrients in the tank, they will die off.

[Slinkydog]

My ammonia is 0, nitrate 0 and nitrate 0 ph is 6-7. i haven't tried fertilizer yet. I thought my fish would do enough
Edited November 11, 2021 by Slinkydog

[lefty o]

 could probably use some fertilizer.

[Slinkydog]

I'll try that then.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Am I seeing it right do you have the plant in the substrate? Maybe that's why. Should be attached to wood or rocks but not buried as generally it does a lot better as it's a rhizone plant. 

I don't use ferts and mine do great- tho I see you don't have any nitrate...

If since moving the plant you are seeing growth it very well may come back but I find Windelov grows fairly slowly just be patient with it. If it is buried, unbury it and glue it somewhere and that might help. 

Here is a helpful Aquarium co-op video:

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Slinkydog]

Its not buried. its in the plant pots that aquarium co-op sells

[Martin]

I agree with fertilizers.  I would probably still make an effort to remove the plant from the pot and attach the rhizome to something; maybe a medium river rock if you want to keep it "mobile".  Judging by the photo, it may be a tad late.  😪

[Odd Duck]

If you only have a single fluorescent bulb that is VERY low light.  If anything, that might not be enough unless it’s a high output fluorescent.

You might also be expecting more rapid change than plants can do.  They can melt quickly but they don’t improve quickly.  Patience.

[FiShrewd]

ok 

first of all 

get some pottasium for planted aquariums cause java fern really greens up or whatever when you add pottasium

second for the fish part get some algae eating fish if you plan to use it as a fert (:

third use all in one fertilizer [probably easy green or if you are not in the states try 2 hour aquarists apt zero cause you just have very less plants or if you want to add more plants then switch to apt complete

[if you are not in the States ( https://www.2hraquarist.com/pages/apt-faq )

imo easy green ranks no. 2 to apt complete [never mind]

try to use easy green cause you are a beginner

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

There’s still some green in there so I think it’s probably saveable. Taking it out of the rock wool and using some rock or hardscapeto attach it to will help it get the nutrients it needs - it’s rhizome is where it absorbs the nutrients so having that covered with rock wool is problematic. Use an all in one fertilizer once or twice a week to start will help as it will feed off that and the waste from your livestock. Once you’re getting regular growth - new leaves every couple weeks you can reassess what you’re doing. If that doesn’t help then I’d go to potassium supplementation along with an all in one if the leaves are not looking great as they grow. 

[Slinkydog]

Thanks for all the advice! I did get a fertilizer. its by Seachem and I got some driftwood to attach it too. both should be coming soon.

FiShrewd: "second for the fish part get some algae eating fish if you plan to use it as a fert (:"

i do have an algae eater. i have a Chinese algae eater. He does a great job. i have no algae i can see. he also cleans up any food my fish don't eat. such a tidy guy

[Patrick_G]

Lots of good advice already posted but I’ll add a few thoughts. 
-If it’s Seachem flourish fertilizer then you might want to switch to Easy Green. The Seachem isn’t very strong and has very little Nitrogen. You’ll want to bring your Nitrate level up to at least 15-20 to feed the plants. 

-Double check to make sure you’re following the instructions on the Nitrate test exactly. It’s very easy to get a false negative, I have first hand experience with this! 😁 It’s unusual to have zero Nitrate in any tank. 

-In my experience Windelov Java ferns do well in the amount of light from a single fluorescent tube. 

-I think this one is going to pull through. The new growth is small but it looks good! 
 

[Slinkydog]

Patrick_G :"I think this one is going to pull through. The new growth is small but it looks good! "

oh good! there's hope!

"Double check to make sure you’re following the instructions on the Nitrate test exactly. It’s very easy to get a false negative, I have first hand experience with this! 😁 It’s unusual to have zero Nitrate in any tank. "

Yeah its a quick strip so the instructions are pretty simple. i also have a test tube kit i use to get more accurate results. but generally the quick strips are correct. the nitrate does flux from 0 to 7. at the time it was 0. I have pretty good filtration for my tank.

"If it’s Seachem flourish fertilizer then you might want to switch to Easy Green. The Seachem isn’t very strong and has very little Nitrogen. You’ll want to bring your Nitrate level up to at least 15-20 to feed the plants. "

It is but i already opened it. But I'll keep easy green in mind for next time or if Seachem doesn't work. I want to go slow anyway. I don't want to off set the balance of my tank. Someone also mentioned 2 Hour Aquarists apt zero fertilizer. i looked at that too and it sounds good. They have one thats for tanks with not a lot of plants but more fish which is mine. I just don't want to do too much too fast and have my system crash and my fish die ;_; Edited November 13, 2021 by Slinkydog
spelling error

[Patrick_G]

On 11/12/2021 at 5:16 PM, Slinkydog said:

Yeah its a quick strip so the instructions are pretty simple. i also have a test tube kit i use to get more accurate results. but generally the quick strips are correct. the nitrate does flux from 0 to 7. at the time it was 0. I have pretty good filtration for my tank.

Keep in mind that filtration doesn’t remove nitrate. It just converts Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate. 

[Patrick_G]

On 11/12/2021 at 5:16 PM, Slinkydog said:

It is but i already opened it. But I'll keep easy green in mind for next time or if Seachem doesn't work. I want to go slow anyway. I don't want to off set the balance of my tank. Someone also mentioned 2 Hour Aquarists apt zero fertilizer. i looked at that too and it sounds good. They have one thats for tanks with not a lot of plants but more fish which is mine. I just don't want to do too much too fast and have my system crash and my fish die ;_

I think you’re on the right track for a tank with lots of fish and few plants.   Don’t worry about the fertilizer affecting  your fish. The recommended dosing levels are actually pretty low. Are you doing water changes? 

[Slinkydog]

I do weekly 25% water changes and I clean my gravel.

[Slinkydog]

Update time.
finally got my driftwood, fertilizer and aquarium safe glue. Java fern is now glued to some driftwood (I did boil the driftwood first, did all the prep). Its now in a separate 10 gallon. I put it in there because I was worried the fertilizer might mess up with my tanks balance. Glad I did because it made the water very brown even though I put barely any in (about 1/8 of a cap full) I did see green shoots(?) or at least grass green bits from my Java fern so think thats good. Also when i pulled the rock wool off i found some golden yellowish balls. what are those? Seeds? Some kind of fertilizer ball?
Anyway hopefully it'll come back.

Though since my java fern is no longer in a pot and I did spend 20 bucks what are good plants that can live happily in a pot?

[Slinkydog]

Update 2

My Java now has a leaf! Its been on the driftwood for awhile now. been doing fertilizer twice a week. Thanks for all the advice. I think it'll pull through.

[PineSong]

Hooray! Glad your work is paying off.

My Wendelovs were very slow to take off--got them in July and August and they seemed to stay the same size for a long time and just now started to really grow and fill out. I started ferts twice a week instead of doing the whole dose in one day, and I also added more fish and more plants over time, and there has been more time for fish mulm to accumulate in the tank, so I can't say for sure why they are improving. Hopefully, yours will do the same. 

[lefty o]

good to see positive progress.  bad thing about java ferns, and anubias is they are slow to grow, but on the flip side they are slow to die off too.   with aquarium plants, usually as long as there is still some that is green, there is still hope they can bounce back.