Help with Java fern

[Savanna]

Any idea what's going on with my Java fern? The old growth is fine but every single new leaf is turning dark green and dying at the ends. Any new growth on my dwarf chain sword is also dying from the tips down. All of my anubias, crypts, and pogo. octopus are doing amazing. My nitrates are at 40 right now, pH is 7.8 and gh and kh are both between 120-180ppm according to the test strips I have. I'm new to planted tanks and watched what videos I can find but I'm still lost.

[Sleepy]

Are you dosing? If so what and how often?

[RyanR]

Mine were doing the same thing and I starting thinking back that I hadn't fertilized in a couple of weeks.  Even though your nitrates are at 40, you still need to fertilize, but it also means that you might need to do water changes more often.  High nitrates could be coming from rotting leaves or other sources that the plants can't use.

[Savanna]

38 minutes ago, Sleepy said:

Are you dosing? If so what and how often?

Right now about once a weekish. The tank is only a month old so I didn't want to dose too much too quickly and get a ton of algae. I made that mistake in my very first planted tank and I'm still trying to fix that. Easy green and root tabs for the dwarf chain and a sword in there

[Savanna]

8 minutes ago, RyanR said:

Mine were doing the same thing and I starting thinking back that I hadn't fertilized in a couple of weeks.  Even though your nitrates are at 40, you still need to fertilize, but it also means that you might need to do water changes more often.  High nitrates could be coming from rotting leaves or other sources that the plants can't use.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I definitely wasn't able to change as much water in this one due to a breeder box I had hanging inside, but I've since gotten rid of that so I can lower the water level more now. I also just got a pothos to put in to help with nitrates

[Fish are Friends not Food]

Hello Savanna,

A word of advice on Pothos, this plant is extremely good at filtering Nitrates but it also can be TOO good at filtering the nutrients out of the tank. This can starve your other plants out as the pothos absorbs it quicker than they can. I'm not bashing pothos as it's a wonderful tool for aquariums and adds a different feature to the tank. If it's stealing the nutrients out of the water column then it wont just be your java fern leaves that are looking unusual. Monitor all your plants and try to get a balance on fertilizing. 

Goodluck, FAFNF    

[Savanna]

1 hour ago, Fish are Friends not Food said:

Hello Savanna,

A word of advice on Pothos, this plant is extremely good at filtering Nitrates but it also can be TOO good at filtering the nutrients out of the tank. This can starve your other plants out as the pothos absorbs it quicker than they can. I'm not bashing pothos as it's a wonderful tool for aquariums and adds a different feature to the tank. If it's stealing the nutrients out of the water column then it wont just be your java fern leaves that are looking unusual. Monitor all your plants and try to get a balance on fertilizing. 

Goodluck, FAFNF    

Thank you, I'll be sure to keep an eye on it if I put it in there. I got a small one to start with just in case. I usually test my water twice a week so I should be able to take it out pretty quickly if it does become too much

[Fish are Friends not Food]

Another one people try is Lucky Bamboo. I have some in my guppy fry tank as the tank itself is too low tech for any other plants but it keeps the Nitrates more manageable.