I know Java Ferns are supposed to be easy to grow, but mine aren't doing well. The ammonia is zero, the nitrites are zero, the nitrates are about 30ppm. My stocking load is 5 Severums, 1 Geophagus, 1 Anglefish, 1 Krib, 2 Parrots, 1 Rubber Ple*o. There is no Co2 injection or mineral rich substrate. I have Javas because I thought these things were not necessary! Am I wrong?
are you noticing that the java leaves are picked at, at all? and do any of your fish dig around the roots or try to move the plants or dig them up? and what type of lighting do you have? java doesn't need co2 injection, however i would consider a decent light to give them the food they need for healthy growth... other thing is how long ago did you set up your tank? it may take a bit for the bacterial breakdown to put enough nutrients in the gravel in order for them to have good root growth... great roots generally mean great plants.
In my experience Java fern is a bit weird. The roots aren't suposed to grow in the soil. They grow on submerged wood. You can tie or rubberband the plant down to the wood. Also, if the plant gets shocked, or the roots get too disturbed, which happens in the time during it's journey from the nursery to the store to your tank, the leaves will stop growing and new leaves will in turn grow right out of the old leaves which may be decomposing at this point. This dosen't look too good usually, so I've let these new growths start for a while, then I've removed the whole original leaves and in turn tied them down. The new leaves will then all grow nicely to length together and they should be easy to grow with pretty low light and without CO2 as poetic irony Brandon has said.
Cannot help you with the Java Fern, but 30 ppm of nitrates is too high. As a general rule, do enough water changes to keep it below 20 ppm. Above this mark and the water is getting toxic to your fish. Once you push up towards 40 ppm, your fish will start to die. Good luck with the Java. I had a bunch in an old tank and I really liked it.
Peter is right here. If you have your java fern planted IN the substrate it won't do well at all. Many anubias and java fern have a rhizome (looks similar to a tiny bulb) which needs to be exposed to the water column. In nature generally these plants will grow from their mother plant directly on the leaves and when they're ready to grow on their own will seperate and float until they find a suitable rock or piece of driftwood to attatch themselves to.
Good advice guys. I didn't realize that the java fern does better outside the substrate. I am definitely going to try tying it to a small peice of driftwood I have.
Don't be discouraged if the leaves continue to die and have little babies grow out of the dying leaves. Once these leaves start to die you can't save them in my experience, but use them to grow new leaves. The new leaves will eventually be big enough to tie down and they should stay green and grow quite well. It seems that when you disturb the Java fern leaf's growth like during transport or replanting/tying they often die and it's the next generation that will grow to length and at the same time stay alive. I think it's a hormone thing where as soon as something disrupts the main growth of a JF leaf it reverts to growing babies off these now dying leaves. I really like your little tank. Nice community of little fish.
