My poor java lace fern and Italian Val!!!

[DragonFish71]

I'm not sure what has happened. I've had java lace growing in all my tanks. I start it in my 29 then when it's ready to "pluck" I take some starters and plant them. All of them were doing so good. Beautiful green, tons of little starters. So many that I traded to my LFS for different plants, some was the Italian Val. (My LFS has trouble getting that type of java in for some reason so they'll make a deal for it)

My water is excellent in all the tanks, they are also well established with nutrient rich gravel (fish poo). I use plain ol' fluorescent aquarium plant bulbs that I get in the lighting section of Walmart, I use API Leaf Zone once a week, water changes once a week, lights on for 10 hours a day. That is the general infomation, now to break it down.

The 29 and 10 are in the living room, north facing here in Colorado. When we open the curtains we do get sunlight but not strong. The java lace has been established for about a year in these tanks with these same conditions but now it's starting to go brown. I know it's a low light plant but the amount of light it gets isn't any different than what it got last year and it went full on crazy growing last year. Any ideas? Nothing in the tanks have changed except for newly aquired pair of Gold rams a few months ago for the 29 and a black male betta in the 10.


Now on the 20. It's a 20 long in a south facing bay window. The window shows out to a covered back porch, so the only direct light is maybe half an hour a day. I researched the Italian Val BEFORE getting it as a a trade and everything said it is a high light plant. I just got it last weekend and already it's turning tranparent. I moved it this morning to the 29 in hopes of salvaging it. Was my research wrong? I know this stuff grows wild in the South so the direct half an hour of light shouldn't have been a problem. Any other ideas? There hasn't been any meds in the tank for months, it's also a well established tank.


I'm at a loss as to what happened to these two types of plants. Any ideas from you other plant lovers?