whats going on with my plants?

[amcgee2842]

My plants have black spots and parts of the leaves are dying can any one identify this.

[mnemenoi]

Java ferns can take a bit to get acclimated to the water in your tank, my guess is some of the older leaves are going into sexual reproduction (they reproduce on those leaves and will start throwing off tiny baby plants). I would give it a bit more time and post pics if anything changes over the next week or two.

[ptran]

Hm, it's hard to see from your pictures, but do you see any roots on the underneath of those dying leaves?

[amcgee2842]

I don't see any roots. Got these from ADG 4 months ago all healthy but slowly over time they slowly deteriorate with black spots and dying leaves. I thought it was some kind of algae growing on the plants and killing the leaves.

[ptran]

I think it might be fungus. I would trim them off so it won't spread to other leaves.

[amcgee2842]

What causes the fungus?

[amcgee2842]

The little research I did, found that maybe lack of CO2 is causing it so either I can shorten my light times or increase CO2 injections. Seeing how I don't have any CO2 the only option I have is shorting light cycles.

[mnemenoi]

Or add some liquid CO2 alternative like Flourish Excel, it does some great stuff for plants

[amcgee2842]

I have some flourish excel I will try that. I used flourish before and since I didn't have that many plants I figures it wasn't doing much.

[ptran]

The little research I did, found that maybe lack of CO2 is causing it so either I can shorten my light times or increase CO2 injections. Seeing how I don't have any CO2 the only option I have is shorting light cycles.

Is that how it works? That sounds counter intuitive to reduce the lighting time.

[ptran]

Or add some liquid CO2 alternative like Flourish Excel, it does some great stuff for plants

Roy, is the fish cool with that stuff?

[amcgee2842]

Is that how it works? That sounds counter intuitive to reduce the lighting time.

The way it read was the longer the light was on the more CO2 the plant eats so if there isn't that much CO2 to consume you can shorten the light time.

[mnemenoi]

Yeah, Flourish Excel is safe with fish and shrimp in most regards (finicky shrimp and fish can be problematic, mostly low Ph stuff). It can raise the TDS and Ph (not in our tap as its already crazy), but in a low PH tank with limited TDS it can cause some issues. Dosed correctly it does a great job, it also can act as an algaecide (killing or limiting algae in tanks). It is a carbon alternative source, so not really CO2, it just replaces and offers plants the carbon they are needing from a different place. The science is really complicated, but suffice it to say it does work. The active ingredient is an algaecide and cleaning solution, so its dangerous in strong amounts and when exposed to your skin so care must be used. Stronger solutions can be found online for cheaper, but get more dangerous in regards to skin contact. This is for Seachem's Flourish Excel, Seachem also makes a Flourish which is a microfertilizer blend so look for some mention of alternative carbon source on the bottle or look over their planted tank fert line on their website to ID the correct product you will be needing.

[amcgee2842]

Roy, is the fish cool with that stuff?

When I have use Flourish I never had an issue with fish its a Seachem product.

[amcgee2842]

Did water change and added flourish and flourish exel