# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk >  Java Fern leaves turning yellow

## Ganthet

Hello everyone,

Recently I noticed that some of the leaves of my tank's Java Fern have begun to turn slightly yellow. The difference is quite subtle and I'm not too sure my camera can capture it, so I haven't got a good picture to show as yet. I'm wondering if this is due to a deficiency of Potassium or perhaps Iron. 
At the moment I only dose Flourish Excel in my tank.
Does anybody have any advice?

Thanks for your time,
Ganthet

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## Left C

Is it in new leaves or old leaves? It might be a nitrogen, iron or phosphate deficiency.

From: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...e-diagram.html



> I took the time just now to go through and draw out most of the common plant deficiencies in pictoral form. This diagram is by no means an exhaustive reference for all deficiencies and certain plants vary in their symptoms, but in general most deficiencies will look something like the diagram below.
> 
> There is a red dotted line that shows deficiencies that show up in new growth and deficiencies that show up in older growth, this is an important line and attention should be paid to it!!
> 
> Hope this helps people identify what they have a bit better.

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## Ganthet

It's mainly in the older and larger leaves. Based on your chart it seems to be either lack of nitrogen or phosphate. However I've been decreasing the extent of water changes lately, thus I doubt that nitrogen in the form of nitrates is a issue. 

Can anyone recommend a good source of phosphate/phosphorus please?

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## Shadow

Is your java fern just bought from LFS? say 1 or 2 months ago? It might be converting from emerge to submerge leaf

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## Ganthet

> Is your java fern just bought from LFS? say 1 or 2 months ago? It might be converting from emerge to submerge leaf


Well, I have 3 separate clumps of Java Fern. Out of these, at least 2 are showing signs of deficiency. Out of the 2 with deficiency, only 1 is recently bought (about 2 or so months ago). So I'm not too sure that it is an emersed to submersed issue.

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## Left C

Seachem's Flourish Phosphorus is a source of phosphate. The dry fert KH2PO4 is what many of us use. Some medicines like Fleet enema have phosphate. This may be an easy to find product at a pharmacy. There are many versions of this product. Make sure that it doesn't have anything other that phosphate that could be harmful in your aquarium.

I dose my Java Fern's just like my regular plants. I use Barr's EI dosing regime. I also use good lighting and pressurized CO2. This make the ferns grow very lush. Even though they are classified as a low light plant and they will grow (rather slowly) in these conditions, they do very well in better conditions. They are quite beautiful when you see them pearling!

For your tank, following a dosing plan that uses NPK, traces and CO2 or glutaraldehyde like Seachem's Excel will go a long way in the health of your aquarium.

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