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Cool. With the swords CO2 is likely your best option. I also read on one site that some originate in brackish water, and that they will adapt to fresh water after a die off. Maybe that happened to you.

I do not see why separating them would help. Honestly with aquariums, people get impatient and want to change things for the results they want. Sometimes the only thing to do is wait and see. They should do fine in the betta tank though.

I would also read the thread at the very top of the Planted Tank board. It is very informative and uncomplicated.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

My swords were raised in freshwater never were in Brakish, they just stoped growing. When I first put them in the tank It "gave Birth" I bought 1 sword and ended up with 12 I sold most of them and I have one baby still, it definatly needs co2 as it has been about 2cm for 6 months now and the mother is losing leaves. After my move I am adding the co2 reactor and hopefully that will help out.

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My Tanks at Photobucket

Sorry I was not specific. The java ferns were what I was referring to as reading some originate in brackish
water.

I have never had luck with swords in my low tech tanks. I agree that the CO2 would probably help them.

It seems my response has been mis applied.
Varying the CO2, meaning you are adding it, and then reduce the amount, the other plants still grow, but Java fern is a poor competitor for CO2 with other plants nearby, will suffer.

If you have only some java fern in a low light non CO2 enriched tank, they tend to do very well, slow growing, no CO2 issues(they grow slow, so they do not demand much CO2, nor have a mechanism to go after it when you add higher light which drives CO2 uptake).

If you want a simple explanation, there's not really one.
It depends on the tank and the set of conditions.

But generally if you add CO2, then the blackening suddenly is well correlated with variation, generally a decline in the CO2 concentration in the water.

So merely adding CO2, say incorrectly will make matters worse. Adding CO2 correctly and in a stable range, will help.

This now means you need to add more nutrients as well since the plants growth rates have been increased by about 6-12x fold.

If less work is what you seek and still have good growth, look into a non CO2 planted tank approach, they are very effective and do very well over time.

Many like CO2 and seeing their plants grow daily, that's is fun also.

Regards,
Tom Barr

It seems my response has been mis applied.
Varying the CO2, meaning you are adding it, and then reduce the amount, the other plants still grow, but Java fern is a poor competitor for CO2 with other plants nearby, will suffer.

If you have only some java fern in a low light non CO2 enriched tank, they tend to do very well, slow growing, no CO2 issues(they grow slow, so they do not demand much CO2, nor have a mechanism to go after it when you add higher light which drives CO2 uptake).

If you want a simple explanation, there's not really one.
It depends on the tank and the set of conditions.

But generally if you add CO2, then the blackening suddenly is well correlated with variation, generally a decline in the CO2 concentration in the water.

So merely adding CO2, say incorrectly will make matters worse. Adding CO2 correctly and in a stable range, will help.

This now means you need to add more nutrients as well since the plants growth rates have been increased by about 6-12x fold.

If less work is what you seek and still have good growth, look into a non CO2 planted tank approach, they are very effective and do very well over time.

Many like CO2 and seeing their plants grow daily, that's is fun also.

Regards,
Tom Barr