I think you stated what the problem is, the heating 3 feet away. Zone 7 is too cold to keep it outside. My advice, move further south so you can keep the plant outside year long. Anyway... You need to correct a few things. First move it away from the vent. A breeze is good, a heating/cooling vent is bad. The water fall, honestly, is not doing a whole lot. The humidity the fall makes disfuses through the room and probably only raises the humidity about 0.25 percent, if that. That would be my guess. Ficus can grow great inside. I have done it for years living up north. But soon as it was warm enough to move the plant outside, I did. I had a grow light with about 10-15 plants packed around it for the winter. I kept them watered, but not wet. Let it dry out all the way before watering. If you have a damp soil before you water, your watering too soon. The reason why I say this is because leaves falling off is indicitive of a root rot fungus. This is indirectly caused by watering too much. I rambled on here. In short. Move the plant away from the vent. Let it dry out all the way between waterings. Get a grow light for the winter. Move it outside soon as the last frost is past. Some one else can post and clear up my rambling on.

do a search on gardenweb for posts by tapla - he is a ficus expert and has posted LOTS of into that will help you.

This is the Ficus Carica forum. Edible figs. We are not experts on houseplants. If you want answers, go to the houseplant forum.

The fairly regularly spaced brown dots near the leaf margins are occurring in extremely large cells called lithocysts, or sometimes 'rock cells'. They're sometimes referred to as 'rock cells' because they contain a concretion ('rock') of calcium carbonate in each cell. Because these cells differ in structure from surrounding cells, it shouldn't be surprising that they are more or less affected than surrounding cells by unfavorable cultural conditions, so their claim to fame in this case is, "You saw it here first". If your plant is seemingly back on track and has a lot of foliage, you can cut through the stems of spoiled leaves, leaving the stub of the petiole attached to the branch. It will fall off in a week or so. Wait though, to see that the foliage loss is stabilized and growth has resumed before you start pruning leaves. Ficus b doesn't appreciate being over-watered. It causes a drought response and shedding of foliage, along with other issues like slow growth, impaired root function, Ca deficiencies, ..... Ideally, the plant would be in a soil that allows you to water to beyond saturation whenever you water, w/o having to worry about root health/function. If you can't water correctly, you'll be in constant battle with your plant's soil for control of the plant's vitality. The following links should be helpful: About Ficus b Help with excess water retention. Al