# Do all plants "pearl"?



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I've never had any of my plants "pearl" so I'm somewhat confused.

Can any plant do this? Including moss? The past week I've been dosing my 1g (7w CF) full of Taiwan/Java moss with Excel and Greg Watson ferts. Yesterday I noticed little bubbles all over the moss, but none on the Java Ferns. I'll try to get a picture of it later. Tried yesterday but my nerves were shot from exams, couldn't deal with the glare.

Edit: Forgot to mention there is no filtration or water movement in the tank. So I doubt they were air bubbles.

Edit #2: While we're on the subject. My cat likes to drink from the 1g (can't get him to stop). I dose Excel, Plantex CSM+B, Potassium Phosphate, and Potassium Nitrate. Is he in any danger from drinking this water? The amounts added are very, very small.


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Our cats drink constantly from my planted tank. It doesn't seem to hurt them at all.

As far as pearling is concerned...... it occurs when plants are producing oxygen in already oxygen-saturated water at a rate that is faster than the fish consume it and faster than it escapes to the atmosphere. Rapidly metabolizing plants (fast growers) produce more O2 than slow growers (anubias, ferns, mosses, crypts). You need high light, high CO2, and a large mass of rapidly growing plants to get the best pearling. Once you get it, you can sometimes even see pearling from ferns and anubias, but it's only because the other plants are keeping the water saturated with O2.

Don't worry too much about it though. Things can grow perfectly well without pearling. A few bubbles that show up after a water change usually indicate a gas coming out of a saturated solution - not pearling.


----------



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Ah ok. It all makes more sense now.

I've never done a water change on the 1g, just top it off every couple of days due to the cat and evaporation.


----------



## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I couldn't have explained it any better. All plants have the capability to pearl if the conditions are present as described magnificiently by G-Boy. I wanted to add the fact that even algae pearls! :Cry: 

That's funny that the cat drinks out of the tank. 

-John N.


----------



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

John N. said:


> That's funny that the cat drinks out of the tank.
> 
> -John N.


He would not go near it until I removed the fish and the filter. I've never had a cat so afraid of moving water. Now that it is still water, he's all over the tank.


----------



## SKSuser (Mar 20, 2006)

John N. said:


> I wanted to add the fact that even algae pearls! :Cry:


Haha, I'll attest to that fact.
I've got a 10g that was just sitting around doing nothing, and I don't have room for it at my house. I left it at work, where I hang out most of the time. I put a couple inches of water in the bottom, and put some african violet start pots on stilts in the water. I put a glass lid on it and set it in a west window. I also added some java moss, two java fernlets and my first DIY co2 setup a couple days later.
Needless to say, this has become my experiment tank.

So, yesterday evening when I got some Spectracide Stump Remover (KNO3) I dropped some in there instead of my tank with fish. It was a very small ammount. I added 0.1 grams. I went to dinner and returned just in time to see all the little algae clumps that were sitting on the bottom in the process of floating up to the top because of the pearls attached to them. The java moss was especially bubbly, and even the little fernlets had a bubble under each leaf.

Today, I'm seeing brand new deep green growth of .75mm chutes on the java moss. Not much, but its pretty cool for less than one day. I'm also noticing massive ammounts of algae bloom and very green water. Lets just say that daphnia would think my experiment tank was to die for.  
The moss is still pearling today, but not as much.

BTW, the african violet babies are doing well. I should start seeing plantlets push their way up through the pearlite in about a month. The host leaves are looking much more vibrant than my old batches that were incubated in ziplock baggies.


----------



## Ajax (Apr 3, 2006)

Burks said:


> Edit #2: While we're on the subject. My cat likes to drink from the 1g (can't get him to stop). I dose Excel, Plantex CSM+B, Potassium Phosphate, and Potassium Nitrate. Is he in any danger from drinking this water? The amounts added are very, very small.


:lol: I hear ya' about the cats. My little turds love drinking the aquarium water. Especially when I'm doing water changes or when I have a bowl of water for putting plant cuttings in laying around.


----------



## Script404 (Jun 30, 2006)

My cat used t drink from the tank as well, until my oscar bit him on the tongue.


----------



## joephys (May 9, 2006)

The ferts provide the same nutrients that all living things need. Fish live in them just fine, so there shouldn't be a problem with the cat. I am sure that there is much worse in natural water supplies that wild animals drink from.


----------



## Chris S (Feb 27, 2006)

I had a java fern once that pearled and it was attached to another plant by one thread like root. It was not in the substrate. Every day late in the after noon , it would rise up near the surface. The closer it go tto the light source, the more it pearled. Every morning when i looked in the tank it had settled back to the bottom. It would them be back near the surface at the end of the work day. It did this every day till that thread got disconnected.

Bye the way. Have you guys noticed if your fertilized cats are growing any faster than usual? hehe! Or maybe a green tinge to their fur?


----------



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I can honestly say that my moss is in fact pearling. Didn't touch the water today and kept the cat away. After 6-7 hours with the lights on I noticed a ton of bubbles all over the moss. Starting to get some bright green growth from the tips too.

Excel + GW ferts = happy plants


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Excellent, Smithers....


----------

