# Plants grow great, but don't pearl



## Malefactor (Jan 29, 2014)

So, i've been set up now for about a week and a half with CO2, lights and everything set up with my dirted tank. This is my first tank ever, let alone first planted tank... Everything is cycled (tank has been running for about 4 months now) and going great, however the plants are not pearling. 

All of the plants are healthy with the exception of a couple that have iron deficiency (yellow veins, but not any death or anything else, and i dose as soon as i see it). 

In the past week and a half, i've probably gotten about a foot or more growth with some of my faster growing plants, but i never see any really active pearling or air bubbles unless i'm doing a water change. When i do a large water change though, while i'm changing the water and for a few hours after they go absolutely ballistic to the point that it looks like soda water in my tank. What could be causing this?

As well, this is a very heavily planted tank. Less than an inch of space between any given plant and the next. Nitrates still go up though and the tank is not over stocked. With that much growth and no dead plant matter that i can see, shouldn't nitrates be getting consumed? I've heard people dose nitrates for this reason, but i obviously have no need to. As well, i do not think i'm over feeding the fish. 

19 fish in total, average size of 2 inches. I've been feeding them freeze dried brine shrimp cubes from Omega One. On average 2 - 3 cubes a day for the entire tank. Each time i drop a cube in, it's gone within 2-3 minutes tops.

gH 5-6
kH 6
pH 6.6 (when running CO2) - 7.4 when not
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20-30 (comes out of tap with around 10 + 1-1.5ppm ammonia)
Temp 82-83 (trying to induce breeding)


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Pearling isn't a sign of good health. It simply indicates that oxygen in the water is saturated and no more oxygen can dissolve into the water. New oxygen the plants make beads up on the leaves making oxygen bubbles since the water cannot accept any more.

There are many reasons why plants might not pearl. Large numbers of fish might be using it up faster than it is being made. Lower temperature allows more oxygen to dissolve (yours is pretty high at the moment), water that is not agitated very much at the surface tends to have lower oxygen content than fast moving splashing water, and finally if plants have some kind of nutrient deficiency they may be unable to produce as much oxygen as they used to when they had enough nutrients to use.

Your iron deficiency may be reducing oxygen production and your fish may be using up most of the oxygen that is made preventing pearling. Again, pearling is not a very good indicator of healthy growth, you can cause pearling by doing a water change, dissolved gas in the lines saturates the water and beads up on every surface.


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## Malefactor (Jan 29, 2014)

Ahh, ok, i was under the impression it was something that was supposed to happen. I know it's definitely the plants doing it when i do a water change though. Before i put the new water in, while it's low they start it up and i can see the bubbles rolling off the plants themselves. Then when i add more water i can actually see plants producing it they produce so much. For the deficiency, i'm about to take care of that. Waiting on fertilizers from Greenleafaquariums. Ordered CSM+B, Chelated Iron and some K2SO4. That should cover Potassium, trace and iron. Phosphate might be the only thing i need to get later down the road when it's needed, but should be good for now.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Be sure to post some nice pics of the iron deficiency before you dose iron, you know me and deficiency photos


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## Malefactor (Jan 29, 2014)

Heh, I did in a PM recently  some have improved since, the rest are getting there slowly but surely. Seem to want more than the rest by far.


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## dbot (Aug 23, 2013)

you should watch out for that phosphate deficiency. before I switched to RO my tank(we live in the same area) would have phosphates at 0 all the time. My plants were eating it all up and caused growth to slow

edit: guess it doesn't matter that I switch to RO at all so disregard


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