# Pearling Factors?



## Capt. (Nov 24, 2004)

I'm wondering what other factors contribute to pearling? Also how important are they to see a lot of it?

How much of an impact on pearling do things like lights and fertilizers make? Is it necessary to have high light to see lots of bubbles? What do you think? Any thoughts, experiences, etc?


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Capt,



> I'm wondering what other factors contribute to pearling?


I assume that when you say "other factors" you mean that light, nutrients, and CO2 are provided.



> Also how important are they to see a lot of it?


Light, CO2, and nutrients are very important. Especially light and CO2 because the plants usually have some sort of stored sources of energy.

I used to have a tank that was full of Java Fern. It had 4 CF bulbs and I usually used only 2 of them (2wpg). Turning the other 2 on (4wpg) resulted in extremely heavy pearling - the tank literally looked as if it was boiling. It took less than 15 min to achieve that condition and I used to show people that phenomenon. It was rather ugly actually.

Not all plants bubble that heavy - Java Fern is a plant that pearls heavy.



> Is it necessary to have high light to see lots of bubbles?


I'd say yes.
Another thing is to reduce or stop the water flow. You may be surprised how much your plants pearl once the filter is off.

The above being said I must add that heavy pearling does not mean great looking or clean tank. But I do believe that heavy pearling equals extremely fast growth.

--Nikolay


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## Capt. (Nov 24, 2004)

Thanks for the response Niko. You touched on a couple of things I was wondering about.

So certain plants pearl easier and more than others? The ones I have seen pearl in my tank so far are sunset hygro, ambulia, vallisneria, and java fern. Haven't seen any from the sagitaria, java moss, anubias, ludwigia, spade leaf, amazon sword, and hairgrass.

My tank has fairly good water flow and only moderate light.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Capt,

From the plants that you have the following are pretty heavy pearlers:
Anubias, Java Moss, and Ludwigia (but not as much as the first 2).

Java Moss rarely pearls heavily but I've seen it covered with bubbles like a Christmass tree or something 

I forgot - there is an explanation that plants pearl only when the gasses that are disolved in the water reach certain level. At that point the Oxygen (the pearling of the plants) cannot disolve fast in the water and becomes visible - "pearling". That is why often after a water change the tap water (loaded with all sorts of gasses) may induce a shortlived heavy pearling.

Another thing - plants pearl heavily in places that are damaged. For example a damaged or cut stem.
Also - if you pull a plant from the substrate sometimes you may see the Oxygen being released from the roots. That is because normally the Oxygen is being transported to the plant roots and released from there.

Pearling - look at my old gallery.

--Nikolay


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