# Pearling after water change only



## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

So my plants are pearling. YIPPEE!!!! But....they only do it after a water change. The Java Fern will do it some afternoons when the sun is bright, but the only time the anubias or the few bits I of Cabomba I left do it is right after a water change. Why?  Could it be the ferts and carbon I put in? I add them two or three times a week, but obviously more when I'm doing a water change. The only ones that aren't doing it are the crypts.


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## FrostyNYC (Dec 16, 2007)

Do you run CO2 into this tank? When you say you're adding carbon, you mean a liquid carbon source like Excel? That could definitely be why they're pearling.

It could also be the gas levels in the new water you're adding to the tank. Perhaps the plants are pearling due to high levels of O2 and other gases in the water you're adding.


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## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

No injection, just Excel. The tank is pretty small.

I don't get how O2 would make them pearl though. I thought when they were pearling it was O2 that was being released.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

if you used tap water for your waterchange there are a lot of dissolved gasses in the water due to the pressure the water has in the pipes. When you put the water in the tank the pressure is lower so the gas will come back out of the water and create the "pearling" you are seeing. One way to tell if its just fake pearling is look at the glass and rocks, if they are pearling you know its not due to the plants


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## tjc (Jan 17, 2006)

I've noticed an increase in pearling after my water changes also. It's very puzzling because I get bubbles coming up from the roots of my stem plants and rooted plants and bubbles on my HC. The next day, I have limited pearling on my HC.

It also seems to me that the stronger the lighting I have on, the more pearling I get.

But with regards to the water changes, I believe it has something to do with the dissolved gasses in the tap water I use. Everything in the tank is covered with bubbles. Even the back of one of my anglefishes had 4 bubbles on it for an hour.


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## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

Okay. Good to know. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong during the water changes that I needed to be doing the rest of the week. 

Thanks guys!


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## MartialTheory (Dec 20, 2007)

Is it possible that the tap water contians more co2 than the fish tank? So the dissoved co2 caused the pearling from the roots that only lasted about one day or so?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

MartialTheory said:


> Is it possible that the tap water contians more co2 than the fish tank? So the dissoved co2 caused the pearling from the roots that only lasted about one day or so?


This is not only possible, but very likely. The reason for not doing big, weekly water changes in a non-CO2 tank is that this introduces a lot of CO2 with each water change, which soon gets lost. The fluctuating CO2 level invites algae to take over.


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## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

Hoppy, what would be considered "big weekly" changes? 25% each week is what I'm currently doing.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

25% water changes are big ones, but since you use Excel you don't need to worry about the added CO2 with the water change. The Excel acts as a constant supply of carbon, and it is an algaecide, even though Seachem can't talk about that, so you aren't inviting algae in that tank. My comment above should have been for non-CO2, non Excel tanks.


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## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

OK, good. 

(Although that would explain the green water issue I had with my previous setup....)


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