Plants stopped pearling!

[Bertie]

Hi,
I blocked one of my tubes a few weeks ago due to some algae which I found out later, was probably GSA, and my plants stopped pearling and I put it down as due to less light for the plants.

I doubled the PO4 dosage as from last week, but do not know how long it takes to have an effect?

I have a Rio 180 and I am using a UP Atomizer, with a Pro 3 Eheim 250 and 2 (soon to be 3) NeWave 1.6 powerheads, bot running at about 3/4 speed. Plenty of flow and bubbles are being sent everywhere including to the substrate.

Before I blocked one of the tubes the plants were pearling very well indeed.
Well nearly two weeks ago I put the lights back to 2 x T45w T5. My plants have still not re-started pealing.

I have a nice lime green DC. My PH drops from 7.6 before co2 to 6.8 at lights on and then remains steady.

I have tried adjusting co2 up but still without pearling and in fact one of my dwarf rainbows, I fear has permanent gill damage as it is at the surface 24/7 so cannot up the co2 any more.

I know that in the scheme of things pearling is not the be all, but I would just like to know why it has not re-started after I put both my tubes back on?

 

[Tim Harrison]

I don't think that pearling is necessarily a sign of a healthy tank. Some might actually say that it's an indication that there is too much CO2/light etc and that it's a wasted metabolic response. In short if your plants are still growing well and you've got no algae go with it - if it ain't broken don't fix it...

 

[Bertie]

Hi Troi,
Thanks Troi, and yes I tend to agree. I was just wondering why they did not re-start after they got full light again, as nothing had changed apart from the lighting.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Sorry just skimmed your last sentence in the OP. I suppose the plasticity of plants means that they are quick to adapt to changing environmental conditions - within certain tolerances. Carrying that logic further - assuming that pearling is a metabolic response to a supercharged fuel injected sea of excess - your plants will probably have adapted to the extent that the amount of pearling will drop off and eventually stop...IME all other parameters being sufficient pearling is usually instigated by significantly increasing light intensity. But then I might be very wrong Others might say it's all just about CO2, flow, and distribution...

 

[zanguli-ya-zamba]

Hi Bertie,
don't worry about pearling. As troy said it is not signe of overall good health of plant. Pearling is the result of different combination. Pressur, Oxigen etc ....
You can have plants in very bad health that pearl.
focus on CO2, flow distribution.

cheers

 

[Bertie]

Thanks for that....I guess being retired, I have too much time on my hands Just trying to get things as perfect as I can. Once again thanks.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Maybe you need a hobby...

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
You can get plants to pearl low tech, you just need to have plenty of light, a low bio-load and not too much flow. All it means is that the water is 100% saturated with oxygen (7.9 mg/l at 27oC, and standard temperature and pressure), and the oxygen that can't dissolve into the water is out-gassed as bubbles.

This is why "Blanket weed" rises to the top of the water column in the spring in ponds, the evolved oxygen is trapped in the algal mat, and floats it to the top of the pond where there is more PAR, and access to aerial CO2..

I actually use the fish tanks in the lab. to test whether the membranes on the dissolved oxygen meters are intact. I know that during the photo-period the water will be ~ fully saturated with oxygen and at 26-28oC. If the DO meter reads 7-8 mg/l fairly quickly the membrane is intact, if it doesn't we are £150 worse off.

We also do this is in the lab. <http://www.saps.org.uk/secondary/teaching-resources/190-using-pondweed-to-experiment-with-photosynthesis-> with a dilute solution of NaHCO3 and it is fairly spectacular.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bertie]

Hi Darrel,
Thanks for that....very interesting.