One plant pearling means there's enough Co2 to go around?

[waruna]

Hi everyone, i'm new here.. I'd like to know if one plant is pearling if this means there is enough Co2 to go around? I use ADA AS and it's a new setup, i believe AS is still altering my PH and KH so it is hard to get a Co2 ppm reading from the chart. I bought an ADA drop checker a while back but only found out last night that i have to use KH4 water instead of tank water, i have adjusted this since. I'm trying to over come some algae problems and trying to work out if I have enough Co2 to start with..

Thanks in advance.

Waruna

 

[JJ..Bequiet]

I don't know much about planted tanks and co2 and all that jazz.. but I have had plants pearling with out c02. so im not sure what kind of indication 1 pearling plant would have.

 

[Gbark]

Hey Waruna,

We all go through the " have i got enough CO2" Have a look at the threads people have covered here before.

I was always given the advice, increase co2 slowly over a period of weeks, keep an eye on the fish etc and look for breathing problems, if the fish find it hard to breath or look slugish, turn back on the co2 and wait a few weeks.

Non of my plants pearl in my 125ltr tank, it has been setup 3 years now and i have no algae.

 

[Hallen]

If you see pearling it's a sign that the plant is growing and the water is saturated with oxygen. If you do not see pearling it doesn't mean anything is wrong. (imho pearling is kinda overrated, just that you don't see it doesnt mean it's not there)

Apart from that there's the fact that different plants have different need, what might be enough Co2 for one plant might not be enough for another plant. A plant like riccia will pearl visibly very fast where a other plants might not. Especially slower growing plants do not pearl alot even when they have enough Co2 due to that rate of growth. Doesn't say much about Co2 in general, it just says there's enough Co2 and o2 for that specific plant to pearl visibly.

Don't aim for pearling, aim for healthy plantgrowth and the algae will dissapear over time

 

[waruna]

Thank you JJ..Bequiet, Gbark and Hallen, appreciate your comments. I dropped my Ph down from 6.30-6.20 to 6.00-6.10 over a period of five days.. and have been monitoring the fish closely for the past 48 hrs, they are not showing any discomfort at all. I reduced the lighting period to 6 hrs hoping this would help stop my algae problem.

All the best.

 

[scottward]

If you see pearling it's a sign that the plant is growing and the water is saturated with oxygen. If you do not see pearling it doesn't mean anything is wrong. (imho pearling is kinda overrated, just that you don't see it doesnt mean it's not there)

That's it. The water (at least at that location) is saturated with oxygen, hence the visibility of oxygen bubbles.

Forget about the drop checker, they cause so much confussion. Take it out of the tank. ;-)

Post your tank specs with plenty of detail and somebody on here will certainly look over your specs and let you know how it shapes up. Include as much detail as you can, lighting type, intensity, duration, tank size, water temperature, fertilisation routine, CO2 setup (diffusion method, plumbing etc).

Scott.

 

[Simon Yee]

Waste money on Drop Checker. Darn thing don't use anymore. Got 2 of them.
I rather invest on the Co2 counter and better valves, high pressure tubing, and Bazzoka Diffuser.

These days LED lighting is working overtime but still need to get the driver working and beware of the circuit power supply to these types of light, they pack a walloping volt of 400 volts.
Always replace the china drivers to a better one.