# pearling, when does it happen



## sks (12 Jan 2008)

My tank is still new, you can see it in the journals. One of the things on my mind is this question about pearling, at what length of time from lights on does your plants start pearling?

My HC has not been pearling since I got it, my Blyxa start to pearl about 9 hours from lights on (my photo period is 10 hours).


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## GreenNeedle (13 Jan 2008)

There isn't a length of time that anyone can give you.

Dependent on your plants, ferts, lighting intensity etc it will be different.

In general when you can see the plants pearling they have finished their intake for the day and are expelling excess oxygen.  with some plants you ay notice that they start to 'retract' their leaves slightly.

This should be confused with escaping gas, where CO" and O bubbles will collect under the plants leaves and occasionally some slip off the sides and go to the surface which looks the same as pearling.

After 2-3 hours of my light period the amount of bubbles under my lotus leaves is incredible and so of course some has to leave as there is only so much space.

In my tank pearling starts after about 4-5 hours (10 hour photoperiod) I have 1.8WPG but only use 0.9WPG for all but the central 2 hours.  I don't think I would call this a low light tank as they are HOT5 tubes and seem to be much brighter than your standard T8s plus the plants grow like wildfire!!!

Andy


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## sks (13 Jan 2008)

thanks for the reply Andy, of course I did realise that it depends on a host of factors. My point of asking was to look over certain variables in what I'm doing.

I notice my plants pearling at the end of the day and it's quite strong pearling too, but am hazarding a guess now that it appears that they pearl on the days that I dose the ferts in the morning, this gives them the fuel to do this, on days when I'm not dosing the ferts they don't pearl as strongly.


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## GreenNeedle (13 Jan 2008)

If they only pearl on days you dose then half the dose and then dose both each day.

It wont hurt.  See if they still pearl.  If they dont then you need to up your dose.

Theres no reason not to dose half of both on the same day other than to minimise maintenance.  Can't remember what but when PO4 and the traces are mixed in the same bottle something happens to the mix which is why you make 2 solutions (if using the solution method rather than dry powders)

So keep them seperate.

When you put you macros in then wait 30 seconds or so (this will be plenty enough for it to mix into the tank water) and then dose your traces.

If the plants dont pearl then dose according to the next tank size up.

Andy


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## sks (14 Jan 2008)

I've now switched over to JamesC PMDD normal lights dosing since yesterday. After just today even the HC are pearling which is great.

We keep the traces and the macros separate because the iron reacts with the phosphate. JamesC managed to work out to get the them to get along in one solution by having a pH of 6 maintained so the chelator does not liberate the iron.


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## GreenNeedle (14 Jan 2008)

With EI and PMDD+PO4 (I also use JamesCs method) I always keep them seperate.  I do dose both on the same day though.  No need to keep them seperate once they are in the tank water as they are diluted so much.

JamesCs is lean dosing and IMO works very well.

Andy


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