# My algae is pearling!!



## ndrj1 (14 Jul 2010)

How dare it!!

So I've just today installed a very simple diy yeast set up to my 60 litres aquarium.....

I bought a cheapo glass diffuser (ADA knock-off) from ebay and all has been merrily bubbling away....

Thing is, only my algae is pearling....

Is this normal? I don't have heaps of algae, but what I do have is now covered in tiny bubbles...

Can anyone explain why?

John


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## LondonDragon (14 Jul 2010)

Most likely just CO2 bubbles trapped in the algae.


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## ceg4048 (14 Jul 2010)

Well why would algae pearling be so surprising? Algae are plants, right? Plants photosynthesize and release excess oxygen. So algae pearl for exactly the same reason that plants pearl. Did you realize that about 80% of the worlds atmospheric Oxygen is produced by algae, and the rest by higher plants? Most of this is done by the over 10,000 species of Diatom algae of the worlds oceans. You owe your very existence to the Oxygen produced by algae billions of years ago that permitted life as we know it to evolve.

The fact that your plants aren't pearling but that your algae does pearl is a demonstration that algae are much more efficient and  need much less nutrients and CO2 than higher plants do to make their food. The rate of Oxygen production is highly correlated to the photosynthetic activity. Rapid photosynthetic rate ejects oxygen at a rapid rate, faster than the oxygen can dissolve into the water. The higher plants are producing Oxygen but their food production rate is not as rapid, so that their ejected Oxygen has time to dissolve in the water. Only when their photosynthetic rate can match the rate you now see in the algae will the plants pearl. Higher CO2 levels and higher nutrient levels are required for this to happen.

Furthermore, this is a unique illustration showing that plants cannot possibly compete with algae. Algae rule the planet. We are merely beneficiaries of their genius.   

Cheers,


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## ndrj1 (15 Jul 2010)

Thanks for taking the time to answer.....I'm very grateful!

In simple terms then, I need even more co2 and fertilisers?

John


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## ceg4048 (16 Jul 2010)

Well, I always try to discourage people from having pearling as an objective. Pearling plants are always a good sign but it's better to have good plant health and zero algae. If your objective is to have an algae free tank, and if you achieve that objective, then you will find that pearling will occur automatically as a result of reaching this objective.

Food production in plants requires:
Light + CO2 + water + nutrients

The food production rate and subsequent Oxygen production rate will depend on the quantities and combination of these four. Without being present at the tank it's difficult to say exactly how much more of each you need. We can take water out because you have lots of that. Now it's down to Light + CO2 + Nutrients.

If you increase the lighting you will always increase the demand for the other two, but your current lighting might be on the lowish side so it's entirely possible that simply increasing the lighting will increase the food production rate sufficiently to cause pearling assuming that there is sufficient CO2 + Nutrients. The danger here is that algae love it when you increase the lighting.

The safest path is always to increase CO2 and/or Nutrients first. That's because we know that most tanks suffer from poor CO2. The fact that you have  some algae though, is a warning sign that you may have either a CO2 or Nutrient deficiency.

So instead of aiming for more pearling, a better objective would be to try and optimize plant nutritional health by determining what kind of algae you have. The kind of algae you have will tell you what kind of deficiency you have. You can then make the adjustments.

I know this sounds convoluted, but my point is that if you get tunnel vision about pearling, you could easily find yourself in a situation where you have both pearling AND massive algal blooms simultaneously.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers,


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## dw1305 (16 Jul 2010)

Hi all,
Good point by Clive, in photosynthetic terms the "green algae" (Chlorophyta) are exactly the same as all the "higher plants" from Mosses to Orchids.

Here is a "Science in Schools" photosynthesis prac. using them.
<http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/worksheets/ssheets/ssheet23.htm>

cheers Darrel


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