aaronnorth
Member
Me and Dave was having a discussion about why pearling ooccurs after a water change.
Dave's thoughts were that when we do a waterchange, the plants are exposed to an unlimited supply of gaseous CO2, so they go into 'hyperdrive' and produce lots of oxygen which can be seen as pearling.
While I agree with this, I then questioned it because carpeting plants do not have have access to this unlimited supply (like HC/ glosso etc). His reply then was "It may be more pronounced after a water change because the plants that were above the water line are carbon loaded and not taking so much from the water column, making more available to the foreground plants (just sumerising here, Aaron)."
My thoughts were that the water we add to our tanks, is saturated with oxygen, so therefore no more can be dissolved into the water, so any oxygen produced by the plants is seen on the leaf tips. (I suppose this is similar/ different way of explaining "pearling occurs when the rate of production is higher than the rate of absorption")
Dave's reply to this was that if the water was O2 saturated, then we would see oxygen bubbles appearing on the decor, glass and fish etc.
I m not agreeing nor disagreeing on anything said above... but i was wondering if anybody else has any thoughts on why pearling occurs after a waterchange?
Thanks, Aaron
Dave's thoughts were that when we do a waterchange, the plants are exposed to an unlimited supply of gaseous CO2, so they go into 'hyperdrive' and produce lots of oxygen which can be seen as pearling.
While I agree with this, I then questioned it because carpeting plants do not have have access to this unlimited supply (like HC/ glosso etc). His reply then was "It may be more pronounced after a water change because the plants that were above the water line are carbon loaded and not taking so much from the water column, making more available to the foreground plants (just sumerising here, Aaron)."
My thoughts were that the water we add to our tanks, is saturated with oxygen, so therefore no more can be dissolved into the water, so any oxygen produced by the plants is seen on the leaf tips. (I suppose this is similar/ different way of explaining "pearling occurs when the rate of production is higher than the rate of absorption")
Dave's reply to this was that if the water was O2 saturated, then we would see oxygen bubbles appearing on the decor, glass and fish etc.
I m not agreeing nor disagreeing on anything said above... but i was wondering if anybody else has any thoughts on why pearling occurs after a waterchange?
Thanks, Aaron