It is a good thing, but doesn't necessarily mean the tank will be algae
free.

--
Craig Brye
University of Phoenix Online

"chet" chet-at-surewestDOTnet wrote in message
...
I'm a newbie too, so no issues. Pearling is the collection of oxygen
bubbles
on leaves as the result of photosynthetic behavior of plants. CO2 and
other
stuff is converted to oxygen. When the tank reaches oxygen saturation, the
oxygen collects into to bubbles....

I thought it was a good thing...

chet


"WhiskerFish" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 19:03:37 -0600, "Craig Brye"
wrote:

I'm guessing this is your problem. The nitrates should be between 5-10
ppm,
but you say yours is below 20. Is it closer to 0 or closer to 20, are
you
able to tell with your test kit? I'm fairly new at this, but I've done
a
ton of research on plants in the last 1 1/2 years and have come to gain
a
lot of information. I'm guessing your plants are starving for trace
elements and this leaves the algae to take over (feeding off of high
nitrates and possibly phosphates).

Just because plants pearl doesn't mean they're doing good. I've seen
algae
problems happen a lot even though plants are pearling. Some of the
best
growth and tank conditions I had occurred with only minor pearling.


Ok you guys help the newbie out. What is pearling??

WF