In my 55 gallon planted aquarium, something odd has happened over the past few days. The algae has started "pearling" or creating tiny little bubbles along with the rest of the plants.
Couple of important notes about the tank.
T5 lighting with a total of 216 watts of light.
Stocked mostly with tetras. Silver tips, blood fins, neons, glow lights, black neons, a betta, and 5 ottos.
I use Seachem's Flourish as a plant supplement.
CO2 injection that maintains about 30 ppm of CO2 when the light is on. None when it's off.
I add phosphates to promote algae growth. (There was no algae before I started keeping phosphates between 5-10 ppm)
There are two reasons I add the phosphates. The first is my Ottos don't eat anything else. They don't touch flake food, they don't eat shimp pellets, they don't touch any veggies I have tried, they stay away from the dehydrated algae sheets... since they went a week or so with no real food, I started growing algae in the tank. After a week they ottos started to look more filled out and look a lot more healthy!
The other reason is I like the natural look it brings to the tank as I've tried to set it up looking natural to begin with it. The green algae that grows just looks really cool. I've even gotten compliments on it.
Back to the question at hand. Has anyone else noticed algae pearling? Is this normal? It's not just a few bubbles, it's really pearling! One decoration that catches a lot of light is literally covered with tiny bubbles when the light is on. Thoughts?
Couple of important notes about the tank.
T5 lighting with a total of 216 watts of light.
Stocked mostly with tetras. Silver tips, blood fins, neons, glow lights, black neons, a betta, and 5 ottos.
I use Seachem's Flourish as a plant supplement.
CO2 injection that maintains about 30 ppm of CO2 when the light is on. None when it's off.
I add phosphates to promote algae growth. (There was no algae before I started keeping phosphates between 5-10 ppm)
There are two reasons I add the phosphates. The first is my Ottos don't eat anything else. They don't touch flake food, they don't eat shimp pellets, they don't touch any veggies I have tried, they stay away from the dehydrated algae sheets... since they went a week or so with no real food, I started growing algae in the tank. After a week they ottos started to look more filled out and look a lot more healthy!
The other reason is I like the natural look it brings to the tank as I've tried to set it up looking natural to begin with it. The green algae that grows just looks really cool. I've even gotten compliments on it.
Back to the question at hand. Has anyone else noticed algae pearling? Is this normal? It's not just a few bubbles, it's really pearling! One decoration that catches a lot of light is literally covered with tiny bubbles when the light is on. Thoughts?