Pearling???

[saugata]

hi all,

i have recently rescaped my 4.5' tank as i shifted house. the tank is now little more than 1 month old. its a moderate light-CO2 injected tank. it is having very good pearling but than i have observed that the O2 bubbles goes up gets kind of deposited on the surface of the water. in other words the bubble doesn't burst so soon. in fact towards the end of the photo-period, the whole surface of the water is covered with O2 bubbles and these bubbles stay there for quite some time. in fact some of these bubbles can be seen even during the next day morning. i have been having planted tanks for the past 3 yrs or so but have never seen the bubbles behaving like this before. is this something normal or should i be concerned abt the bubbles not bursting soon enough?

the lighting is 8 nos of T8 @ 36 watts each for a period of 6 hrs. since the tank is pretty new, i am dosing nitrates weekly once after weekly w/c.

looking forward to your comments.

[AquaObsession]

There might be a very thin oil thin on the surface. This happens when plants are in photosynthesis. I think. try to have some surface movement, or get a surface skimmer. Some surface movement will increase your pearling rate as well.

Cheers, Christophe

[saugata]

Thanks so much for your help. Will surely try out your suggestion.

[cyclops]

A surface skimmer works for me. Pretty effective.

[saugata]

But then won't a surface skimmer result in loss of CO2 in a planted tank???

[KeIgO86]

another way is to get surface-scum-eating livebearers ie. mollies, platies, swordtail.

[instinctloh]

another way is to get surface-scum-eating livebearers ie. mollies, platies, swordtail.

With regards to Mollies and swordtails,

will they eat up the shrimps?

Thanks

[instinctloh]

With regards to Mollies and swordtails,

will they eat up the shrimps?

Thanks

EEErrrrr... can anybody help???

Thanks

[zenscape]

With regards to Mollies and swordtails,

will they eat up the shrimps?

Thanks

Most fish will eat up small sized shrimps.

[StanChung]

But then won't a surface skimmer result in loss of CO2 in a planted tank???

Hi Saugata,

The surface skimmer skims only what's on the surface, that's already theoretically where CO2 is lost anyway.

In any case, you can adjust it so that it only skims a little. They have an adjustable stick to divide the suction from the top or bottom.

I use this on all my planted tanks except those with lily pipes that cause a vortex and sucks/breaks up the surface scum.