Pearling?

[bronxbomber]

I have a 55gal comunity tank which has 6 clusters of plants (nothing heavy but enough for cover) a large piece of bog wood. I do weekly 30-40% water changes. ph 7.8 0,0,30. I just got a new light fixture a 48" quad tube 216w, 26800k. I have Stocked w/ 7 2-3" Rainboows, 3 3" Angels, & Harliquin Rasboras, 2 platies, a balloon molly and a bristlenose.

I have a mild ongoing brown slime alage that reoccurs every week. I just scrape it off my rocks by hand. On the bog wood I have a soft, green lush algae growing only on yht top side. I love the way it looks. The gravel, glass etc is pretty much algae free.

My question is the algae on the bog wood is giving off bubble. Is that good? Bad?

I know the planted guys look for their plants to pearl to know that the balance is good. Is this what is happening?

The bristle nose doesnt seem to touch it.

 

[bronxbomber]

Oh yeah I use flourish iron to fertilize. Thinking about adding thier Excel.

 

[jsoong]

My algae pearls too. Pearling just means you have water saturated with O2 (a good thing) and the plant (in this case the algae) is happy. Soft green algae is consider desirable (good food for herbivore fish), so I guess it is a good thing it is pearling.