Once and awhile I'll see this fine line of tiny white bubbles coming from the leaves of my Amazon Swords. Is that pearling and it is a good or bad thing?

Yes it is pearling. It is good. Its just the plant being a plant. And a good indication that your tank is doing good

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www.sweetaquatics.com

158 planted tanks

That mean your plants is doing the photosynthsis by sucking in the CO2 and breath out the O2. WHat you see is the oxygen that plants breath out.

Congratuations.

Having small bubbles rising to the surface that look like a string of pearls is a very desirable thing in planted tanks.

The are oxygen bubbles.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Sometimes you just notice this after a water change. This could be due to the new water having more/less O2 than your plant so osmosis occurs, which results in pearling. This is neither good nor bad. You can also see pearling if your plant has a wound on it or if you trim a plant. This is not really good, but natural with trimming.

However, if you see this on a daily basis, after lights have been on for X amount of time, this a good sign that photosynthesis is occuring and your tank has reached it's max CO2/O2 level resulting in the plants pearling. This type of pearling is a very good sign of a healthy planted tank.

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