Equalizing is done by charging the battery until the voltage reaches about 16V (in a 12V system, the voltage depends on the battery type and charger design). This is normally done to FLA (flooded lead-acid) batteries, but some gel and AGM (absorbed glass mat) manufacturers also recommend it. You don't want to equalize too often as this can boil off the FLA electrolyte, requiring that the battery water be topped off. Excessive equalization can also cause AGM cells to vent (not good).
I'm pretty sure that a modern MPPT charger, if it has an equalization mode, will let you disable this or at least set the parameters. On my sailboat I have three 100W panels with individual MPPT chargers. These are connected to a 1000Ah 12V AGM battery bank, and this has been working well for 20 years. Each controller performs an equalization every 30 days (so there are three EQ cycles in 30 days), but since this is with a single solar panel the equalization current isn't enough to cause battery stress. The battery capacity has dropped somewhat, but it's still good enough that I have no plans to replace the bank anytime soon.