Skizhx

Quarantine and treat new plants before adding them to the aquarium.

Even with close inspection it's so easy to miss a tiny thread of BBA or cladophora hidden in the roots or something, and that's all it takes for it to be in your tank permanently.

Gilly

How do people usually do that? I was dipping them in a diluted bleach solution, is that good enough? I must say I'd rather not use the bleach method any more, it smells! How long does one quarantine them for? Also, could I just leave plants that grow emergent outside for a bit to kill any algae?

Gilly

Just read a thread about someone using undiluted 3 % hydrogen peroxide as an algae dip. That sounds easier than bleach and not as smelly.

Skizhx

I use 1:1 peroxide:water solution. You leave the plant submerged for I think a few minutes? Google it, I don't remember it by heart (been awhile).

Some plants are sensitive, but this seems to be the most gentle dip.

Another option might be to keep the plant for a prolonged period in water with a high concentration of excel. I've read of some people using large excel doses in plant-only tanks to 'nuke' problematic algae. It works great for spot-treating. You'll have to look into this yourself.

Gilly

uhm... maybe I should have diluted that hydrogen peroxide.

I read you could use it undiluted though. The Hygrophila melted as did the hornwort and the leaves of the amazon swords. The crypts and the annubias are fine as is the rotala. Will those plants I melted come back? Or should I get more. I am embarrassed to report this.

Skizhx

I've used peroxide undilluted to spot treat plants already in the aquarium and to sterilize substrate taken and recycled from a clado infested tank. Never as a plant dip though.

You've had plants survive the undilluted dip, so evidently, yes, it can be used undilluted. But some plants didn't take well to it.

Searching around, I'm finding people using various ratios for various lengths of time... Longer soaks for more dillute solutions. Which really doesn't clarify much of anything, and it's sort of hard to verify their techniques are working and their lack of clado, etc isn't just coincidental.

Doing some searching for you I found this thread... http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...orn-algae.html

In it, HeyPK advises:
As far as the plants surviving, sort of hard to say for certain... Depends on the extent of damage, etc. Certainly couldn't hurt to try though... I'd give the sword a chance if nothing else...

Hope this helps.

Gilly

Thanks for the info. I've never dealt with Clado but it sounds harder than BBA to get rid of. Algae is weird. I still can't get over that giant kelp isn't actually a plant but an algae.

Anyway, the 2 types of hygrophilia just melted away completely. There's a couple of bare stems that might come back, I'm keeping them in there. All the crypts are pretty much fine. One sword is fine the other two are basically mush but maybe the roots are ok. The rotala is kind of wilted looking but I do see new growth on the tips. I thought my dwarf sag was a goner but I was heartened to see a new shoot peeping out of the substrate. I threw in some snails to eat all the dead leaves. Otherwise there's no fauna in there yet.

My plant volume is way down though, should I get more plants to make sure algae doesn't overrun the tank? I wanted to start this tank off with it looking good but unfortunately it looks pretty crappy. And if I do get more plants I would obviously dip them for way less time in a much more diluted solution.

Gilly

Ok I ordered a bunch of new plants off the plant selling forum here so when I get them I going to use a much more diluted dip for much less time and hopefully things will be good. Everything except the hygrophilia is coming back albeit slowly except for the crypts which are producing new leaves faster than I thought possible!

apctjp

I have a 1 gallon bowl that only has 3m pool sand for substrate. It only receives natural sunlight. There are many plants that do well in this environment. They grow slower, than in a soil substrate, so they require less work. The dwarf sag, ludwigia repens and pennywort will do fine. The dwarf sag will stay smaller and under control.
Algae in this bowl is not a problem. In tanks with soil substrate there is the initial algae outbreak.
Unfortunately 3m sand is no longer available. I think Tahitian Moon Sand may be a close match, buy the larger grain size (size of the grain should be 3-4 times larger than play sand). There is Eco-Complete, Laterite and Flourite substrates, these contain minerals to promote plant growth.

Gilly

Ok I got new plants. I'm gonna treat them with the 1:1 peroxide dip and hope for the best.