# Any tips on cleaning new plants?



## ShrimpieLove (Apr 26, 2010)

Hi everyone! 
I am curious what everyone does to clean their new plants they buy from fish stores etc. Ive always just rubbed off any algae in a bowl of tank water, and removed any rings/and that cottony stuff they wrap around the base of some plants, but thats all... but as far as say parasites or anything that might come from a lfs- is there a general cleaning method for new plants to make them safer to add to a tank?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Some people will use various disinfecting agents to dip their plants. This can include bleach, potassium permanganate, etc.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

deep your plants in a bowl of water with salt. some parasites will die and some bacteria too. aproximately a mixture of one tablespoon of salt in 250ml of water


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5015


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

another method you can use is soda water. or carbonated water but make sure its unflavoured. It is essentially water + CO2. However, you must be careful as some plants can not tolerate such low pH. This works very well on moss and will kill any parasites or bacteria and some algae.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I doubt that heavily carbonated water will act to kill parasites/bacteria/algae.

The pH will only drop to a certain point with CO2.


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## notarookie (Jul 8, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> I doubt that heavily carbonated water will act to kill parasites/bacteria/algae.
> 
> The pH will only drop to a certain point with CO2.


i use 1/50 bleach treatment. snails will drop off immediately. you want to have a pail of clean water ready to dip the plants to clean them before adding them to the tank. you also want to make sure the tank water and both pails of water are roughly tha same temp, this will stress the plants less.

potassium permanganate will not kill many types of eggs or 'cycts' or flukes. i don't want snails in my planted tank. bleach works.

rick


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

Im bad for jsut placing the bunches in my tank. Where I buy them from has clean tanks in that respect. No snails especially.


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