Hi, I lost my tank of goldies and my pleco to an unkown bug that came in on my elodea? how do I treat the elodea or should I pitch it? I have it in another container and have cleaned and sterilized my tank. I don't know exactly when I will be getting new fish but I hope it will be either in march or april.

The best way to sterilize plants is PP (Potassium Permanganate). It comes in either powder form (the very strong version) or a diluted liquid form I saw online. The powdered version you can find at feedstores, they use that to sterilize the farm animal's feeding dishes. Leave the plant in there for a few hours, I do it overnight.
Of course, the very best way would be quaranteening them for a month, just like a fish. But to be honest, who does that?

You can also use a weak bleach solution if you can't find the PP. Use 1 part bleach to 19 parts water. Leave the plant in for about 2 minutes then rinse very well in clear water. Rinse again with water with a dechlorinator in it.

Some plants don't react well to bleach. I haven't tried it on elodea, but if the other option is pitching it, it is worth a try.

I was just about to ask the same thing - hope my plants don't mind a soaking in bleach solution as its all i have, i have no idea what sort they were, they came from the lfs but the girl there didn't know what they were. Hope they will be ok. They are a bit of a bargin tho as i have 3 but was only changed for one, dappy girl - she knew there were 3 in the bag coz she put them there

And becareful with the bleach solution. That is where i messed up... I put the elodea in for about a few seconds, then i forgot and 5 minutes later, they turned white and apparently all died

One of my 3 didn't like it either, think i soaked them for too long but the other 2 are ok and i'm keeping the 3rd in some water in a vase to see if it recovers. Think i'll have to try and find some Potassium Permanganate, anyone konw where i might find it?