We bought some new plants for our tank, but they come in little plastic pots with their roots encased in a spongy material.

How do you disinfect something like this? I am worried that the bleach or PP solution will remain in the sponge (or residue) and be bad for the fish.

Will bleach/PP also kill snails?

The plants have been in a quarantine bucket for almost 2 weeks now because we never got around to disinfecting, nor posting this question... whoops.

Thanks for any advice!
fishywomble

I used a solution of PP to disinfect all mine and it worked great. I tried the bleach first on a couple anacharis and they were totally destroyed in a few weeks. Bleach is okay on broader leafed plants, but anything with fine leaves will not make it. PP is gentler on plants, and in trace amounts, not harmful to fish (in very small amounts it can be used as a medication occasionally). I kept the spongy thing on the roots while I PP'd them and only took it off and planted it after it had been in the aqarium for a week. You don't really need the basket, at least for most plants. PP also worked great on snails. I didn't see any when inspecting, but while I treated I saw three die and float up. I recomend you treat twice with 5 day qt period inbetween. Just make sure you rinse well after treatments

Thanks for the reply, Kissy.

Yes, we soaked the plants in a dilute solution of PP yesterday, and triple-rinsed them afterwards. I think there aren't any snails... anyway it doesn't hurt to be cautious! We took all the sponge off to be on the safe side, and will be planting them in their plastic baskets in some new substrate.

Trying to add more and more plants to combat the horrible black algae that's recently started growing in the tank!

fw

Yuck black algea. I've got some of that on my driftwood. I think the only real bet of getting rid of it is removing what it is on.

We've got black algae over everything, the sides of the aquarium, all the stones, the leaves of the plants, the internal filters, etc. We try to clean it once a week but it always comes back with a vengeance. We only had the benign brown algae until we put in plant fertiliser in a teabag, and I suspect there are nutrient imbalances in the water, hence the algae.

It's a bit of a struggle trying to control it.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

fw

well... Ive heard that rosy barbs relish hair algae... no idea though if they'll do anything about black algae however...