I live in Florida and the sale of water hyacinths is illegal here because in the wild they tend to clog lakes and rivers. I have found that I can get free plants at a local public park and they don't care - I'm doing them a favor by cleaning their lakes!
Anyways, I want to rid them of parasites before I put them in my pond. I had a lady at a koi store tell me to dip them in potassium manganese found in the plumbing section of of the hardware store and to use only about 1 tsp for a big tub of water, then dip the plants, rinse, and put in my pond. This stuff is used in cleaning septic tanks.

This just sort of sounds dangerous to the fish - but she is a reliable dealer in plants and fish and water garden supplies. Has anyone else ever tried this? Or are there any other more natural methods to clean a plant from a lake or river?

Thanks!
PONDerosa

I think it's potassium permanganate, not potassium manganese. Another method is to dip them in a dilute solution of bleach and then immersing them afterward in water with dechlorinator

Im not exactly sure of the bleach-to-water proportions though... go to the "goldfish plants" forum and there are a couple of threads there discussing this method of plant sterilization

Soaking them in potassium permanganate will sterilize them, nothing bad will be left on thm. You can get PP at most koi stores on the net. Most likely you'll have someone that sales it around you in Florida?


BTW anytime you add plants to your pond (which has fish in it) you should soak them in PP first, doesn't matter if you dig them up in the wild or buy them at the local nursery or fish store. Always sterlize them to make sure nothing nasting is grabbing a ride to your pond.


Scott

I always soak mine in PP, too, and yes its potassium permanganate rather than manganese. I had trouble finding straight PP so I use Jungle Clear Water which is just a diluted form. I just use a lot of it.

And the bleach ratio is 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. I have used that before, too. Just add tons of dechlor afterwards to make sure all the chlorine is out.

thanks for the info , lol
i love this place ! i get my questions answered without having to ask , lol !!