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I've read that you should disinfect or quarantine plants before introducing them to a new tank. I know about the options for dipping them, but I haven't seen much info on quarantining them instead.

Would quarantining them for, say, a month or six weeks with water changes pretty much rule out their introducing diseases into a tank?

I'm not worried about snails as much as I am about disease - they'll eventually be going into a well-established tank.

Thanks!

it would not be affective as dipping them... bacteria and parasites can sometimes feed on the decaying parts of the plant or in the water, so it wont be as good as dipping them in a bleach solution to kill them... although two weeks of dipping and QT will reduce risks alot!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Hi,
In essence there is no sense in what you are suggesting.

Whenever you get new plants, you should always inspect and
clean them under running water from the tap. The water
should be about the same temperature as that of the tank
they are going into, and it should not be on full force,
just mildly running water. Rinse each plant throughly.
Then, run your fingers over each leaf and feel for snails
or snail eggs. Also remove any brown dying roots leaving
only the healthy white roots. Remove any dead, dying, or
yellow leaves.

By washing off the plants you will rinse away any parasites
that just might be hitching a ride in the droplets of water
from another tank along with any bacteria, etc.
With proper care, and cleaning, there is really no need to
quarantine plants. They don't transmit disease or parasites.

The only time we need to "dip" our plants into a solution
is when we are trying to get rid of troublesome algae.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Personally ive seen numerous parasites come in on plants, and many that are too microscopic to be reliably merely rinsed off,and can be hidden in the tiniest coating of microscopic mulm or slime on a plant that you could easily miss with the naked eye including flukes, fungus, flexibacter , and whitespot protozoa.

Personally I give em 2-3 days in a bucket with protozin, it makes the plants rough for a few days, but they usually recover just fine, and the dyes are pervasive and do a much better job of sterilising the plant than rinsing.

Just a thought, but have you ever thought parasites might be getting in your aquaria from the plants rather than through the local tapwater...might be somethings got missed. Dont usually like to contradict you frank, in fact I rather respect your abilities, but in this instance you just gave someone a wide open route to infection in their aquaria.

Plants should be QT'd or sterilised. Not to do so leaves your fish community very open to infection, especially since many a grown outdoors with shrimp and fish and birds around, and in petshops they often allow fish into the plant repository for segregation, fry, injured or stroppy fish etc.

I managed to kill a giraffe catfish by not quarantining moss about a year ago if anyone remembers. Whitespot got in, he was extraordinarily med sensitive...game over. Im never falling for that one again!

Would you take a plant from a diseased aquarium , give it a rinse and think it was safe to go into another?

I haven't had any disease introductions after the rinse method to date, but there are some people who will use a mild bleach solution for a brief amount of time to kill any pathogens on the surface of the plant. This is risky because the bleach could also kill the plant if it's left in too long or the bleach is too strong. I've never tried this method, so I don't know how much bleach is used or how long (I think it's about 30 seconds or a minute). Afterward the bleach is rinsed off the plant.

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Hi,
I don't mind being contradicted if/when I'm wrong.

In this case, I guess I'm wrong, and lucky, I've never
introduced anything into my tanks through my plants.
I also agree, that I would never, nor have I ever, bought
plants from a tank with disease in it. I think that
would be foolish.
Perhaps I should knock on wood.

When I looked up "protozin," every reference I found
was based out of sites with either UK or AUS in
their names. This leads me to think that the product
is not available in the States, or perhaps it is by a different name?

In one article it said that the water would turn blue
so I guess this is the "dyes" you mentioned, and the
article says that the color gradually fades over a couple
of days back to clear.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I recently found out that a safe way of killing snails on new plants is to soak them in a bucket of Alum water.

Alum - Aluminum sulfate, found in the grocery store pickling section or with the herbs/spices, can be used to kill snails, snail eggs, and microscopic critters. 1 Tablespoon per 1 gallon of water is the strength to mix it. A few hours takes care of most things, and then you’ll want to do a good rinse.

"Courtesy of http://www.aquajake.com/blog/"

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html