Quarantine for plants?

Jeffro

Jeffro

Active Member
What methods do you use to quarantine plants?

I have read some about the following:

Bleach - 20:1 for 2-3 minutes - Can kill some plants
Alum - 1-3 tablespoons per gallon for 2-24 hours or longer - May not kill all bacteria, parasites, snail eggs, etc.
Salt - various ratios - Can kill some plants
Potassium Permanganate - Colors water yellow, can kill some plants (can't soak roots?)

I know many people just rinse and place in the aquarium, or they rinse and quarantine in a separate tank, but I like the idea of a dip...if I knew it would work well.

Another method would be to try the Aquarium Coop quarantine method for fish, which should also at least get some of the parasites and possibly some of the bacteria, but this would be an expensive method...
 
Seattle_Aquarist

Seattle_Aquarist

Well-Known Member
Hi Jeffro,

Welcome to WA Fishbox!

I have tried all of the methods you listed, and a few others, and although some of the methods do kill snails (and plants) none of them that I have used have effectively killed unhatched snail eggs/egg clusters.

What I do is the following:
1) I rinse the plant thoroughly
2) I remove any visible snails
3) I quarantine the plant for 30 days (obviously under lights)
4) In the quarantine container I use about 5-6 drops of a copper treatment (like Seachem Cupramine) per liter of water. I do a water change in the container and re-dose every 7 days. Copper will will kill any snails that hatch, it is toxic to most invertebrates.
5) After a month if there are no snails in the container I rinse the plants and add them to my tank.
***WARNING: Copper (Cu) is toxic to most invertebrates; use caution if you do this for plants you are planning to put in with freshwater shrimp, etc.

All of my tanks and plants are snail-free.
 
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