A different type of dip

[MattW33 149]

I'm planning on doing a bleach solution dip soon to treat some plants. After doing a little reading and video watching, I stumbled across this video that suggested an alternative method using club soda / sparkling water. Has anyone ever attempted this method before?

 

[gimme30]

I gave it a shot, seemed like a relatively harmless and much more benign method than using bleach. It works but it is not fool proof. First off not all varieties of plant survive the treatment, in my case it was lindernia rotundifolia and corkscrew val, and secondly unless you can fill your container all the way to the top bladder snails will simply climb out of the water and laugh at you.

 

[GaryE]

I went superficially digging. Canada Dry Club soda has a pH of 5.24, but as is so often the case, different brands have different ingredients.

Whatever happened to Potassium permanganate baths for plants? And is it the potassium levels in club soda doing the work in this instance?

 

[MattW33 149]

The plants I was going to dip were mainly ephypites. Anubias, Buce, Java fern etc. perhaps bleach is a better overall choice. I don’t want to loose my expensive Buces!

 

[gimme30]

And is it the potassium levels in club soda doing the work in this instance?

Apparently it's the shock of a huge jump in O2 levels. I ran across the process here, although it wasn't "patented" at the time: https/reverserespiration.com

I don't think I'd subject buce to it either @MattW but anubias would probably be fine.

 

[Uberhoust]

I will admit I haven't tried the club soda approach but I would have concerns on a couple of fronts over its effectiveness. First club soda, assuming it doesn't have salts added to it, is only extra CO2 added to the water while under pressure. The CO2 can affect the "bad" organisms we are trying to remove?, the other side effect would be the carbonic acid, which others have noted are not that low. Overall I don't think it would be very effective.

 

[Sgooosh1]

Wouldn’t hydrogen peroxide be a much cheaper method? If you’re looking to add o2 or co2 in the water I feel like that might be better
I’m pretty sure that is how one of the seachem chemicals works too is adding o2 to remove pests or algae

 

[TwoTankAmin27]

The CO2 in the club soda drops the pH.

I have bleach dipped plants for 2+ decades now. A few of the finer leaved plants do not do well with bleach so, if you are unsure, take off a piece of the plant and dip it as a test. Let it sit in clean chlroine free water for some time to make sure it doesn't start to die.

I generally use 19-1 water to bleach mix for the dipping. I dip most plants 90 seconds but anubias and other sturdier plants with thicker leaves I dip for 2 minutes. Then I rinse them under my tap and then drop them into a bucket with a decent amount of dechlor it it. My tap water is from a private well and I do not normally used dechlor except for after bleach dipping plants or when I am at a fish weekend and have tanks. I I fill these with a 50/50 mix of the hotel tap and RO/DI water I bring to mix with the hotel water.

The odd are that dipping under chlorinated tap will remove more bleach than any chlorine/chloramine it might add. The key is to get the plant into the dong dechlor solution right away after the tap rinse.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford32 148]

I'm planning on doing a bleach solution dip soon to treat some plants. After doing a little reading and video watching, I stumbled across this video that suggested an alternative method using club soda / sparkling water. Has anyone ever attempted this method before?

Reverse respiration, I've used it many times on plants.