Plant Quarantine

[madmom]

Friday we got a group of stems. Right now they have been rinsed and are sitting in a bucket of water in the kitchen (brightest room). How long do I keep them in there. I'm changing the water daily.

 

[BBrain]

Unless you have a "quarantine aquarium", I don't recommend leaving them in a bucket more than a day or so. I've found that aquarium plants deteriorate if left in a bucket. I think they need the heat, filtering (water movement at least), and substrate that they get in an aquarium.

Why don't you just disinfect the plants, so you can get them into your aquarium? Here's a couple of sites with info:
http/www.fishinthe.net/html/section-viewarticle-16.html
http/www.plantgeek.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1445

I used to use lime water (dilute solution of dolomite lime), and potassium permanganate (Jungle's Clear Water drops in water, to a pale pink). I've now switched to a bleach solution, for two reasons. One, I still got snails surviving. Two, I don't want to take any chances on fish store's water containing disease pathogens, or virulent algae. Bleach sounds harsh, but if I lose plants to it, that's okay. I'd rather that than have my fish sick, or my tank overrun with algae.

 

[madmom]

Thanks for the info I'll do that.