Treating New Plants For Algae And Snails

[Nospherith]

How do you all go about treating your new plants for algae and snails before planting them in the aquarium?

 

[zig]

I dont......i wouldn't buy plants with algae on them

I think snails are unavoidable in planted tanks thats just my view anyway, you will always get hitch hikers at some stage no matter how careful you are.

I think dipping new plants is not a great idea either, when plants are newly added to your aquarium they take time to adjust, and i think you just set them back further than they already are by dipping them beforehand.

Just my 2 cent

 

[Nospherith]

Thanks, zig. I'm suprised you are so lenient. Maybe I just had a bad case. I guess I'm a little paranoid about getting a new infestation of snails becuase last time, I tried pseudo-starving my fish, hence starving the snails, but the snails just ate my plants even more. So maybe you could see why I have a bad impression of snails.

CFC told me on chat that what's fatal to snails is usually fatal to aquatic plants as well. That's true, since I've heard dipping the plants in a bleach solution will kill algae (maybe snails too?), it's not 100% sure that the plants will survive.

Nevertheless, copper ions will kill snails so is there any way I can maybe get some of that stuff? Cu(II) is the active ingredient in "Had-A-Snail" and it's illegal in California and thus the creation of this topic.

 

[atmmachine816]

I do bleach baths and so far I haven't gotten any snails though my friend did a bleach bath and has a few snails but he obviously put in to much water. Any ways I guess you can put the plant in a separate tank and see if any snails appear and if they do try to kill them all and if they don't transport the plant to the main tank. So maybe put an airstone and a heater in a 10 gallon throw in some gravel or sand and let it be for a cople days to a couple weeks. Just a suggestion. IMO the bleach baths don't hurt the plant as long as you get the ratio right, they just don't look to healthy depending on how much bleach you put in but they recover and do great.