Used Hydrogen peroxide to treat plants "after the horse has bolted"

[Emeraldtarpon]

Hi all,
I got a few plants from my LFS that seemed in good health and popped them in my tank without treating first which i know is the wrong thing to do but for some reason, i neglected to consider it at the time (momentary lapse of reason : )
About 3 days later i noticed a couple of little spots on the lower leaves of a couple of the plants which i hadnt noticed before.
I wasnt overly concerned until i went back to the LFS 4 days later to see if they had anything new and noticed a lot of their plants were developing black spots and blotches on their leaves.
Thinking the worst, I went home, removed my plants from the tank and gave them a hydrogen peroxide dip.
I used the standard mix of 5ml of HP to 3 1/2 Litres (approx' 1 gallon) of water and soaked for 5mins.
They are all smaller plants still in their pots.
One of them is a Rotala (something?) with reddish-pink leaves that didnt suffer any damage at all.
Two Alternanthera Reineckii Lilacina suffered a bit...3 stems melted on one and the other i could only save some cuttings (although i do know these particular plants can be quite sensitive).
There is also a Heteranthera Zosterifolia that only suffered minor damage.
I was wondering if treating the plants when i did was basically a pointless excercise (kinda closing the gate after the horse has bolted)??
All answers are very much appreciated, cheers

 

[Fishies4Ever]

I am not really sure I am pretty new with live plants but maybe some pictures would help.

 

[GaryE]

I have never dipped a plant, in over 50 years of planted aquariums. I have sometimes QTed plants, especially ones I've collected myself, but the problem with biocides is plants are 'bio'. So you may have done no harm, and you probably did no good. It's extra stress on a newly arrived plant, but you may have eliminated snail eggs and a few other possibilities. Snail eggs have survived all tank peroxide treatments for hydra here, although adult pest snails haven't.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have had planted tanks for 20+ years. I stopped needing to buy new plants so long ago I forgot when. I just propagate that I have. I did grab some frogbit at my club auction. But most of us in the club are old and have been at this for many years. We are pretty good at having healthy tanks.

When I was getting new plants most of them were bleach dipped in a 19-1 water to bleach mix. The dip was never more than 2 mins (that for the hardiest plants with the thickest leaves- like anubias). Now when I have to deal with bad algae on a plant, I dip for only 90 seconds. About the only thing the bleach may not destroy are snail eggs. I assume this is because the jelly mass protects them for a bit and the dip would have to be longer to penetrate it. But then this would kill the plants.

A Potassium Permanganate dip would get the snail eggs. But I have never tried this. Here is a quick summary of 3 ways to dip plants to kill things in a way not to kill the plants: https://aquariumplants.com/dipping-...gae-dips-using-pot-permanganate-bleach-alumn/

edited to fix a typo

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

I have never dipped a plant, in over 50 years of planted aquariums. I have sometimes QTed plants, especially ones I've collected myself, but the problem with biocides is plants are 'bio'. So you may have done no harm, and you probably did no good. It's extra stress on a newly arrived plant, but you may have eliminated snail eggs and a few other possibilities. Snail eggs have survived all tank peroxide treatments for hydra here, although adult pest snails haven't.

Hi Gary,
thank you for your reply.
I think its the last time i do the HP dip, i;ll be quarantining from now on.
Considering it nearly took out the Alternanthera, it must have done something to the spots appearing on a couple of plants...oxidized them?...killed the spore?
Hopefully it took out any snail eggs that may have been present...the plants were in the dip long enough so its a good possibility but not a certainty.
Cheers

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

I have had planted tanks for 20+ years. I stopped needing to buy new plants so long ago I forgot when. I just propagate that I have. I did grab some frogbit at my club auction. But most of us in the club are old and have been at this for many years. We are pretty good at having healthy tanks.

When I was getting new plants most of them were bleach dipped in a 19-1 water to bleach mix. The dip was never moe than 2 mins (that for the hardiest plants with the thickest leaves- like anubbias). Now when I have to deal with bad algae on a plant, I dip for only 90 seconds. About the only thing the bleach may not destroy are snail eggs. I assume this is because the jelly mass protects them for a bit and the dip would have to be longer to penetrate it. But then this would kill the plants.

A Potassium Permanganate dip would get the snail eggs. But I have never tried this. Here is a quick summary of 3 ways to dip plants to kill things in a way not to kill the plants: https://aquariumplants.com/dipping-...gae-dips-using-pot-permanganate-bleach-alumn/

Hi TwoTank,
appreciate your reply,thank you.
Im just going to quarantine from now on but if something is severe enough, ive heard the permanganate tretment is probably the best option.
Thank you very much for the link, i'll have a read and educate myself a bit better on the topic

 

[sharkweek178]

I have never dipped a plant, in over 50 years of planted aquariums. I have sometimes QTed plants, especially ones I've collected myself, but the problem with biocides is plants are 'bio'. So you may have done no harm, and you probably did no good. It's extra stress on a newly arrived plant, but you may have eliminated snail eggs and a few other possibilities. Snail eggs have survived all tank peroxide treatments for hydra here, although adult pest snails haven't.

I have dipped plants in a hydrogen peroxide solution. I still do in the hopes of killing any pathogens. But it does not kill snail eggs.

 

[GaryE]

I have never had a pathogen come in on plants. It's technically possible, but very uncommon. I buy plants like I buy fish though - from trusted retailers or from fishless tanks. Local aquarists are also a good source once you get a barter economy going.
The pests I've had hitchhike? Snails and Hydra. I got blue darners on some locally collected plants once, and that's it. They ate no fry, grew up and flew out. No diseases, no pathogens, and most importantly, no sterility in my tanks. One of the major reasons to purchase plants to me is the bacterial and fungal fauna and flora they contribute to the tank.

For example, if you apply a biocide to a live plant but want it to help you cycle - good luck with that.

If you buy them from a store with sick or sketchy fish in the tank with them, then you aren't practicing safe buying. Sick fish for sale in a store means walk away from everything. Buy your plants online and you take your chances. That's why the tissue culture companies do so well online even at their high prices..

 

[Alice B]

Bad brush algae on anubias, I dip in a weak bleach water solution (probably weaker than 19:1), about a teaspoon of bleach to 1.5 gallons of water, for about a minute. seems to do the trick. Snail masses require fingernail scraping imho.

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

I have never had a pathogen come in on plants. It's technically possible, but very uncommon. I buy plants like I buy fish though - from trusted retailers or from fishless tanks. Local aquarists are also a good source once you get a barter economy going.
The pests I've had hitchhike? Snails and Hydra. I got blue darners on some locally collected plants once, and that's it. They ate no fry, grew up and flew out. No diseases, no pathogens, and most importantly, no sterility in my tanks. One of the major reasons to purchase plants to me is the bacterial and fungal fauna and flora they contribute to the tank.

For example, if you apply a biocide to a live plant but want it to help you cycle - good luck with that.

If you buy them from a store with sick or sketchy fish in the tank with them, then you aren't practicing safe buying. Sick fish for sale in a store means walk away from everything. Buy your plants online and you take your chances. That's why the tissue culture companies do so well online even at their high prices..

Great info Gary, thank you very much.
On my last trip to the LFS i noted the plants they had for sale had deteriorated quite significantly.
Tanks were clouding up and the lack of maintainance was very evident.
Needless to say, i wont be returning anytime soon. I'll give it a few mths and see if theyve gotten their act together.

 

[Emeraldtarpon]

OK, ive just dicovered something very interesting that has changed how im going to go about treating/quarantining plants in the future.
My Dwarf Blue Gourami.
This guy will spend ages cleaning every single part of the plants.
You can tell when he's found something because his tail fin starts to ripple like a wave as he moves in very slowly and then suddenly smashes whatever it was that was there.
I noted a tiny snail moving in between all the foliage and as i watched it the Gourami hammered in from the back of the plant and smashed it in one hit...it was awesome to see (i almost found myself cheering him on lol).
So yeah, the plan is to let my Gourami clean the plants up before introduction into the main tank.
Let nature do what nature does best.