Hello,

Using information I found, I use 10:1 water to bleach ratio to bleach dip my plants to kill BBA. I dip the plants for 5 minutes. The next day, the plants doesn't look so good. If all leaves fall off, can the stem plants recover? The plants in question are bacopa caroliniana & Ludwigia sp "dark orange". The stem still look healthy, the coloration of the stem still look good. Only the leaves are not.

Some plants recover better than others. It is possible for them to recover from losing leaves, but it doesn't always work out.

All bacopa caroliniana died. Most Ludwigia sp "dark orange" still there but a couple of the plants uprooted because of damaged stem. I did planted few of new Ludwigia & replaced all of the bacopa plants in the tank. I think 5 minutes is too long. When I search on how to do bleach dip, I found multiple result for 9:1 water to bleach ratio with no more than 5 minutes bleach dip. Now when I check again, many suggest 20:1 to 25:1 water to bleach ratio with 1 to 3 minutes bleach dip.

I honestly don't regret it. BBA is pretty stubborn. Chinese algae eater did eat BBA because I can see them eating it & it is gone from the majority of the leaves. However, BBA still come back. It wasn't blooming but slowly grow on the edge of the leaves. I cannot find SAE at my local LFS. The CAE, I just got them a couple months ago.