Hello


I am expecting a shipment of a new plants and I wanted to know what is the best way to clean your plants before you put them in the tank with fish. Last time I purchased plants I had all kind of problems with my fish. Somebody told me to use hydrogen peroxide. Did anybody use it? How? or bleach?
Plants will go to a discus tank and most are warm water plants.
anubias,cryptocoryne, hygrophila, ludwiga, vallisneria americana,aponogeton, baby tears,java fern, bacopa .

Thank you for your help.

I good check under some bright lights will help first. Check for a jelly substance...if you have it then those are snail eggs...just rub them off and rinse with water.

A more harsh method is a weak (less than 10%) bleach solution...dip the leaf parts into the solution for 1 minute and then rinse in dechlor-ed water. Don't get the roots or rhizome in the bleach or they're gone.

I've only used Hydrogen peroxide once...and that was on driftwood to zap some bba sometime last year. It works, but bleach will work just as well.

A potassium permanganate solution will work too...Jungle Clear Water is a relatively medium strength pp solution (usually found at walmart fish section). Fill a small bucket of water and squirt enough into the bucket to turn the water a deep purple. Soak the plants for 10-15 minutes...rinse with dechlor-ed water.

Lastly...not for the impatient...put the plants into a quarantine tank!!

Bleach can be used at a mixture of 19 parts water to 1 part bleach. But be very careful. At most plants can survive a 2 minute dunk. Some much less.

Thank you.