[raulfd4]

A friend of mine offered me a bunch of plants from his tank. I want them, but his tank has recently had an outbreak of cladophora algae.

He said that if we clean the plants in some sort of bleach/water mixture before introducing them to my tank, I shouldn't have any problems.

Thoughts?

 

[raulfd4]

No ideas? :help:

 

[niko]

2 ideas. Guaranteed to work. Both of them not very likeable at first glance.

1. Get a ton of Amano shrimp.
I'm talking 200 in a 25 gallon tank. Getting 20 will not do anything to the Clado.

2. Find a way to run a perfectly clean planted tank.
You will see the Clado gradually dwindling away and coming back if you drop the ball on maintenance in some way. Play this game till you get rid of the Clado. By that time you will be a planted tank guru, guaranteed, and most topics here will annoy the hell out of you.

And there is a 3-rd, very likely scenario: You drop the infected plants in your tank and the Clado dies off quickly. That is not an uncommon thing.

The bleach is an obvious approach but you got to be careful with the concentration, duration, and neutralizing. And it does not work every time. Also fine leafed plants can't endure that kind of treatment.

 

[micheljq]

+1 with niko.

You can gently rinse the plants with tap water to remove most of the cladophora upon it.

Michel.

 

[raulfd4]

Thanks guys. I guess I will have my friend bring the plants over and see the condition they are in. If I can clean them using tap water and get rid of all the visible algae, then I'll go ahead and add them. If it looks like too much of a headache, I'll just skip it.

 

[amberoze]

Liquid co2. Flourish excel. Plastic syringe and dose directly to the algae inside the tank. Or use hydrogen peroxide in the same manner.

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