# What do you dip your plants in?



## mestar

When you bring new plants home, what dip solution do you use to kill algae and/or snails?

I've heard of using salt, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, but in what ratios to water and how long do you keep plants in the dip? 

Any other methods to be sure new plants are clean of algae and/snails?


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## holly12

I don't bother. I feed pest snails to my Assassins.

I wouldn't do a salt dip, as some plants are sensitive to salt.

As for bleach/HP solution ratios, I can't remember..... some one else out there know?


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## susankat

19 parts water to 1 part bleach


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## Tomorrowland

I would definitely agree with susankat, but I personally prefer a natural approach. I buy all my aquatic plants from Live Aquaria (Dr.'s Foster & Smith's live fish/plant website) and they have a "snail free guarantee." Even so, I have three Clown Loaches (each almost 4" at this point) who would greedily devour any snails. And my RTS surprisingly does a spectacular job of cleaning up any algae.


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## BBradbury

mestar said:


> When you bring new plants home, what dip solution do you use to kill algae and/or snails?
> 
> I've heard of using salt, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, but in what ratios to water and how long do you keep plants in the dip?
> 
> Any other methods to be sure new plants are clean of algae and/snails?


Hello m...

Neither algae nor snails are bad things. I have several, large, planted tanks and when I get new plants, I just rinse them well in tap water to remove the snail eggs. If you want to take the next step to better ensure the plants are free of bacteria, then put the plants into a 5 gallon bucket of your water change water and add just a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt and keep the plants in the bucket for 24 hours. I read at some point that most harmful bacteria can't tolerate even a trace of salt.

I don't use strong chemicals on my plants. There are natural ways of preparing them for the tank.

Just a couple of thoughts.

B


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## WhiteGloveAquatics

I use JUNGLE brand tank clear(only active and only ingredient is PP)


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## scooterlady

I use an Alum dip for snail eggs when I get new plants. A 2-3 hour soak in a solution of 3 tablespoons of Alum per gallon of water and it should get rid of any snail eggs or baby snails.


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## beaslbob

nothing!!

the fish eat the snail eggs and algae

Adjusting lights and feeding insures the algae stays away.

my .02


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## JonJonHobbyist

Never used to dip anything, just rinsed it and threw whatever in the tank but after a recent BAD beard algae outbreak that resulted in me removing everything except substrate and the fish in order to do one minute dips of 20 parts water to 1 part bleach then soaked everything in clean treated water for 2 hours before reintroducing my plants and driftwood and it has done that trick. Now I have no algae and it didn't phase the fish any at all except for the remodeling which disgruntled them a bit but they got over it. With bleach dips though make sure the plants or whatever are rinsed well before returning them to the tank though.


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## Rob72

just rinse and put in tank, never had a problem with any of the ones i have gotten, a few snails never bother me if they get bad i get rid of them and donate to LFS


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## denson

In my opinion, a solution of 1 part bleach to 20 parts water will kill algae,snails and snail eggs.Dip the plants for up to 2 minutes in the solution, then rinse in a bucket of triple dechlorinated water use 3 times the normal water conditioner for that volume of water.The more delicate the plant, the less time you should dip.


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## zero

i never knew you should rinse the plants!!! i jsut took em out the bag and put them straight in! i think ill rinse from now on.


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## navigator black

Death, greed, and snails are all unavoidable in my world view. Algae will get in anyway too, and is part of the life of a healthy tank. it only takes off if you do something wrong.
So I don't rinse plants.


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