Archivarium 2004

[thefishguy]

How long should I do a bleach dip for hydrophilia polysperma and hornwort? So far I have a 1 part bleach, 19 parts water solution but I read that stem plants don't hold up to bleach well so I don't know how long to bleach them for. I just got those plants and I noticed a couple snail eggs on the hornwort. (I forgot to bleach them before I put them into the tank so there may be some eggs that fell off the plants into the water before I realized what I did ) That would really suck I got a snail infestation. Would 2 minutes in bleach do the trick (killing snails and eggs) or is that too much and kill the plants?

[Susan Wright]

Bleach would scare me, I use salt, if there is lots of snails or eggs you can mix it pretty heavy on the salt, like 1 teaspoon per cup of warm water, swish your plant around for a few seconds then rinse with clean declorinated water. shouldn't hurt the plants, and don't leave a bleach residue that can hurt the fish. You can repeat as necessary. I do this in a 2 qt pitcher to give room. Don't leave in salt water for more than a couple of minutes.
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The critter ladie
8 cats, 2 dogs, 3 guinea pigs, FISH and more FISH

[Darkblade48]

I'm not too sure about the Hygro, but IME, Hornwort stands up horribly to a bleach treatment, it ends up shedding all its "needles". The worst part is it waits until its in your aquarium to do it.

[Laskey]

Honestly I quit getting snails when I started really rinsing my plants for a couple minutes each, in water coming out of the tap with as much force as I think the plant can stand, while rubbing them all over. One tank does have loaches, but the other tank does not and it's also snail-free. Snail eggs are visible when you look hard enough, and tend to come off in a clump pretty easily when rinsing. Laskey