Quarantining Plants

[MonAndrew77]

Fish Pals,

Again, I'm new here. So bear with me....

So I'm setting up this 180g Discus tank. First time for Discus for me.

I spoke with Hans and he said one of the more important things you can do is quarantine. Others have told me this too. So I have a 30 gal quarantine tank ready to go. Any time I get something new it will spend 5 weeks in quarantine. Fine. no worries.

This might be a dumb questions, but what about plants? I mean, do you have to quarantine plants? Do plants bring in diseases? My understanding is they do.

I certainly can't guarantee I'll never need to add plants once I put my initial discus crew in there....

What's your advice?

Andrew in Northern Virginia

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Andrew,

If you're starting out with smaller discus and growing them out you'd be better off not adding plants at the beginning. It can be done, but it's a LOT more work and there's more room for error, which can be costly.

Once the discus are adults, it's fine to add plants so long as you're able to keep up with the cleanliness of the tank.

I've had plants off and on and always make sure to clean them well before putting them into my discus tanks. Here's what I do and it's safe for all plants so far. (Crypts, swords and anubias mostly)

Mix 1 part bleach to 19 parts water in a bucket. Immerse the plant, roots and all, into the bucket for 1 minute. Then remove the plant and dunk it into a separate bucket that you've filled with water and a capful of Prime. Let the plant sit in that bucket for another minute to neutralize the bleach, then rinse well and place into a third bucket of water that's also been treated with Prime. They can stay in that bucket till you've treated all the plants. Once that's done, pot them in small clay pots, pretty glass vases (my personal fave) or make a "squishy" planter by filling the foot of a pair of pantyhose with sand, add a root tab, push the roots of the plant into it and then use a rubberband to secure to top. Sand works best for squishy pots, as gravel tends to rip the pantyhose material.

If you use squishy pots they can be placed into decorative spots in driftwood, stuffed into clay pots or just buried in a bit of sand on the substrate. Doing it this way makes it really easy to move them around for cleaning, to repot as they grow and to redecorate your tank without having to dig up the substrate (which makes a huge mess!).

[strawberryblonde]

Well darn it! I forgot to attach a couple of pics of my huge sword plant in a glass vase! It's just filled with sand and has a Miracle Grow stick buried about 2/3's of the way down.

7950879509

[rbarn]

Plants can be sterilized where as fish can not.

Do some research. People usually do dips in chlorine/water or potassium permanganate/water solution depending on the plant species.

[Syncopex2]

I've never quarantined plants in my display tank and never had any problems. Not sure about everyone's else experience.

[MonAndrew77]

Fish Pals,

Cool. Many thanks. I will definitely take an active approach to sterilizing the new plants I ad.

One question, however. I went to a considerable amount of trouble to use Flourite as my substrate. Would the use of the squishy planters still utilize the benefits of the Flourite? Seems like you would want those roots reaching out everywhere.....

Andrew in Northern Virginia

[strawberryblonde]

So long as you shove a bit of the squishy planter into the substrate they will absorb the minerals from the flourite just fine. I usually let mine grow in those planters till they've sent huge roots out into the sand, then I repot them and stick them back in the sand.

If you're using flourite you won't need to use a fert tab, which is nice!

[Crunchy]

i use pp solution for 2 min dip then soak in water with prime.

[camuth8]

I haven't had a problem without quarantining plants. I do use fertilizer and sometimes Flourish Excel, but I don't quarantine my plants.

[Boyd Luth]

I recently broke my whole system down, and bleached. Strawbeerryblonde instructed me in the process....I have followed her advice closely to the T :-) Am happy to report, a very healthy 160 gallon is up and running. Thank you & Simply Discus !

[flutterbug]

I would recommend quarantineing the plants unless you know for sure the plants came frim a lifeless tank. Alls it takes is one ich cyst to be on a leave and you will have ich in your tank. Also you can bring other unwanted things like snails or algae. I beleive lots of algae problems in plant tanks is introduced from outside sources. In other words it was on the plant in the other tank and then liked your tank conditions. I was researching this myself and have read lots if different advice. I have decide to keep any new plants in a 10 gallon qt tank with a double tube shop light over it and EI ferts.. Min. 2 weeks since that should make you safe from ich since the torments can't live without a host longer than that. Ich seems to be the most prevalent problem I have found, and I have experienced bringing it home a few times.. I feel better safe than sorry instead of having problems and wondering if the plants were the cause after.. Just my two cents worth.

[flutterbug]

I know ich usually isn't a problem at temps over 86 but it is just an example of something that is easily observed. I have had problems with unknown causes after introducing plants in my non Discus tanks. Ie unexplained deaths with mysterious white spots appearing shortly before death or lumps growing on fish etc.. Makes me nervous it was brought in on plants since every place around here has fish or inverts with them.

I chose to QT instead of dips because some plants just melt from the shock of the dip.. Heck some melt just from changing tanks.. Nice to have the mess in the Qt when that happens.

[Gorf]

Can anyone provide a link to the squishy pots please?

We quarantine all our plants in Potassium Permanganate 1g per 10 litres of water. The plants are left in there for 48 hours. This will damage, but not kill the plants & we can be sure that nothing else can survive. We also always buy from the best source that we can.

[MKD]

I used to use PP and bleach before and depends on certain plants (will melt) but did not work with snail eggs. so took Moon's suggestion which i am using Alum now, working great. both of my shrimp planted tank dont have any pest snail.

[musicmarn1]

Dear Lady Strawberry , please please please please can you make a video or a photo journal of any of your other squishy planters and how you do them, size, whts in them and how you plant them then how u move them and clean them ? :angel:

i made a bunch recently for my swords, AND ive asked Barb to kindly make some stunning purple vase's for the squishy pots ! wool but i would also LOVE to experiment with hiding them in the sand ( i did go with sand because it was a deal sealer for my husband but i put peat in and it now looks like poop in the sand it doesnt vacum out haha ill have to hand pick it as i go)

but i want to experiment both with vases, and having it look like its planted, i LOVE the suggestion to poke them in driftwood i have a huge piece soaking and was going to order annubias crypts java fern but i wouldnt use squishy pots for those would i ? id just tie them on the driftwood?


Well darn it! I forgot to attach a couple of pics of my huge sword plant in a glass vase! It's just filled with sand and has a Miracle Grow stick buried about 2/3's of the way down.

7950879509

[hillbillyamber]

There is no plant on earth worth killing or the stress of trying to treat and keep sick Discus alive. What is the most you spent on a plant and what is the cost of the Discus? Trust me I only had a water problem that Killed 6 Discus because my lack of knowledge. There was nothing worth watching them die. No plant is worth dead fish. QT! I brought in Rosies and didn't QT the and lost our big beautiful albino oscar. I kicked myself, I had gotten away with it for so long then, I paid. YOu might get by a few times. All it takes in one time.