Help a nervous first timer

[FishFanMan]

Well, sort of. I have a well established discus only tank that's been fine for years. But I have never added plants to this tank. My nervousness stem from the fear of introducing pathogens from an anubias that I just bought from a big box pet store. My fear has kept me from adding other fish like dither fish even if I QT them. All my livestock has come from local discus shops. So this will be the first live item from an unknown source.

I think QT for plants make no sense. What is the current best practice for disinfecting plants especially for discus tank. Thanks.

[FishFanMan]

Well, I called a hydroponic store, pond shop and my usual pet shop but nothing I can buy off the shelf and no recs. So I decided to spray it with hydrogen peroxide then rinsed them after 5 minutes. Then I made a bath with malachite green, prazo, metro and furan. I'm going to soak the plants in that for a couple days. Overkill probably.

[Pices]

Filip uses a weak bleach or pp solution. I’ll do a search and see if I can find the recipe.
Patty

[Pices]

Found it through Filip’s answer on another post.
Ive responded there and I'll copy my answer here for future browsers .

Bleach /water solution in 19/1 ratio (or a 5 % bleach ) .Dip the plants for 2 minutes and then rinse well under tap water and straight in to a bucket of water with five folded dose of dechlor agent(i.e. seachem safe ) .

PP - 25 ppm solution for 10 hours maintained purple and redosed if it gets brown during the plant bath .

Both treatment are considered safest for killing the protozoan cysts(our most resilent enemies ) but harsh and harmfull for plants too .

[FishFanMan]

Thank you. Yes, I've both can harm plants so I've stayed away from that. PP scares me a bit so I've scratched that off my list.

[LizStreithorst]

Found it through Filip’s answer on another post.
Ive responded there and I'll copy my answer here for future browsers .

Bleach /water solution in 19/1 ratio (or a 5 % bleach ) .Dip the plants for 2 minutes and then rinse well under tap water and straight in to a bucket of water with five folded dose of dechlor agent(i.e. seachem safe ) .

PP - 25 ppm solution for 10 hours maintained purple and redosed if it gets brown during the plant bath .

Both treatment are considered safest for killing the protozoan cysts(our most resilent enemies ) but harsh and harmfull for plants too .

You saved me a lot of searching time, Patty. I believe that it was Adam that told me 19 to 1 worked. It works for algae as well.

[FishFanMan]

Thank you!

[Filip]

Bleach is considered the safest method (fishwise). Anubias are hard enough to tolerate 2-3 minutes in 5 % bleach without much damage.I wouldn't hesitate on bleach dipping Anubias my self.
Softer plants can get damaged or completely die during this dip method though .

[Mando]

You saved me a lot of searching time, Patty. I believe that it was Adam that told me 19 to 1 worked. It works for algae as well.

I’ve personally done this ratio myself.

[FishFanMan]

I just put the plants in the tank. They're going to be part of the background. I used couple of small suction cups to hold them in place on the back glass. My discus seems to not care one bit about the new addition. Hoping my pleco doesn't munch on it. I've never directly fed my pleco so I'll keep an eye on him. He never comes out, just hides next to the heater. Is that normal?

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[Filip]

So how did tou treated the plants prior introduction Koji ?
Plecos are nocturnal feeders and it's quite normal to hide during the day .They can't eat your Anubias .

[FishFanMan]

So how did tou treated the plants prior introduction Koji ?
Plecos are nocturnal feeders and it's quite normal to hide during the day .They can't eat your Anubias .

Hi Filip, I sprayed the whole plant with peroxide and left it on for 5 minutes. Then soaked it for couple days in a cocktail of malachite green, prazo, metro and furan. The plants were remarkably clean when I bought it. So this might have been overkill. I'm just paranoid of introducing new things in my tank. Thanks.

[FishFanMan]

Well, lost 1 of the 2. Rhizome is mushy with fungus setting in. So in the garage it goes unfortunately.

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The other one is doing fine still.

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