Plant Quarantine .. your thoughts

[brewmaster15]

Im a bit curious on the quarantine methods all of our green thumb hobbyists use or don't use. When you get plants what do you do with them ? Do you just plop in the tank? Do you quarantine in a bucket and treat to remove unwanted guests?


Do you worry about them carrying in protozoans like ich,velvet, costia.. or are just worried about snails or things like hydra.


Ex.
Plants though not carriers of diseases that can harm fish are whats called Fomites in pathology. They are things that can be a vehicle of transmission.
Plant comes from a petshop with a oodinium outbreak.. you bring plant home and plop in tank.. several days latter you have oodinium.

So whats you methodology and beliefs here.

Al

[Iminit]

Well for me I’ve got a few planted tanks. What I do is rinse them off and place them in a planted tank. These tanks have either snails and shrimp to eat whatever is on them or other critter eaters. So new plants go there for a few months and when I ready I move them into a discus tank. Picked up this anubias today.E0E2C4DD-8494-4D49-BB9D-D3E9812F7F2F.jpg

[brewmaster15]

Tom do you use UV?

[Iminit]

Yes. On the bigger tanks.

[brewmaster15]

Anybody else ? I thought we had a fairly large number of aquatic plant keepers here?
Al

[jwcarlson]

I've had very limited success with "reverse respiration". Basically, soaking a plant in selzer water for about 8-12 hours in the dark. And then putting it in highly oxygenated tank water. The massive pH shift and anaerobic to aerobic shift is supposed to kill off badies. It certainly kills snails and that kind of thing. But I have found that it damaged the plants a lot. However, there are many practitioners out there that have success with it. For plants with beefier leaves like anubias, it seems to work great. But anything more fragile seems to not do so well for me.

[brewmaster15]

Thats great info Jacob, thank you. I didn't know that was a thing done. Its been a long time since I messed with plants but what I used to do was use a product called "clout". It was a product used to treat various parasites and did kill snails. I dont think its made any more. Somewhere in the archives here I documented my procedure. I will have to try and find it. .. rumor has it I maybe needing it in the near future

[holderman19]

I would like to know the same thing. I have been thinking about adding a couple potted plants just not sure where to get good clean plants and what to do to them before i add them.

[brewmaster15]

So far i have found

Clout
Bleach
PP
ALUM
Hydrogen peroxide


Plus Jacobs seltzer water


http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...gens-on-plants

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ine-for-plants

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ake-discus-ill

[Adamski77]

I would like to know the same thing. I have been thinking about adding a couple potted plants just not sure where to get good clean plants and what to do to them before i add them.

Sorry for asking but why do you plan to add plants to your discus tank?

[bluelagoon]

I have low teck planted tanks most of the time. I don't worry to much about snails and have them in my planted tanks. They help keep algae in check and consume a lot of rooting material. I try to buy plants from non fish tanks at the LPS, but not always possible. I bring all plants home and run them under chlorinated tap water really well. I have never yet "fingers crossed" put any parasites that I'm aware of in my tanks from plants but except snails. I would go with H2O2 if I was to use anything to dip them in. Plants can be very easy to grow for most folks with proper lighting being the most important factor.

[bluelagoon]

So far i have found

Clout
Bleach
PP
ALUM
Hydrogen peroxide


Plus Jacobs seltzer water


http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...gens-on-plants

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ine-for-plants

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ake-discus-ill

That Clout was good stuff. I can't find it anymore. Seemed to cure almost everything.

[NeptuneNomad]

Did a quick search and found that Mardel’s Clout was removed from the market because it contained trichlorfon. Unfortunate.