quarantine new live plants (elodea)

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but must I quarentine new plants (elodea) before adding to a tank that is already established? Or will rinsing the plants be fine? Thanks

Re: quarentine new live plants (elodea)

I remove all foreign objects from my plants (the lead ring and the fuzzy white stuff on the roots, don't know what it's called in English) and let the plant soak at least overnight in a bucket of water before transferring them to the aquarium - without the water, of course. Just to get rid of any fertilizers.

-Eva

Always a wise idea to quarantine plants. I too remove the mineral wool and lead weights from the roots. I then use a commercially available plant cleaner readily available at any good pet shop. This gets rid of snails, snail eggs, hydras, and all sorts of other nasties. (Follow the directions on the bottle exactly, this stuff is Lime based and can cause pretty annoying alkalai burns on fair skinned people) Next I give the plants a good rinse and the keep them quarantined an additional day or two, just to make sure I got everything before planting them in the tank.

There is a method for sanitizing live plants using 3-6% Sodium Hypochlorite Solution (read that as plain old laundry bleach) however I have never used this method and have reservations of its effectiveness without causing damage to the plants.

I've bought plants from different retailers and every time they came with something nasty (planaria, snails, ostracods...). Just rinsing the plants doesn't help.
I would definitely recommend desinfection and quarantine.

I soak my plants in salt water for 2 minutes. Then I rinse them in cool water. It kills snails, leeches and any worms. I don't know how effective this is on other organisms. But it seems to work for me. And its cheap and natural.