How do I clean and quarantine live plants?

[ClockworkParrot]

I just recently bought a large batch of live plants from someone online that will be shipping on Wednesday and I was wondering how I should go about making them safe for my tank. I have read things about using a very very mild bleach and water solution. Is this safe? Or should I just keep them in a bucket for a few days (I dont know how long would be good) and wipe anything I see off the leaves?

I want to make sure I dont end up with anything harmful like disease or snails in my tank.

 

[keiko]

No bleach! Just wash them and keep them in buckets for a week or two. You can use old aquarium water for water changes everyday so they get nutrients from that. Keep an eye out for anything unusual. Snails can be pretty impossible to get rid of since there can be eggs or really small ones in the plants that are impossible to even see. But snails won't be harmful for your axie since they're usually so small and you can just crush them when you see them in your tank.

 

[ClockworkParrot]

I just got my plants today and I found that my moss balls are coated in what I can only assume are snail eggs

I have them quarantining in a different tub from the other plants and I tried to pick them off but the little suckers are attached pretty well and I wanted to get the plants in some water since they were in a box for two days.

Does anyone have any advice on killing off the eggs without harming the plants so I can put them in my main tank? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[auntiejude]

Anything you use to kill snails or eggs will also kill the plants unfortunately. You'd do better to pick the snails off as they hatch.

 

[keiko]

Moss balls are really tough. You can scrub and squeeze them under some running water and try to get as much off as possible.

 

[ClockworkParrot]

I was afraid of that. I've been trying to rinse them off and use my thumbnail to gently scrape them off but they are so fragile I gave up on that after awhile out of fear of ruining them.

 

[Bette]

Planted aquarium central's website has information about using a mild bleach dip on plants (click on live plants tab from home page and then click on informative information on the top of page).
I have successfully used this dip on most types of plants. Moss balls and moss and other very delicate plants cannot tolerate the bleach. For these, I've used a moderately strong dip of methylene blue. I squeeze the moss balls in it and then of course rinse well after.

 

[Dana Georgia-Lee]

I’ve heard that if you put plants in fizzy water that kills off any snails