# bleaching aquarium plants



## coralife205

Ocasionaly I have read some places online and have talked to some people and they said that I could bleech my plants for a few miniuts to kill all the algea and any snails / snail eggs that may be on them to prevent them from getting in to your tank...

is this safe for the plants?

How long do you bleach them for?

Are there some plants that are more sensitive to this or not?



Its just something that I have thought about from time to time and have had some qustions about, but has never gotton around to asking about it...


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## Darkblade48

coralife205 said:


> is this safe for the plants?


It depends on the plant that you are dipping. Some are more sensitive to others. You should use a 1 part bleach, 19 part water dilution (1:20). This is assuming you are using the standard 5% bleach solution.



coralife205 said:


> How long do you bleach them for?





coralife205 said:


> ...and they said that I could bleech my plants for a few miniuts


I believe you answered your own question here. A few minutes is all that is needed.



coralife205 said:


> Are there some plants that are more sensitive to this or not?


In my experience, most stem plants, and especially Hornwort don't like bleach treatments.


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## Hoppy

I have used bleach treatment a few times when trying to re-set up the tank with algae free plants. If I dip the plants in a 1-20 bleach/water mix for longer than a few seconds it tends to fatally damage most plants. Perhaps 10-20 seconds is the longest that most plants will tolerate. Anubias are one of the few plants that seem able to tolerate a longer dip.

If all you are trying to do is eliminate snail eggs it isn't worth it. The snails will do less harm, by far, than the bleach dip, and you only get big infestations of snails when you feed too much for the fish.


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## bradac56

A potassium permangate dip would be safer and does the exact same thing It can be bought at chemistrystore.com for $10 for 2lbs.


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## Ryzilla

if you are bleaching leggy type stem or flimsy leafed plants no more than 30 seconds. Anubias on the other hand I have bleached for 2 minutes. Moss can handle no more than 80 seconds. 

Always use the standard 1:20 which meens one part bleach to 20 parts water.


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## helgymatt

I only bleach anubias to remove some green spot algae - soaked them for 2 minutes in 20:1. Never had a reason to bleach any other plants. I get rid of black brush algae with Excel.


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## Ryzilla

helgymatt said:


> I only bleach anubias to remove some green spot algae - soaked them for 2 minutes in 20:1. Never had a reason to bleach any other plants. I get rid of black brush algae with Excel.


yes, I would have to agree that the best way to rid of BBA chemically is with direct excel blast.

You can even use the needed amount for the aquarium but just blast it on the infected spot. The issue with this is that the smaller aquarium you have the harder it is to treat the infected area with excel in fear of an overdose.


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## captain_bu

I bleached some plants once and would never do it again. Algae spores are airborne there is no way to prevent the spores from getting in your tank. Snails can be removed manually or if they get real bad dwarf puffers will eat them. Best way to avoid snails is to not overfeed your fish and keep the tank clean so there is no algae or decaying leaves/uneaten food for them to feed on. X2 on the permanganate if you really feel the need to disinfect your plants but it is no guarantee against algae.


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## soup_nazi

I wonder... would oxi clean work.


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## Darkblade48

soup_nazi said:


> I wonder... would oxi clean work.


Oxiclean is sodium percarbonate, which breaks down into sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. It may be cheaper just to buy hydrogen peroxide for disinfection purposes.


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