# Dipping plants in bleach



## urbach (Apr 16, 2009)

Yep, dipping in bleach will destroy any eggs or algae in present state. But don't bleach the roots.


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

How exactly do you do it?


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## Higher Thinking (Mar 16, 2011)

Use a solution of 20:1, water to bleach. You can use a little more or less. I never measure things exactly. I usually give softer plants a 20-30 second dip and harder plants like anubias can go for a minute. After that, rinse them very well and then dunk them in a cup of water with an excess of dechlor.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Anubias is very hardy plant and can hand bleach dips well (at least the ones I've done) They've stayed in for 5 min at normal solution dilution.. one time I did a very very very weak bleach dip, left them in a half hour (something happened, forgot about them yikes!) they did fine and had new leaves in a week.. still healthy too. But I do NOT recommend intentionally keeping them in that long, ever.


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## Steve001 (Feb 26, 2011)

Blackheart said:


> How do you go about this? And does this really prevent snail eggs from growing?


A careful inspection with a mechanical removal and rinse off in water if necessary works too.


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

Okay how about driftwood? Is it possible to let it sit in bleach for awhile, then rinse?


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

I've never heard about not bleaching a plants roots. Either way, I've only bleached anubias, roots and all, they did fine.

Wood should be boiled or baked (wet).


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

How about substrate? could you bake substrate to remove eggs?


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

When you ask about bleaching wood you may need to do some really simple thought about what happens when you do. Reading a bit tells us that chlorine reacts with just about anything organic. That mean everything from the grease on your shirt to the bacteria in water. The chlorine in bleach is the same as chlorine in drinking water, just less water to dilute it in bleach. When we drink water with chlorine in it, we smell the chlorine as it gasses off. So when we soak wood in bleach water and pull it out to dry, the chlorine does the same thing and gases off to blow away.
You may hear stories about some residue that stays in the wood? Wood is an "organic"! So does it make sense that chlorine that reacts with organics can really set in an organic without reacting? That's kind of like trying to store fire in a cardboard box! 
Soak,rinse, and let dry totally and you know it is safe to use .


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## Acro (Jul 7, 2012)

I respect what your saying PlantedRich, and it makes sense, but do you have factual scientific info to back that theory up? I mean the part of the bleach leaving soaked wood. I truly would love to see, it would make things easier than baking wood all the time. (please note, this is said seriously, not sarcastically).

As for substrate like gravel and sand, I've always boiled mine. I have a pot just for boiling substrate. lol


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Basic chemistry; the primary ingredient in bleach is chlorine. Chlorine evaporates.

As long as wood has dried completely, there is no possibility of chlorine/bleach remaining. (Now if there are some other ingredients in the bleach used, such as surfactants, etc, those may be another story... but if the wood is rinsed before allowed to dry, the chances of those remaining in any significant amount are slim to none. But to be on the safe side- just use "normal" household bleach... without all the fragrances and thickening agents and other stuff.)

On the flip side... good luck getting rid of all snails with bleach. Snails have this annoying habit of ducking themselves into shells that are quite capable of protecting their soft bodies from bleach. IME, there are usually at least one or two that survive, and one or two is all it takes...


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

Well, all I'm really looking to use the bleach for is to dip plants in. Usually the only snails on the plants I've gotten is eggs. I'm assuming the eggs have no way to defend themselves like that?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Pond snail eggs? I think you'd have better luck removing those cases and jelly masses with your fingernail. I wouldn't count on bleach getting to every one of the eggs through their covering, either.


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

I guess I'll have to do both. and possibly start a small quarantine tank lol


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Personally, I've given up on eradicating snails. I just stick Assassin snails in most of my tanks (if they don't have Nerites) to keep the populations of ramshorn and pond snails in check, and then try to pretend the survivors aren't there. LOL


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## Blackheart (Jul 5, 2011)

Well, part of my problem is the place I get my plants from, they're usually in tanks that are covered in snails. When I get the plants, I kinda just pick them off, but nothing else and stick the plants in the tank, so thats probably why I have so many lol

all different kinds, too. pond snails, bladder snails, ramshorn, and mts snails.

mts actually look kinda cool, though. but I still have a huge outbreak of them in my tank

and I don't even feed that much. I used to only feed once a day, a small sprinkle, 5 days a week. I don't feed anymore in fact as I only have cherry shrimp in my tank now.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Acro said:


> I respect what your saying PlantedRich, and it makes sense, but do you have factual scientific info to back that theory up? I mean the part of the bleach leaving soaked wood. I truly would love to see, it would make things easier than baking wood all the time. (please note, this is said seriously, not sarcastically).
> 
> As for substrate like gravel and sand, I've always boiled mine. I have a pot just for boiling substrate. lol


Don't really have any articles to quote as such. Just some tests you might run to prove to yourself work as well? 
I am also promoting using only the cheapest, simple bleach. No need to have any other things added like scent, etc. If we look at the jug it tells us we have 6% sodium hypochlorite. Check me on that as I don't read the jug often!
Basic idea as I understand it is that you have lots of trouble making a gas like chlorine stay in a liquid. Think of the problems we have keeping CO2 in water? So to make it practical and keep the chlorine in the water part of the bleach, they "bind" it to sodium. Any really scientific trained may correct that if they see error. I accept that as a poor man's description. But experience with working around bleach tells me that it does gas off real easy. When the chlorine gasses off, it leaves a tiny amount of the binding salt and water. I see this in my shed when my wife forgets to put the lid back on the chlorine really tight. It rusts all the tools in the shed. When you get a drink of water, what you smell is chlorine gassing off. Maybe the best way to assure that I am not just messing with your mind would be to read about chlorine. A search of most any trusted info (outside of forums?)will show that chlorine does react with lots of things. And wood is certainly one of them. 
While you can get lots of stories about chlorine in some weird way soaking in but not coming out of wood but I never see any real explanation of HOW it does that. 
Meanwhile try a small test. Stick something like a piece of cloth in pure bleach and let it set for maybe a day. Keep a second cup of the same amount of bleach setting in the open next to the first cup. After some period like 24 hours, check the cloth for change. Put a second piece of cloth in the second cup and check the change after another 24 hours. Bet you see that the second cup of bleach is not really very good bleach any more. The chlorine has gassed off! 
I find it all the time in my soaking tub where I soak all my wood for personal use or sale. If I keep a tub of water setting for a week and go back to add a second round of wood, I have to add more bleach. The first bunch I poured in is gone!


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

One point that seems to be missed many times is that bleach is used so often by so many and it works so well. One of the main parts of keeping fish seems to be a real overdose of caution! We fear killing our fish and it can go too far and we ignore some of the really good items available. 
The reason bleach is used by so many is that it works really well. But the reason it is NOT used by so many is that they fear it. The chlorine sends them into a panic even though they may have chlorine in their tap water and they deal with it on every water change.
The only difference in tap water with chlorine and a bleach water soak is the amount of water diluting the mix. Tap water may have near a teaspoon of bleach in fifty gallons. A bleach water soak may have a 1/2 cup in 50 gallons! So if we take wood out of a soak and rinse it, isn't that diluting the bleach that is left in much the same way as tap water is diluted? It's pretty well agreed that you can make tap water safe to use by letting it set--if it is treated with chlorine and not chloramine. So if we take wood out, rinse it to dilute it down to pretty close to tap water and then let it dry, is there any reason to think the chlorine doesn't do the same as it does in tap water? Some may say that there is some "magic" about bleach water that will soak in but not dry out. 
I'm not a strong believer in that type "magic"!!!
When people wash their shirt in bleach water to get it white, it seems to dry just like it does when you don't use bleach?


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Why such drastic measure just for snails? My algae free tanks have a few different species of snails at varying stages of development.


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