Plant newbie feeling stupid after LFS/Quarantine Question

sarcare

sarcare

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Aug 3, 2006
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I'm switching a twenty gallon high tank to a planted tank with a 65w cf light and diy co2. I went to the lfs Aquarium Adventure to look at their plant selection in advance of the light's arival to see what they had. I was considering getting the plants so I could quarantine them before hand so I wouldn't transmit anything to my tank.

I talked to two people, both of which treated me like I was INSANE for wanting to qt plants. They both told me that they would not last under lower light for more then two days in QT (10g with 18w light). The second person told me that you cant get ich from plants, and if you could you'd have to quarantine them for 28 days, the first person said "tanks always have ich" so it isn't a problem.

I still want to treat my plants before adding them, since the tank is already cycled and has fish and low level light plants. I thought if I put my fish (1 gourami and five bronze corys) in the qt tank I could treat the plants in a bleach solution (rinse them really well) and then put them in the 20 tank with the light for a couple of days to see if there are any problems. I read somewhere that ich will not survive more then 3 days in a tank without fish, but lfs employee said that was insane.

I have not even started this high light tank and I already feel like I'm messing it up!
 
From FINS http://fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html
White spot disease (Ichthyopthirius multifiliis) is caused by a protozoan with a life cycle that includes a free-living stage. Ich grows on a fish --> it falls off and attaches to gravel or tank glass --> it reproduces to MANY parasites --> these swarmers then attach to other fish. If the swarmers do not find a fish host, they die in about 3 days (depending on the water temperature).
Click to expand...
 
how long ich survives with no host is partly dependant on the temp of the tank.
some forms of ich when it sluffs off is domant. warm temps tend to speed up the dormancy part. in cold water they can last weeks. ich is treatable in the freeswiming stages.
the typical life cycle for ich in a tropical tank is aproximately 14 days.
 
The real question is how do I ensure my new plants do not bring any unwanted visitors? I suppose whether or not I was misinformed doesn't matter as much as if I do the right thing now.
 
They keep fish in their tanks, will the bleach kill any ich on it? I don't have a bright enough light to keep the plants in quarantine, though I was thinking that I could put the fish in the quarantine tank with the lower light and put the plants in the tank with the bright light and wait a while to make sure any free floating ich that comes along with it after the bleach has died.

Why do lfs keep fish with their plants? I saw sae, which I suppose could keep the algae down, but there were other non algae eating fish in there.
 
I don't really know what it will kill beside alage (maybe the plant too), but if I am going to put plants right into my main tank they get a dip for a couple of minutes in a bleach solution of 20:1 then a couple of rinses in declorinated water.

I did this to some Pearlgrass and it didn't like it at all, but it's coming back really good now.

All that being said most of my plants in my 36g went thru my 10g with 18w light first for a couple of weeks and all did just fine.
 
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