Bleach, math, disinfecting plants

LeahK

LeahK

AC Members
Jul 5, 2007
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Iowa
I'm feeling like a dummy, but I can't figure out the math here. :confused:
I need to disinfect some anubias that I bought. I see online that I need 1 part bleach to 19 parts water, or a 5% solution. Does anyone know, how many tablespoons, teaspoons, or ml per gallon is this?
 
You could also do 19 tablespoons water to 1 tablespoon bleach. This is 1 tablespoon less than 1 1/4 cups water, then add a tablespoon bleach. (I suspect that making 20 cups is a bit more than you need). If you know how much total you want to make, I can figure the math for you. If you want to make about a gallon, use 1/2 cup bleach and 9 1/2 cups water -- this would be a little more than a gallon.
 
[Make sure to not bleach the roots:)[/quote]
Will that hurt the plant? I kind of want to bleach the roots. I want to bleach the whole plant. They came from my least favorite lfs, which unfortunately was the only one with anubias in stock. As is usual with this store, there were plenty of sick fish and a few dead ones in the tanks the plants came from.
I know, I should have been patient and ordered some anubias from online or waited for a better local store to get some in..... But now that I've got it I need to disinfect it. I'm quarantining it for a little while anyway, but would a quick dip for the roots be ok?
 
LeahK said:
[Make sure to not bleach the roots:)
Click to expand...
Will that hurt the plant? I kind of want to bleach the roots. I want to bleach the whole plant. They came from my least favorite lfs, which unfortunately was the only one with anubias in stock. As is usual with this store, there were plenty of sick fish and a few dead ones in the tanks the plants came from.
I know, I should have been patient and ordered some anubias from online or waited for a better local store to get some in..... But now that I've got it I need to disinfect it. I'm quarantining it for a little while anyway, but would a quick dip for the roots be ok?[/quote]

You can quarantine plants like fish too.
 
rich311k said:
I would just rinse and plant. Not much worry of the plants carrying anything that would hurt fish. I find bleach dips mean dead plants.
Click to expand...

Wish I'd seen that earlier... :)
But everything seems ok. I counted out 19 portions of water to 1 portion of bleach and left the plants, roots and all, in there for 1 min. 30 sec. Then I moved them to a bucket of freshwater that had about 10X the necessary dechlorinator.
If anything, I wasted a lot of dechlorinator.
After letting them sit, I rinsed them again several times, and dumped them in the tank with the juvenile platies--that is technically my quarantine tank, so the juvies will have to be guinea pigs. I'll plant them in my main tank after a week or so, if all seems ok.

I wouldn't be so worried usually, but the tanks the plants came from were quite disturbing. A whole population of red-tailed sharks seemed to be dying off in one tank....
Had I to do all this over again, I would have either waited and gotten the anubias elsewhere, or waited to find some potassium permanganate.
 
Anubias are pretty tough plants. I have bleached the leaves for up to 2 minutes but the roots I usually give just a quick dip to kill algae. Soft, fine leaved plants don't fare well. You plant should be fine.
 
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