Disinfecting Plants?

[StarStruck8]

I had a betta in my 5.5 gallon that died of dropsy about 3 weeks ago. My bettas have a very varied diet ( Hikari betta pellets, frozen bloodworms & dahnia, pea, fasting) so I think that it had an infectious cause. I want to disinfect the tank to make sure no other bettas will catch whatever it was. It has been running with nothing but ramshorns since then, but I want to take it apart.

I am planning on getting rid of the substrate completely. However, there are live plants and a piece of driftwood in there. I don't know how infections travel in water, so is there a chance that the plants might need to be thrown out as well? The driftwood I won't mind trashing, but I would prefer to save the plants if possible. If not, better safe than sorry!

 

[rich311k]

I think leaving the tank fallow for a month would probably do the trick.

 

[shawnhu]

You can also hit the entire tank with Potassium Permanganate for a duration of 30 minutes to kill most snails/bacteria/etc. Plants can endure the Potassium, the parasites can't.

 

[jm1212]

dropsy is a symptom, not a disease. it can be caused by dozens of different ailments, so there is no one way to prevent it.

 

[StarStruck8]

dropsy is a symptom, not a disease. it can be caused by dozens of different ailments, so there is no one way to prevent it.

I just want to try and prevent one ailment, in case it was infectious. I read that infection and diet are 2 of the culprits. They have a varied diet and he was in a filtered/heated, planted 5.5 gallon with weekly water changes, so I thought an underlying infection might be behind it. Of course I did buy him from a large chain petstore, so anything beyond that is out of my control. :uhoh:

I might try a cleaning with Potassium Permanganate after removing the snails. Thanks!