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Reusing Plants - Discussion

Piece-of-fish

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Joined
2 Jun 2009
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1,383
Location
East London
Hi everyone... Posting here rather than in the plants section to get more attention.
Am thinking about this all the time. The question is: is it possible somehow to clean the plants off algae when moving or using for another scape/tank? Have been reading that liquid carbon or hydrogen peroxide might do the job. Anyone tried it themself? How do you go about that?
Have several tanks and in order to save money i use mostly my existing plants for the new setups.
Wants actually more people to answer and maybe we can have a nice discussion here.
There should be a way.
Regards...
 
Personally if a plant has algae I avoid adding it to a new set up, why add the seeds of a downfall when the tanks at it's weakest stage?
 
Yes, true. But as i said some of us just cant afford to plant a bigger setup with tropica plants :crazy:
So there has to be a way. Sometimes you wont even see that algae is there.
 
It's true, why don't you nuke them in a grow out tank till you're ready to replant it all out?
 
Working on it atm, will have a growout soon i hope. But still, i am thinking about it constantly. Another thing is sharing plants with others. And there are just a few people who could tell they have totally algae free tanks. Its a long way to go for the rest of us.
 
Hi read a post from Ceg that the algae is already on the plants, all plants, maybe with exception of the new tropica bagged plants. The algae will just sit on the plants waiting for weakness to develop. Now, if the leaves are really baddly attacked, then prune it heavily.

What I do with my plants is to throw the trimmings on a tank outside on the garden with 10cm water. Some grow, other die off, but on the dry air no algae survives, only on spores.

You could use a 90% humidity setup to clear the algae from the leaves, leave it for two weeks and it should clear.
 
Yeah, that's right. What's the big deal? You will either grow your own algae or grow someone else's. Cut the worse leaves off, throw a bit of excel on the remaining ones and stick it in the tank. If you're doing the right things the new leaves will grow uninfected and the plant will recover. If you're doing the wrong things then it won't make any difference whose plants you have.

Algae are a symptom. They are not alien invaders from Mars. If you get a plant with algae then it means that someone sent you a sick plant. Your job is to nurse the plant back to health. When the plant is no longer sick it won't show signs of algae.

Remember this shot? this damage was my fault. I left town and no one dosed the tank so the plants became sick and there was GSA. You can see the outer leaves were badly attacked. The inner leaves show what happens after the dosing/CO2 program was corrected. Under the proper nutrient/CO2/flow regime the new leaves recovered and were never affected by the old algae ridden leaves, because they were healthy. There is no "Infection" in the sense we are accustomed to thinking about. Healthy leaves could care less about algae.
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It took about two months for the P. helferi grove to recover. Of course old damaged leaves never recover, but that doesn't matter. New leaves grow right next to old leaves without being affected. When all old damaged leaves were shed/removed you could not tell there was ever a problem.
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Stop blaming other people for "infecting" you tank with algae. The algae will only proliferate if you screw things up. Now, that was a carpet plant which are notorious wimps. How easier should it be to help the stems to recover?
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Cheers,
 
Hi, thanks for joining the discusion. The more opinions the better. I will have to experiment with some methods and report back here later. It always interested me thats why i started this post.
Ceg i am not blaming anyone :wave: just saying that its could be another reason.
So is there a way to preclean the plants in anyway. I should try couple methods before asking though.
 
I prefer to avoid using bleach or peroxide, simply because these chemicals are as toxic to the plants as they are to the algae. If you have Excel/EasyCarbo you can dilute it with water and use that as a dip/scrub. That may not necessarily save the affected leaves long term but it can weaken and dislodge the worst of the algae.

Cheers,
 
I haven't tried this myself but you could try growing the affected (not infected :shifty:) plants emmersed for a while perhaps in a small tank or large jar.

I think most plants we buy come pristine and algae free because they have been grown by the suppliers emmersed.

My own experience is that even the smallest scraggiest bit of stem plant will soon put on good growth when you get the conditions rights for healthy plant growth. Once you have enough healthy plant growth you can prune off the old affected leaves/stems.
 
Ok, a slight move to another direction. What about cleaning anubias plants and not killing them? They arent stems which i agree grow fast and there is nothing to worry about. You can spot dose yes,but what if you have loads of a to nubias or other ferns to clean at once?
 
What I did with my anubias is to place them on a container with some easycarbo diluted on water, then a internal filter pumping water up. The plants are just with the roots on the water, so they get a shower or easy carbo diluted, to that for a week or so and all algae will die off.
 
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