Peroxide dipping plants, does it kill off bad diseases?

[Alice B]

I dip aquarium plants being attacked and harmed by algae, such as red brush, in bleach water, maybe a 10% solution, for a minute or 2 then rinse thoroughly. I dump peroxide on water lilies (in buckets of water) that are infested with string algae, it dissolves it and doesn't hurt them.

 

[Rocky998]

I dip aquarium plants being attacked and harmed by algae, such as red brush, in bleach water, maybe a 10% solution, for a minute or 2 then rinse thoroughly. I dump peroxide on water lilies (in buckets of water) that are infested with string algae, it dissolves it and doesn't hurt them.

Thank you! I'll keep that in mind Alice!

 

[Stan510]

Peroxide is not to be played with. It will kill cyanobacteria..and then simultaneously kill your Java moss. I've dipped Anubias in pure peroxide I took OUT of the aquarium and that melted a couple of leaves,and didn't kill the thickest growths of BBA. You have a leaf in bad shape ? Just prune it and toss.
H.peroxide used in the aquarium can kill fish slowly. At first it does as advertised killing cyano....then the delicate fish die days later.
I rarely use, and have gone months now without touching the bottle of peroxide.

 

[Rocky998]

Peroxide is not to be played with. It will kill cyanobacteria..and then simultaneously kill your Java moss. I've dipped Anubias in pure peroxide I took OUT of the aquarium and that melted a couple of leaves,and didn't kill the thickest growths of BBA. You have a leaf in bad shape ? Just prune it and toss.
H.peroxide used in the aquarium can kill fish slowly. At first it does as advertised killing cyano....then the delicate fish die days later.
I rarely use, and have gone months now without touching the bottle of peroxide.

I don't have java moss... Also you don't dip in PURE peroxide... It would be diluted a lot

 

[Oblio]

I don't have java moss... Also you don't dip in PURE peroxide... It would be diluted a lot

Pure Peroxide is quite reactive. The stuff you buy at the store is already very diluted (similar to acetic acid, or ammonia)
This is not to say that household peroxide should be used full strength re: OP, but that 'full strength' is already quite diluted.

 

[GaryE]

I may have been lucky, but in 55 years with fish and plants, I have never brought a disease in on plants. Hydra? Yes. Pond snails? You bet. Pathogens? Nope. Ich, velvet, columnaris - no.

i wouldn't buy plants from a tank I wouldn't buy a fish from. You have to use common sense and an educated eye, but by the time I was 10 I had learned what to watch for, and I was no prodigy.

 

[Alice B]

Come to think of it I've never brought disease in on a plant. Snails, yes. I thought about using household peroxide in the 55 against the red cyano, but I didn't do it. Couldn't determine what a good dosage would be.

Something did kill off much of my java moss and a pothos I had in there, but they may have starved, the end of the tank that died back the worst plant wise is under frogbit....

 

[itiwhetu]

Wow, just put them in your tank. Poor plants, how would you feel if you went around to your friend's place and they Bleached you, peroxide you and then shoved you into quarantine for two weeks.

 

[Colin_T]

Wow, just put them in your tank. Poor plants, how would you feel if you went around to your friend's place and they Bleached you, peroxide you and then shoved you into quarantine for two weeks.

Sounds like prison. Stripped, hosed off, powdered with some awful white dust, given clothes to wear and put in a cell with Bubba (who wasn't a friend)

 

[GaryE]

Sounds like prison. Stripped, hosed off, powdered with some awful white dust, given clothes to wear and put in a cell with Bubba (who wasn't a friend)

But if you survive and Bubba becomes your friend, someone will make that a rule that everyone should try... The really old aquarium books (I'm talking 1940s) already thought bleach and peroxide were bad ideas to disinfect plants. They usually got their plants from local streams and rivers (kayaking a fairly northern Canadian river last week, I saw hornwort, Vallisneria, Elodea, Ludwigia and invasive Myriophyllum). Back then, they used Potassium permanganate in timed dips. I have no opinion on the matter, as I don't disinfect plants.

We buy fish from farms that are riddled with crowding diseases and worry about plants, which can only be a problem if something temporarily hitches a ride on them. A friend of mine who sells plants online just had a customer yelling at him because none of the healthy plants he sent survived bleach. Uh huh.

 

[Rocky998]

A friend of mine who sells plants online just had a customer yelling at him because none of the healthy plants he sent survived bleach. Uh huh.

What!? Did he soak the plants in pure bleach and for how long!?
That's a weird complaint

 

[Rocky998]

Wow, just put them in your tank. Poor plants, how would you feel if you went around to your friend's place and they Bleached you, peroxide you and then shoved you into quarantine for two weeks.

Because I would really love to have my fish survive. I don't want to add plants and then all my fish die

 

[Alice B]

I only dip the ones being attacked, the anubias went from being scrawny and small to giants so I think it was a win, but I might be using 3% bleach 97% tap water if I dip a plant. I had a tank with red brush and some other algae that probably came in off unboiled driftwood (ahem ahem this was in 2000), and the plants were suffering. I still have the offspring from those anubias. so bleach is not always bad. If I were worried about contaminating organisms on a plant with some reasonable thing I saw indicating it might be an issue, I'd do the dilute bleach dip again. Mostly I don't buy plants. My tanks don't have to be perfectly decorated and somehow my survival and plant reproduction rate are usually good

 

[Stan510]

I think the dip in potassium permanganate is the best idea. It's for sure a fish pathogen killer and should not harm plants.

 

[Alice B]

I think the dip in potassium permanganate is the best idea. It's for sure a fish pathogen killer and should not harm plants.

I don't know where to get potassium permanganate. I can get a lot of things, but I don't think I have that one