Plastic Plants

[Galaxy]

Hi,

I have had plastic plants in my tank now for the past nine months and one of them in particular has got pretty manky with green algae. I clean the glass regularly but I was wondering how, if at all possible, to clean the plants. I thought about removing them and letting them dry out or else boiling them. Has anyone ever tried to do this?

Maybe it would be easier just to buy new plants!

 

[Mr Miagi]

A bit of elbow grease and a tooth brush should work well, otherwise a dip for a minute or two in bleech mix of 1:20 should work. Make sure to rinse them thouroughly before you add them back into the tank though.

Benny

 

[Galaxy]

Looks like its the bleach then!

No the worst plant hasn't got leaves as such, they are more like pine needles only soft. I think these would be impossible to scrub and would probably break off!

 

[Dubby]

I would not recommend bleach with plastic plants. It might react giving off other substances that maybe toxic. I would prefer detergent (as long as its washed off properly afterwards)

 

[CTS]

iv heard of bleach working, but not boiling them....unless you want plant soup!!!!!

 

[LoachLover]

I just let my algae eaters clean off my plants, real or fake.

 

[specks]

When we clean the plants in my sons tank its with warm water & a toothbrush. Finish off with a good blast under the shower. You may find that with a vigourous scrub some of the plants will come to pieces ( esp the feathery type ) but they soon go back together.

 

[Bloomjack]

get some plecs or other algae eating fish, they normally do a great job

 

[wrs]

well the plastic plants in my brothers goldfish tank never come clean from algea. no matter what we do, nut we have brown algea, so it may be a diffrent story.

 

[for_my_fish]

dilute bleach solution for a minute or two, followed by a soak in warm water. Then a soak in water with chlorine remover (same as you put in tank on water changes). Have one tank full of plastics as it doesn't have enough light for real plants and the above works a treat!

 

[bartender_in_ny]

algae is a good thing means that your correct bacteria is doing what its sopsoe to do, algae means a healty tank, however every other water chg i do scrub mine with a tooth brush as well, this works good NO SOAP!!! OR u can run um threw the dish washer, again NO SOAP try one of the danity ones 1st + see if they melt mine never did, but i only do this once in a while, i have 17 plastic plants in my 55 and 11 in my 20 gallon, i like the look of some algae on them makes um look real, the platties love to eat algae too and the OTTOS keep up the good work, dont worry about cleaning it all the time just every other water chg, the algae also keeps your water clear!!!

 

[Zenn]

What i would suggest is a little salted warm water, its what i do mine in, see algae is bacteria as it is, and living forms all react to salt in one way or another, the salt loses the algae up and then a good scrubbing and it comes right, nice and easy, i havent had to do it too much laterly, because my pleco's and SAE's have been keeping down the algae and doing their job VERY well...

No soap, No Bleach, No boiling water, or you will ruin your plants

 

[bartender_in_ny]

also do u have a timer on your lites? i have the one that has 4 timers 2 for day 2 for nite moon lites, i keep mine on for 12 hrs

try running main lites 10-12 hrs a day only
lite makes algae