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Re: Do you submerge plant roots during bleach treatment?
>From: stephanieac2001 at juno_com
>I have a question about the bleach treatment. Do you submerge the whole
>plant in the bleach/water mix or just the green part and not the roots.
>I'm afraid the roots will absorb the bleach water and the plant will die.
>On the other hand if I don't bleach the whole thing some nasty algae may
>hitch a ride.
>
>
>I forgot part 2 of my question. I will be ordering some new plants soon
>and wanted to treat them before I put them in my tank. I was thinking 1)
>use Lime-It (by Aquatronics) to reduce hitchikers and 2) use Bleach to
>destroy the really nasty algae. Of course good tank management will
>reduce algae in the tank. I have learned a lot here about that. I just
>want to improve my chances of introducing no new algae types. Would this
>be a good system? Any other suggestions? I think I tried Potassium
>Permanganate and it didn't work so well.
I bleach the plants, roots and all. the roots are not especially sensitive
to the bleach, and they do not absorb the bleach any more than any other
part of the plant. Most of the roots usually die when you transplant a
plant, and, so, I don't worry about them.
The bleach treatment is especially effective on hair algae. Don't expect
it to keep bluegreen algae (cyanobacteria) out of the tank or green water.
The good news is that the hair algae that the bleach treatment kills are
the ones that are very difficult to control by tank management. Green
water and cyanobacteria, on the other hand, are susceptible to control by
tank management.
Paul Krombholz, in central Mississippi, where another dry summer may be
getting underway.