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[APD] Cleaning wild plants



Scott wrote:

>> I wonder, what's in the "insecticidal soap" and is it any
better for plants or humans than bleach?<<

Well, I can tell you for sure that NONE of the plants we treated with it,
whether terrestrial or aquatic, were damaged by it at all.  So it has an
advantage over bleach from that perspective.  With terrestrail plants, you
don't even have to rinse it off... We rinsed the aquatic one because
anything that had both "insecticidal" and "soap" in the name didn't sound
like something you'd want in your fish tank.<g>

>> A close look with a loupe or manifying glasses (more
comfortable) will reveal most critters, but will it for
algae/algae spores? <<

I don't think you'd find algae spores taht way, but that's not what
inspectors are looking for anyway.  They are looking for either insects or
pathogens that could be a potential threat to our agriculture.
 In terms of the danger of wild algae infecting a planted tank, my
experience is that algae is a really, really hard thing to grow.  Most
species have extremely specific requirements. The ones that are happy with
the same conditions that are in our tank, we probably already have in the
hobby somewhere.

I have plunked some pretty algae encrusted wild plants into tank. (sometimes
you don't have much choice... wild plants useually don't look as god as our
well-groomed aquarium ones<g>) I have never had a species of algae survive
the change in environment for the wild to one of my tank.  I'm sure that
there ARE species that can... our aquarium species came from somewhere!  But
algae doesn't worry me much.  I've learned that with patience, I can manage
a tank out of any algae problem I've come across so far.

Karen


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