# Best way to introduce more plants into a cycled tank?



## Scy64 (Apr 23, 2006)

I've heard that adding new plants can sometimes bring in parasites and other things that you don't want in a tank. Is there something that can be done to 'clean' the plants before they go in?

I'll only be buying Anacharis (that's the name according to the website I went to), but I've used this type of stem plant before. I just didn't get enough of it originally, and now my fish have turn it into their own personal salad. =)


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## leafgirl115 (Mar 26, 2006)

Just rince the plants befor you put them in and make shur there are no snales in it


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## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

leafgirl115 said:


> Just rince the plants befor you put them in and make shur there are no snales in it


Agreed. I only rinsed and didn't really checked for snails. 2 weeks later there are 5-6 MT snails in my tank that are starting to grow. Right now they are the size of about a pea. I figured i'd let them roam around since the substrate needs to be stirred occassionally. But for some reason i'm nervous that in about 6 months i'm going to have 500 of them.


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## Guest (May 11, 2006)

Some new plants you can give them a quick dip in a bleach/water solution with 19 parts water and 1 part bleach. But, I wouldn't do that to Anacharis. It is a little more fragile then other stem plants. Just rinse it in water. 

I added new plants to my tanks yesterday and rinsed them in water before placing them in the tanks. I looked down at the water and saw a bunch of really small critters swimming and crawling around. I think alot of those were baby snails. Some I have no idea what they were. But, I was glad most were in the old water and not in my tanks.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Bleaching is a last resort........
Potassium permagnate is all you need.
Check Home Depot or Lowes............


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## dfortunato (May 21, 2006)

o yea. i bought a nice anachris once. didnt rinse it off,about 3 weeks later,boom a million snails,anyone want any snails?


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## falconblack (Jun 5, 2006)

If you got snails try some clown loaches.I did this and in less then 1 week the snails were all gone and loaches were very fat and healthy.Just 2 loaches cleaned the tank.


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## violet (Mar 17, 2006)

Rinsing is useless if there are eggs and for every snail there may be 100 eggs. Both salt and bleach can hurt plants. As Simpte mentioned Potassium permagnate is the only real IMMEDIATE solution.

I like to quarrantine plants and see what I get. Most recently it was some blue rams I would have paid for. More likely you will get physid pondies though.

violet


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## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

violet said:


> Rinsing is useless if there are eggs and for every snail there may be 100 eggs. Both salt and bleach can hurt plants. As Simpte mentioned Potassium permagnate is the only real IMMEDIATE solution.
> 
> I like to quarrantine plants and see what I get. Most recently it was some blue rams I would have paid for. More likely you will get physid pondies though.
> 
> violet


What the? You got blue rams with your plants? 
AWESOME!


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

To be honest, I don't bother to rinse quarantine plants.

In my experience snails aren't a problem. If you overfeed, they will have an amazing population growth, but if you don't overfeed you only end up with a few of them. I don't mind a few random pest snails in my tank. Ocasionally I squish some to provide some food for the fish, shrimps, and snails that I bought.

My pest snails are tiny ramshorns (about 4mm in diameter max) and tiny (3-4mm) things that look like miniature apple snails, even having an operculum! The latter are really cool and I never squish them, just the tiny ramshorns.


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