Sterilizing Plants

[Milan]

I went to a beer/wine making store to get some wine yeast for my DIY CO2 and found stuff called "Potassium Metabisulfate", which is used for sterilizing beer/wine making equipment.

Now I'm wondering if this stuff is safe/efficient for sterilizing aquarium plants. Has anybody used it for this purpose ...? Any opinions, suggestions ...?

 

[lannen]

Since it's safe for use in human consumption, I would think it would be OK if rinsed per spec. I'm completely unfamilair with Metabisulfate, but Potasium permanganate is a standard for disinfection plants. Does the warning on the label give any indication that it shouldn't be used? ChemFinder didn't turn up anything about the name, can you get the chemical structure or fomula and search there for it. I would definitely use a lot of though rinsing after disinfection if you were to try it.

 

[malkore]

not the same stuff. beer/wine makers also use bleach to sterilize equipment...and we know that's not safe.

You should not need to 'sterilize' new aquarium plants. I've never done that with new plants...just check for snails.

 

[gheitman]

I would suggest going with Potassium permanganate or bleach to sterilize your plants. Those are known to work at killing snails when used properly. I haven't done this myself though and would have missed out on getting free ramshorn and Malayan trumpet snails if I had.

 

[Steve Hampton]

Metabisulfate or Metabisulfite is a reducing agent as opposed to Potassium Permanganate and Bleach being oxidizers. The reason for using Metabisulfite in wine and beer making for bottle sterilization is to stop or inhibit oxidation and suppress the growth of wild yeast. At a strong enough concentration if will kill most bacteria. Metabisulfite is commonly part of the active ingredients in our water conditioners and Metabisulfite will neutralize chlorine and permanganate.

Would I use Potassium or Sodium Metabisulfite as a plant dip? That depends. If you are interesting in just disinfecting plants then Potassium Metabisulfite could work well. If you want to kill algae, snails, and snail eggs too then Potassium Permanganate, Bleach or Alum would be a better choice IMO. Certainly Potassium Metabisulfite is safer to use than bleach and Potassium Permangnate...spill either of those two on your carpet or clothes and you've got problems. Personally I've used all of the other three and never tried Metabisulfite.

 

[Milan]

Thanks guys. Specially Steve with his thorough explanation. However, I finally found Potassium Permanganate in the form of Jungle's "clear water" stuff, so I'm all set.