Quarantine tank setup for use with quarantined plants?

[robby]

Hi,

I am setting up a Marineland Hex 5 as a quarantine tank for new fish and plants. I want to quarantine new plants when I buy them because I usually buy them from tanks that are stocked with fish, and I believe a plant may have been responsible for my recent ICH outbreak.

I know that a QT is not supposed to have substrate, but if I want to use it to quarantine plants, is there anything I can use? Should I just put the plants in there free floating?

[jcolon]

I'm in the same boat ... looking to buy a 5 gal to QT new stock ... though I wouldn't worry about plants. I just rinse them w/ tap water ... let the chlorine do the dirty work!

Instead of gravel / substrate you could put pieces of slate to cover the bottom. This will cover the bottom and any ich / parasites that land on it will be seen.

[robby]

Thanks, I'd really like to quarantine my plants if possible but if there is no solution I guess I could do that.

[jcolon]

You could quarantine your plants, but how would you be able to tell if they were ok or not? With fish it's pretty obvious when you see them sprinkled with salt.
You could however ... put the plants in a bag with tap water for 10-20 minutes ... figure that'll give the chlorine time to kill anything on it

[eco23]

Thanks to a recommendation from Mr. Limpet (AA member), I do a 30-60 second dip in pure hydrogen peroxide, followed by a thorough rinsing with the kitchen sprayer...then right on into the tank . I've never had problems with them bringing in pathogens, and the bowl of h2o2 usually ends up with a few dead pond snails after the dip.

[jcolon]

Originally Posted by eco23

Thanks to a recommendation from Mr. Limpet (AA member), I do a 30-60 second dip in pure hydrogen peroxide, followed by a thorough rinsing with the kitchen sprayer...then right on into the tank . I've never had problems with them bringing in pathogens, and the bowl of h2o2 usually ends up with a few dead pond snails after the dip.

Oh yeah ... snails ... completely forgot about those. Thanks Eco23 I'll be using a H-peroxide dip next time.

[robby]

Originally Posted by eco23

Thanks to a recommendation from Mr. Limpet (AA member), I do a 30-60 second dip in pure hydrogen peroxide, followed by a thorough rinsing with the kitchen sprayer...then right on into the tank . I've never had problems with them bringing in pathogens, and the bowl of h2o2 usually ends up with a few dead pond snails after the dip.

Awesome, thanks. This will hugely simplify my quarantine tank. I was worried I'd be sanitizing gravel... blech. Thanks again.

[hippy guy]

That's a good idea for plants