Blackout during plant transfer...

[Lonewolfblue]

I was thinking of ways to transfer plants from one tank to another without moving the algae as well. So here's what I came up with...

Remove the plant and rinse off.
Put plant in a zip-lock bag with some tank water, or in a moist newspaper.
Put plant in a place completely dark for 3 days.
Take plant back out, rinse off again and place in new tank.

Think this would work? I know it's hard on the plants, but I think if you can do a blackout on a tank, you should be able to do it on individual plants as well. Also, if shipping plants, sometimes their sealed in a box as well, and if it's 2-3 day shipping, would be the same thing. By the time it reaches the other end, the algae should be dead, correct?

Just something I was thinking about and would like to hear what others think about this.

 

[Toirtis]

Algae can survive quite a lot, so no guarantees....I would think that a bleach solution dip would work as well, with less time and work.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I've done the bleach dip, and almost none of the plants survived. I did a 10:1 solution, and dipped the plant for 3 minutes, not including the roots. Then I rinsed the plant off well, and then soaked in a 5x Prime solution to remove any excess bleach. Just trying to find a way in which I would lose less plants during the process.

 

[mr funktastic]

but the bleach can be alot more harsh than a little lack of light. unfortunatly algae is very unpredictable. sometimes u can go away for a few hours and come back to a mess and other times it takes days to form. it is worth a try. i know for a fact that some plants can last for up to 9 days(bad shipping experience) and still be fine and healthy. i suggest wrapping them in wet paper towel throwing them in a plastic bag and giving it a shot. worst case senario u loose an algae covered plant.

 

[Toirtis]

I've done the bleach dip, and almost none of the plants survived. I did a 10:1 solution,

There is your problem....drop that to a 3%-4% solution instead of a 10% solution.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Is the 3 minute time frame ok?