On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 22:50:28 GMT, "Brian S."
wrote:

Hey All,

I've read where you can dip live plants in a 1:20 bleach-to-water solution
to kill bacteria, parasites, algae, etc.

However, I am finding all kinds of different opinions regarding the length
that they should be dipped. Some say no more than 2 minutes while other
says up to 20 minutes depending upon the type of plant.

I was wondering if Potassium Permanganate will work at killing algae as well
or if bleach only can do this. I see that the potassium substance can kill
the parasites and such, but haven't found a site that lists algae as one of
those items taken care of.

In addition to this, I dipped a few plants that I didn't care too much about
that had quite a bit of algae on them yesterday. I had them in there for
probably 20 minutes just because I could still see some algae on the plant
leaves.

You might have to take such a plant and put it in conditions where you
know algae will grow to see--but even then, if there were algae, I
guess it could have another source.

So, if you can still see algae on the plant leaves, does this indicate that
the algae still on the leaves is alive and will prosper again after putting
it back into the aquarium? I didn't know of the algae is basically dead
after a bleach dip for a few minutes even if it still clings onto the plant
leaves.

I've decided that I probably will completely take down my tank over the
weekend, dip the plants in a solution to get rid of the algae, and then
completely take apart the tank and wash it down really good too.

I should be getting the BIO-Wheel filter tomorrow but I don't want algae to
start growing on the BIO-Wheel and cause more headache.

I can't answer any of your questions. But if you can somehow cover
the biowheel so it doesn't see much light, algae shouldn't grow on it,
and that shouldn't be hard to do with aluminum foil or something.