# how to bleach plants



## cueball (May 24, 2005)

any tips as to what i do? i dont wanta harm my plants ..how do i bleach um?


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## skubasteve! (Feb 14, 2007)

There were a couple of topics on bleaching awhile back.... give me a sec here....

Here you go cueball.

Link
Link2

Hope those help out a bit!


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

nope i didnt get much good info off them,, sorry,,,,wares dippy? what is 1:10 mean? so lets put it this way,, if i got 4 gallons of water how much bleach do i use?? or how bout i find somthin more natural like vinegar,,or hydrogen peroxide.?


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## mulrooneyryan (Aug 13, 2006)

1:10 or 1:20 is a ratio. 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. for example....1 gallon of bleach mixed with 10 gallons of water. hope this helps.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

so how much water would i have to mix one cup of bleach with?


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

cueball said:


> so how much water would i have to mix one cup of bleach with?


10...hence the 1 to 10 ratio (1:10).


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

any kinda bleach well do?how many sec. should i dunk them? give me the whole nine yards here,, um going to buy the bleach today


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

i hear the 1:20 mix is safest, and works too. Don't soak the roots. dip the plant up to the roots for 2-4 mins, and rinse thoroughly in fresh water. then u can soak them in water with chlorine remover before putting them back


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## BoOCh_nse (Feb 17, 2007)

never done the bleach method but soaking in excel works awesome for clearing up algea on plants. i usually use three cap fulls in the three gallon bucket i have, and soak for about 15 mins or so, then just place back in tank where you want them. you can soak the roots this way also.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

sokein in excel... that sounds better i got a 10g so i didnt use much of my excel,, ill try that,,,(why excel?) you would think that would give me more alge ..? some one proven the fact of the excel ...i wanta get a few responces first


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

???????? the excel idea anyone?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

excell kills some algea very well for some reason. But, some plants don't fair well with excell. I know that a good member here roundhead did the excell dip thing and lost a lot of plants that did not like excell..
But he might have used straight excell, not sure what he did..
You can try doing that.. then tell us the results


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

excel dips are very expensive compared to bleach dips. 
And the ratio is hard to gestimate as well. i've excel dipped microswords that had BBA on them before and I think it did well for them. But I wouldn't really recommend doing this. Bleach is $1 a gallon vs 10 bucks for 250ml of excel.


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## BoOCh_nse (Feb 17, 2007)

this was just something that worked well for the bba i had on blayxa japicona, hair grass and swords, which worked very well, at first the algae turned red, then died off. within a week it was all gone. just thought id throw it out there. dippy far surpasses my knowledge in aquatic plants, and has been a large help to me. maybe if you list the plants you have, it will help him lead you in the right direction.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

its pretty simple realy i got butt loads of money wort i think its a hardy plant ,, plus like i said i only got a 10 g so i have a 500 ml bottle ive hardly used of excel,, most of my plants are under 6 inchs that are effected, so i think i can do it in a small cup or somthin...


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

excell by itself is quite powerful.. if you do go ahead with it, please dilute it in tank water.

Im with BS on this, the bleach dip is how ive always done it


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

ok iam gonna do the dip in a 2 gallon ice cream buket,,i know if i but excel in my tank um gonna get green alge or somthin,, so what about would i put to 2 gallons? should i use 5 caps full or is that to much? in my guppy breeder tank i normaly only use 1 cap full every sunday..


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

cueball said:


> ok iam gonna do the dip in a 2 gallon ice cream buket,,i know if i but excel in my tank um gonna get green alge or somthin,, so what about would i put to 2 gallons? should i use 5 caps full or is that to much? in my guppy breeder tank i normaly only use 1 cap full every sunday..


You don't dose excel every day or every other day...how big is your guppy tank???


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

my tank is only 10g i did dose more but i found i get alge,,plus my plants are green and growing fast enuf for me now


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## Piranha Guru (Nov 24, 2005)

cueball said:


> my tank is only 10g i did dose more but i found i get alge,,plus my plants are green and growing fast enuf for me now


Dosing less more often is better than dosing 5x the amount needed at one time once a week. You really shouldn't dose more than 2x the recommended amount. The only time you should be dosing a full cap for a 10g is after a massive water change, and then you would still need to dose 1-2ml every day or every other day. Green algae isn't from the Excel, but from a lack of or extreme excess of your other macros.


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

so my finaly question(how many caps of excel should i use to a gallon of water ) i got lots of excel kickin around) i wanta make these plants look clean again...


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

ok i done it yesterday heres a pic of all the green again (no crapy brown alge) i think it turned out ok i used 12 caps of excel to a large glass of water with in 20 hours um alge free for the first time ever lol.!

what i did was dunked the plants for 10 mins and washed um dunked, wash dunked washed..! for bout 3 hours,,

this was the best pic i could take my camera sucks

the tank looks better in person... i got some flashy guppies in there and the water sprite is doin well..and just think eveythang you see came from cutting only 6 months ago or less


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

great ive lost some roots...







on the money wort .. i know its a tuff plants.. think thay well bounce back?


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