Q about getting donated plants

[Trina]

Hi All,

I have a question in regards to the 'safeness' of donated plants from
suspect tanks.
I work with someone who offered to give me some java ferns. I'm not
usually one to pass up something free, but last year when I was at
this person's house, I saw the tank. It pretty much reflected the
whole house.
The tank looked to be a 20gal. There were 4-5 goldfish in there and
there was so much green algae in there you couldn't even see the fish.
Should I be worried about them? I have a quarantine tank (yay!) set up
and obviously would house them in there before subjecting my pets to
them but I don't want to muck that one up if it can be avoided.
This same person also offered me his 20gal tank (fish are dead or..?).
It is currently sitting outside in -30 to -45 weather (should kill
everything?) and I'm wondering how well the sealing would hold up
after being exposed to those temps. Anyone have any thoughts?

TIA,
Trina :)
Yukon, Canada
44gal/tall/pent/fresh
http://mekong.connections.yk.ca/milady/H2O/LiquidZoo.html

[Dunter Powries]

Trina > wrote in message
...
> Hi All,
>
> I have a question in regards to the 'safeness' of donated plants from
> suspect tanks.
> I work with someone who offered to give me some java ferns. I'm not
> usually one to pass up something free, but last year when I was at
> this person's house, I saw the tank. It pretty much reflected the
> whole house.
> The tank looked to be a 20gal. There were 4-5 goldfish in there and
> there was so much green algae in there you couldn't even see the fish.
> Should I be worried about them? I have a quarantine tank (yay!) set up
> and obviously would house them in there before subjecting my pets to
> them but I don't want to muck that one up if it can be avoided.
> This same person also offered me his 20gal tank (fish are dead or..?).
> It is currently sitting outside in -30 to -45 weather (should kill
> everything?) and I'm wondering how well the sealing would hold up
> after being exposed to those temps. Anyone have any thoughts?

If the plants are alive, how bad can they be? Treat them with a 20:1 bleach
solution followed by a dechlorinator at 5:1 recommended solution. That'll
take care of any algae and more than likely any pathogens - any that aren't
already present in your own tanks, at any rate.

Ditto with the tanks and any equipment. The deep-cold shouldn't aversely
effect the tank and silicone sealant as long as you bring it back up to temp
SLOWLY. I'm in New Hampshire and I store stuff in an (unheated) garage
routinely.

Bottom line: if it's free take it. It doesn't sound like anything that
bleach, a scrub brush, and a garage with a south-facing window couldn't
handle.

kush

[RedForeman ©®]

the worse thing you will encounter is pond snails... Some say a bleach
soaking kills the egg sacs, and will make/force the snail to release from
the plant... I can say they are a nuisance, but they aren't entirely that
bad, if you have a/some clown loach(es), they will curb the number to zero
pretty quickly.... or you can pick them out manually....

Either way, I'd take the fern... the algae isn't worth worry about, you can
pluck off the uglies and more will grow...

--
RedForeman ©®




"Trina" > wrote in message
...
> Hi All,
>
> I have a question in regards to the 'safeness' of donated plants from
> suspect tanks.
> I work with someone who offered to give me some java ferns. I'm not
> usually one to pass up something free, but last year when I was at
> this person's house, I saw the tank. It pretty much reflected the
> whole house.
> The tank looked to be a 20gal. There were 4-5 goldfish in there and
> there was so much green algae in there you couldn't even see the fish.
> Should I be worried about them? I have a quarantine tank (yay!) set up
> and obviously would house them in there before subjecting my pets to
> them but I don't want to muck that one up if it can be avoided.
> This same person also offered me his 20gal tank (fish are dead or..?).
> It is currently sitting outside in -30 to -45 weather (should kill
> everything?) and I'm wondering how well the sealing would hold up
> after being exposed to those temps. Anyone have any thoughts?
>
> TIA,
> Trina :)
> Yukon, Canada
> 44gal/tall/pent/fresh
> http://mekong.connections.yk.ca/milady/H2O/LiquidZoo.html

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Trina wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I have a question in regards to the 'safeness' of donated plants from
> suspect tanks.
> I work with someone who offered to give me some java ferns. I'm not
> usually one to pass up something free, but last year when I was at
> this person's house, I saw the tank. It pretty much reflected the
> whole house.
> The tank looked to be a 20gal. There were 4-5 goldfish in there and
> there was so much green algae in there you couldn't even see the fish.
> Should I be worried about them? I have a quarantine tank (yay!) set up
> and obviously would house them in there before subjecting my pets to
> them but I don't want to muck that one up if it can be avoided.
> This same person also offered me his 20gal tank (fish are dead or..?).
> It is currently sitting outside in -30 to -45 weather (should kill
> everything?) and I'm wondering how well the sealing would hold up
> after being exposed to those temps. Anyone have any thoughts?


Low temperatures will not kill bugs, but preserve them. In the lab we
regularly freeze things and keep them in liquid nitrogen if we want to
keep them alive for decades. Bleach (diluted as by manufacturers
direction) would be a good option if you want to kill any contaminants
from a tank. But do not forget to carefully rinse afterwards.

Algal growth is usually the result of wrong conditions in the tank: too
little or too much light, high content of phosphorus and nitrate. In a
properly maintained tank growth is limited and can be controlled with
catfish or snails, if that is desired.

[[email protected]]

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum > wrote in message >...

> Algal growth is usually the result of wrong conditions in the tank: too
> little or too much light, high content of phosphorus and nitrate. In a
> properly maintained tank growth is limited and can be controlled with
> catfish or snails, if that is desired.

In planted tanks:
For green water cultures, you cannot start them using PO4 or NO3. Even
at 75ppm of NO3 and 2-3ppm of PO4, the alga will not bloom.

If you add a little trace amount of NH4 or urea combined with high
light, then you will get Green water.
Once the culture has been started, then extra CO2, PO4, NO3 will/can
be used after the NH4 is gone and can maintain the cultures at
extremely low levels(beyond any hobby test kit ranges eg Lamott or
Hach).
You will slowly kill your plants long before you limit green water.

Regards,
Tom Barr