Advice needed - how to prep wild plants for tank use?

[Spot86t]

I was up at a tiny lake near Livingston this past weekend (Lake Wilson), and found some really neat plants that I'd like to put in some of my tanks.  2 of them are grasslike, seems like they would be great for spawning, and one reminds me of "Creeping Jenny" only smaller.  

I'd like to put these in my tanks, but I'm scared to death of introducing some bacteria that might be harmful to my fish.  What can I do to remove that possibility?  

Right now I have them in about 4 different buckets outside with conditioned tapwater and an airstone in 2 that had egg clusters.  No critters except for some dragonfly larvae that happened to get caught up with them.  I haven't had time to do much with them yet and I wanted to see if anyone had some advice on "disinfecting" them (for lack of a better word) so I could tackle that project this weekend.  

I'll get some pics this evening if anyone is interested.

Spot

[Mzungu]

Re: Advice needed - how to prep wild plants for tank use?

I'd love to see them!

Get some Potassium Permanganate. In the water treatment aisle at Lowes or Home Depot. It will kill most everything on the plants. Do you mean that two of the plants had egg clusters on them? If you want to keep these, I wouldn't dip them, but you can dip anything else you're worrying about. And good thinking about not just directly putting them in the tanks with your fish, they can really do some damage sometimes!  :)

Here's the method I use:

http://www.aquariaplants.com/plantdipsbaths.htm

Just be careful - you only need a TINY bit of this stuff! I poured a capful in my first time, WAY too much!

[Spot86t]

Re: Advice needed - how to prep wild plants for tank use?

Thanks!  I should have time to pick some up today.  You wouldn't happen to know if it kills hydra too would you?  I have a hydra problem going on and it's even in the plants.  Would be nice to solve 2 problems with only one method.

I took photos, have't had a chance to get them online yet tho.

Hope you still want some parrots feather - it's growing like MAD!

Spot

[Mzungu]

Re: Advice needed - how to prep wild plants for tank use?

Great, yes I still want some!

Don't know if it kills hydra, but most likely. Ask Szidlon about what she does with hers - I think she doses her actual tanks monthly or so. Of course, in TINY amounts, but maybe she'll come on here and tell us.

[blacksmith37]

Re: Advice needed - how to prep wild plants for tank use?

I use my same pattented technique as for drift wood; I squirt it with the garden hose. I suppose there are a few dragon fly larva ,maybe some tadpoles, but these get into my pond anyway. Or they are easy enough to net from an aquarium.