Plants and Meds

[ARMYVET]

While in another thread a thought occurred to me that I am wondering about both from a random thought and what I visually witnessed. 

 

So the thought...Does having plants in a tank make the medications less effective because the plants uptake the meds and weaken them?  

Now before you just to a conclusion what I witnessed was this.  I recently get cory eggs.  I harvested the eggs and put them in a specimen container with 2 drops of meth blue for fungus reasons.  I knew they took 3-5 days to hatch so on the 3rd day I knew I was close so I put some guppy grass in the container so if they hatched while at work they would have some micro stuff to munch on if necessary....well in 48 hours all of the blue was gone....as if somebody did a 100% water change.  That leads me to believe the plants up took the meth blue and cleaned the water.  Now I do not know if they do the same with other meds.

[lefty o]

i suspect plants do neutralize meds at least to some degree, as they are great filters.

[Guppysnail]

I soak my new plants for a days in malachite green (paraguard) or meth blue because I am impatient and try to wait 2 weeks for qt but…..🤷‍♀️ they do remove the meds or at least the color. I remember a childhood experiment with celery food color and water. The celery actually sucks the food coloring in and is visible inside the stalk. To what degree this would lessen medication I am not certain. 

[ARMYVET]

On 9/18/2021 at 12:11 PM, Guppysnail said:

I soak my new plants for a days in malachite green (paraguard) or meth blue because I am impatient and try to wait 2 weeks for qt but…..🤷‍♀️ they do remove the meds or at least the color. I remember a childhood experiment with celery food color and water. The celery actually sucks the food coloring in and is visible inside the stalk. To what degree this would lessen medication I am not certain. 

WOW I remember that experiment. I went ahead and ate the celery but hey...I was hungry!

In the case of the Meth blue and Malachite Green.  The dye is the active ingredient.  SO for those two.  They are definitely affected.  I wonder if when @Cory was testing the med trio if he did it with any plants involved.  

My guess would be no because usually your QT tank is bare but I am thinking of the people who dose their tanks because the entire tank is affected.  Should we be dosing differently because of the plants is what has me asking this question.

[Cory]

I've used meds in tanks with plants a lot. However I have never studied the effectiveness of a med with and without plants. I haven't seen it be a problem that I have noticed thus far.

[Guppysnail]

On 9/18/2021 at 12:26 PM, ARMYVET said:

WOW I remember that experiment. I went ahead and ate the celery but hey...I was hungry!

In the case of the Meth blue and Malachite Green.  The dye is the active ingredient.  SO for those two.  They are definitely affected.  I wonder if when @Cory was testing the med trio if he did it with any plants involved.  

My guess would be no because usually your QT tank is bare but I am thinking of the people who dose their tanks because the entire tank is affected.  Should we be dosing differently because of the plants is what has me asking this question.

I always stuff my qt with plants for comfort of my fish and such. Might have to rethink and remove if meds are needed 🧐