Alum bath for vallisneria?

[MoRia]

Hi there! 

I want to move some vallisneria plants to a different tank, but they're heavily infested with Ramshorn snails. Can I dip vallisneria in an alum bath? I know alum can destroy some fragile plants like guppy grass, but I've never heard of results from doing it with val. 

Thanks so much in advance, 

Mo

[Wesley]

I'm not sure what an alum bath is. But I'd usually just soak new plants or infested plants in a salt bath for a couple minutes. This almost always kills of the snail eggs and snails. Make sure to rinse the plants afterwards to get rid of any salt.

[Kat_Rigel]

STAHP! 

I do not recommend dipping the val in alum. I did this with some very healthy corkscrew val and I melted it all away. 😕 The roots were intact but its been a few weeks and I'm not seeing any new leaves poking out of the substrate.

If you give it a try, just do a small amount first,  maybe even just one plant, and give that a try before risking the entire batch... like me...

[MoRia]

Thanks. I'll try with one plant and see how it goes. 

[CT_]

On 10/19/2020 at 1:42 PM, Kat_Rigel said:

STAHP! 

I do not recommend dipping the val in alum. I did this with some very healthy corkscrew val and I melted it all away. 😕 The roots were intact but its been a few weeks and I'm not seeing any new leaves poking out of the substrate.

If you give it a try, just do a small amount first,  maybe even just one plant, and give that a try before risking the entire batch... like me...

Sorry to necro this thread but,

@Kat_Rigeldid your Vallisneria ever come back?  Do you recall how much alum you used and for how long?  I'm thinking about how to treat my val coming in for snails and other pests.  @Irene also used alum in her first dip video and had some melting but it pulled through (as of the end of that video). 

Has anyone else done an alum dip with val?  Maybe a 2-day dip is gentler?  I think I heard 4hours is enough too?  I'd love to get some feedback with more experienced plant dippers 🙂

 

[Kat_Rigel]

7 hours ago, CT_ said:

Sorry to necro this thread but,

@Kat_Rigeldid your Vallisneria ever come back?  Do you recall how much alum you used and for how long?  I'm thinking about how to treat my val coming in for snails and other pests.  @Irene also used alum in her first dip video and had some melting but it pulled through (as of the end of that video). 

Has anyone else done an alum dip with val?  Maybe a 2-day dip is gentler?  I think I heard 4hours is enough too?  I'd love to get some feedback with more experienced plant dippers 🙂

 

No, the val never came back, unfortunately.  I dont recall how long the dip was, but Im pretty sure I followed Irene's directions, now that you mention it.