# Is Alum a safe way to disinfect plants meant for an invertebrate tank?



## Akeath (Mar 7, 2011)

Since I have gotten pest snails and parasites in on plants before, I always want to treat my live plants with a disinfect before adding them to a tank. I was wondering if anyone knew if Alum could be used safely on plants that were going into tanks containing snails and shrimp.

Has anyone used Alum and then put it in a tank with snails/shrimp without any losses? What dosage of Alum did you use, and how long did it soak? How did you clean the plant afterward? Did you end up with any pests getting past the Alum, or did it work effectively?

Also, I've heard that Alum won't kill snail eggs or snails in smaller doses or shorter times. One site I found recommended that 3 tablespoons of Alum in 1 gallon of water, and soaking the plant in that for 3 hours would kill snail eggs too. Has anyone done a similar timing to that? I've also heard of soaking plants in 1 tablespoon per gallon of water for 3 days. Would soaking with a weaker solution for longer be less likely to harm my invertebrates?

And just so you know, I have tried using potassium permanganate. However, it is virtually impossible for me to get pure Potassium Permanganate here. I tried using Jungle Clear Water, which has it as an active ingredient. I mixed it with water to get a dark purple color and soaked the plants for 20 minutes. But it was not doing its jobs and I had pond snail eggs and 2 other types of pests get through using it. So I'm trying to find something else that is easier to get here to disinfect my live plants with. I'm also open to bleach, however most of the plants I use are some type of moss and I've heard that mosses can't handle bleach dips at all.


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