# Ridding new plant of algae



## PK1 (Oct 4, 2005)

I bought a number of different types of stem plants which arrived after a two day travel and looked very healthy. I did a 25 min Potassium Permanganate dip and since I didn't have time to redo my scape tonight, I threw them in my CO2 injected, EI fertilized tank (with no algae) thinking I'd let them float for a day or two before I could get to it. 

When I looked at the plants after throwing them in the tank, however, I noticed most of them had a lot of hair algae on the bottom leaves, this wasn't at all apparent when I had inspected them outside the tank (clearly not closely enough!). Not wanting to risk an algae bloom, after about 30 minutes I took the plants out and put them in a bucket of water for now. I am hoping since my tank is in good shape and has healthy and growing plants, the introduced algae will not take root. 

The question is what to do with the plants with algae and how long I can keep them in a bucket while I treat them. Will a treatment of Flourish Excel work? If so, how much and for how long? Alternatively I can get some API algae fix but I probably can't keep the plants in the bucket for more than a day or two and I think you need to reapply algae fix a few times, correct?

I am actually setting up a simple container to grow plants emersed, so the other option is to take some of the stems (they can all be grown emersed) and grow them this way and try redoing the scape at a later time. The question is, how do you transition stem plants from submersed form to emersed form?

Thanks for the help!


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Don't worry, hair algae spores were already in your tank before you placed the plants They are just dormant because the conditions in your tank are favored by your plants and not by the hair algae. If conditions are good, all hair algae on the plants will die within a few days or algae eaters will consume it. But your can treat them if you want off course.

About the transition. Let the plants float, or grow towards the surface and let them break the surface by theirself. Keep the air humid and plants will take of above the surface. When they are long enough you can relocate them to an emersed container.


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