MudHog

How do yall clean yall fake plants? My last tank cleaning, my tanks were pretty covered with what i think are diatoms (plan to get a couple ottos very soon). I soaked my plants in hot soapy water, rinsed good in cold water and then let dry completely. Some still show some algae/diatoms on them.

What do yall do?

neverendingninja

Do not use soap or any other detergent on ANYTHING going in a fish tank. Its highly toxic to fish.

Also, be careful using chlorinated water, as plants are where some of your beneficial bacteria live, and the chlorine will kill them.

I would suggest taking them out during a water change, and vigorously swishing them in a bucket of either the water removed from tank, or dechlorinated water.

MudHog

this was the first time i used detergent and i feel i rinsed them pretty good to be safe. I've seen some liquids on foster and smith, but never known how it works.

sirdarksol

The problem is that soap clings to things really well, and the amount of soap that can be fatal to fish is very miniscule. I wouldn't want to take a chance with getting soap in my tank.

This is the way that I clean my fake plants:
Pull out from the tank.
Put them in a plastic bag.
Place bag in a large plastic bin.
Place bin near the side of the road on Monday nights.
...
...
...


Sorry. I have been slowly been getting rid of my plastic plants, and I just let them get covered in algae prior to disposing of them.

jsalemi

My otos are indiscriminate eaters -- they don't care if the algae is on a fake plant or a real one. They keep both equally clean.

Azahara

I pop mine in the bathtub and run hot water over them while I'm cleaning the rest of the tank. Works decent on anything else you have in there too. Rocks, pirate ships . . . . . whatever really. just . . . moving hot water.

Peterpiper

Only problem with the bath is that it has had soap in it. Better to buy a tub and just use it for the aquarium.