Hello; Two things come to mind. First I have collected some native plants and had difficulty getting them to make the transition into an aquarium. Not sure why but have suspected it has something to do with going from natural sunlight to artifical light.
The other is what you ask. I became concerned about introducing disease, parasites and such. I have read of dipping plants in a clorox soulution. I know two things about this from a recent adventure. After test filling a 55 gallon tank I put some clorox, around three ounces, in the water as a disinfectant. After letting it run with bubblers and an HBO for several days I put in some plants. The clorox had persisted. It killed one type of plant and not others. The dwarf saggitaria (sp) died after being in the water for a couple of days. The crypts and java fern have survived. The key being that I cannot reccomend a concentration or a soak time. Other members have posted using a dip of 60 seconds.
As you have wild collected plants, why not try some various levels of concentration and soak times?
One note. I had put some rams horn snails in the cloroxed 55. I had thought they died but now am not so sure. They looked dead but may have only been stuned. I got some de-tox chemicals to treat the water. I put some more rams horn snails in after adding the de-tox chemical. I later noted that the ones thought dead were gone from the places where they rested and that there seemed to be more snails about. I am afraid i did not keep a count so cannot be sure. At any rate it may be best to put the collected plants in a QT for a time and not directly into a tank you plan to keep as a setup.
