Cleaning Plants

Hi guys.

Late last year when I bought my last batch of fish the petshop put some hornwort(and some duckweed) in the bag while I was shopping around for other fish. I put the Hornwort in the tank and my Rosy Barbs + Red Eyes ate everything except a 2 small pieces I put in my breeding trap and my stagnant pond. I recently filled the pond up with dirt as it just produced mosquitoes. I moved the hornwort to an ice cream tub. The piece in the breeder trap has grown nicely and I have split it in 4 already, but I want to ad the pieces from the pond to the tank.

How do I clean it?

There is a thread from 2012/2013 on here saying salt and then a unscented bleach solution for a period of time. Is there anything else I can do?


On a side note, I was actually looking for duckweed to grow as feed for my Rosy Barbs and Red Eyes, who destroy all my plants(amazon sword, young Java Fern. Everything!). I put the duckweed in my breeder trap to multiply and then just scoop out some for the fish about once a week. Non of the duckweed is left after 2 day's and my Java Fern shoots have multiplied and grown bigger than before. The same with the hornwort and other plants. I did increase my lighting which resulted in better growth on all plants, but the new growth was always eaten.