Yes you can! I actually did that when I started my cheato fuge. It did kill everything, pods included but I made sure there was no pest alive. I did a bayer dip for 5 minutes followed by a coral rx for 10 minutes. After that I had the cheato in a qt 5g tank for a week and re-did both dips again just to be sure. ( I know, I know, overkill for algae but I rather be safe lol). Once the cheato was in my fuge, I seeded with pods and it's all good now.