# Snail tear down?



## rubicante (Feb 3, 2009)

I've read all the advice available on eliminating pond snails, and it all sucks.

1. You're Overfeeding -- I have a planted tank! This advice does not apply. I do monitor feeding.
2. Lettuce -- The population reproduces faster than I can remove them.
3. Copper -- I don't want to poison my tank.
4. Loaches -- I don't want pond snails to dictate how I stock my aquarium.
5. Ignore Them -- Can't. I'm tired of people saying "oh, look at all your pretty snails!" 

I have thousands of snails in my 40g, the ground crawls with them. I don't understand why only I have this problem. At the LFS all I see is 1-2 snails here and there.

I'm thinking about a complete tear down, but I'm not sure how to proceed. How do I kill all snails without killing all beneficial bacteria? I only have 9 tetras and 10 pygmy corys in a 40g.

This is what I'm thinking:
1. Move fish and plants to temporary tank, run snail-infested equipment.
2. Empty main tank and let it dry out completely.
3. Bleach plants, rinse and re-introduce.
4. Re-introduce fish.
5. Bleach filter and other equipment, rinse and re-introduce.

Anyone got any advice on a snail tear down? Thanks!


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

*Trust me* *put 2 big peaces of lettuse in the tank then pull them out in the morning*. Do that untill there gone. I strongly would not sugest you to tear down your tank. I dont beleave you will be abel to save your bact. and you will hurt the fish by bleaching the filter. If your going that rout you might as well buy all new. I had the same problem but i got rid of them in 2 weeks with lettuse. In my 150 i put in 3 clown loachs they were gone in 3 weeks. So i know both methods work. Dont tear down your allready established tank. You can also take all of your plants an decor out rinse them in hot water that will kill the snails. Leave them out for a few days with the lettuse in there. Taken out the lettuse every morning. Then your snails should be close to gone if not all gone.


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

ive heard someone using a piece of leafe spinach and letting it set overnight then all the snails are attracted to it pull it out and they go with it. might help? Money


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## fighttest (Jun 25, 2009)

depending on your lfs return policy you could buy some loaches, put them in and get rid of your snail problem(using lettuce in addition), and then once all of the snails are gone return the loaches. if you explain your situation to your lfs they might even be cool with it and think there loaches are getting fed for free.


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

fighttest said:


> depending on your lfs return policy you could buy some loaches, put them in and get rid of your snail problem(using lettuce in addition), and then once all of the snails are gone return the loaches. if you explain your situation to your lfs they might even be cool with it and think there loaches are getting fed for free.



wouldnt count on that, think of all the risk they would be taking. they know that travel stresses fish which makes them sick which can kill them sometimes :O


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## WisFish (Dec 16, 2008)

I wouldn't tear down the entire tank. But you have to get as many out of the tank as you can. Since it sounds like the lettuce attach isn't working, I'd try the following:
- Take everyting out of the tank except the gravel.
- clean the gravel and remove as many snails as you can.
- Clean the filter except for the bio material. Just rinse that with aquarium water.
- Clean the inside glass of the aquarium with a scrub pad.
- do you have wood? You could try soaking it in boiling water.
- bleach ornaments and rinse well.
- Clean the plants. Some use a "bleach" solution, copper or ???. I don't have the exact way to clean the plants but I've seen various solutuins suggested on this and other sites. I've already just looked for the pond snail eggs and removed them manually. They look like small gel sacks.

I realize this won't get rid of them 100%. But it's the most you can do without starting over. After this, you'll just have to try and remove the snails whenever you see them. I remove them every other week when I do my water changes. That's usually about 10 snails.

Good luck.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

10% bleach solution does work however potassium permanganate is a much better option. Copper lingers for a long time and he will be unable to house any more desired invertebrates if he uses copper-based treatments. Besides, the rising number of dead snails from copper will wreak havoc to the entire tank system.

Heck, I can't even sustain any number of these "pests", thanks to my other snails outcompeting them for food. I rely on bloodworms for my assassin snails due to scarcity of snails as their foods.:roll:


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## rubicante (Feb 3, 2009)

Thanks all for your replies!



fighttest said:


> depending on your lfs return policy you could buy some loaches, put them in and get rid of your snail problem(using lettuce in addition), and then once all of the snails are gone return the loaches.


My LFS _would_ do that, but I think I'd need too many loaches. 



Lupin said:


> 10% bleach solution does work however potassium permanganate is a much better option. Copper lingers for a long time and he will be unable to house any more desired invertebrates if he uses copper-based treatments. Besides, the rising number of dead snails from copper will wreak havoc to the entire tank system.
> 
> Heck, I can't even sustain any number of these "pests", thanks to my other snails outcompeting them for food. I rely on bloodworms for my assassin snails due to scarcity of snails as their foods.:roll:


Does potassium permanganate kill ADULT snails? Of course bleach kills everything, but it's also very caustic. Where does one purchase potassium permanganate?

You know- You mention out-competition, and I think that's a large part of my problem. You have assassin snails, other people have loaches, but most tropical fish DON'T eat snails, and the snails have unlimited food eating all my plants (3 large amazon swords, etc). In a high light, planted tank the snails have ample food and no predators, so there is no answer once they have been introduced, except snail eaters.

I'll be doing the teardown and report how that goes.


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## d0r0g0 (Jan 18, 2009)

Good luck with the tear down! Hope you get em all.

I actually like the pond snails I have, but for whatever reason I don't really seem to have too many.


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## rubicante (Feb 3, 2009)

Well, I failed. After doing all the things below, I found new snails in the tank tonight.

1. Put all fish in spare 10 gal
2. Put plants in tub with ornaments, soaked 20 minutes in dark Potassium Permanganate solution (some plants died, big deal). I got the KMnO4on eBay.
3. Filled tank with bleach.
4. Rinsed out sand and tank.

I re-planted everything, and waited two weeks.

I think eggs hid in the crevices of the wood, aquarium equipment, or deeply inside plant roots.

The Potassium Permanganate was not as effective as I expected.

No fish died.


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