[Manwithnofish]

My 10 gal. Hosp. tank is empty, has no fish but is overrun with pesky snails. I want to treat the tank with something to kill all the snails without tearing the tank down and emptying everything?

Creative ideas welcome as long as they are 100% effective, easy to execute, and leave no harmful residue for future fish.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi Manwithnofish,

I had heard copper is a good snail killer, but after reading the following the comment about the large increase in ammonia from the snail die-off was something I had not considered. How about loaches?
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/snails.htm

 

[jazzlvr123]

if you can reduce your algae you'll subsequently reduce the amount of snails in your tank. an algae free tank can have a very low snail population. population explosions are directly correlated to algae blooms. tons of algae= tons of snail food

 

[BryceM]

Get a loach or two. They'll much them away in no time.

 

[mikenas102]

As stated loaches will do the job quickly. Another alternative is a dwarf puffer or two.

 

[bigstick120]

Over feeding is another reason that the snail population explodes. Picking as many out as you can see at any time helps. I remove a few during water changes and it seems to keep the population down. Doesn't eliminate them though

 

[arto]

puffers or some loachers will do the job

 

[MatPat]

Simply place a piece of blanched spinach or lettuce in the tank for a couple of hours. Given a couple of hours the piece of lettuce/spinach will be covered with snails and you can remove it from your tank. Doing this twice (either in the same day or the next day) will remove the majority of your snails and will not increase ammonia levels in your tank caused by snail deaths since you are removing them from the tank

 

[inkslinger]

1 clown loach will do the trick

 

[armyoffoo]

My 10 gal. Hosp. tank is empty, has no fish but is overrun with pesky snails. I want to treat the tank with something to kill all the snails without tearing the tank down and emptying everything?

Creative ideas welcome as long as they are 100% effective, easy to execute, and leave no harmful residue for future fish.

How about assassin snails? http://arizonainverts.com/blog/?p=20
They kill other snails and multiple very slow so they are easy to control, plus you get to watch them hunt and kill other snails. Some kind of evil satisfaction in that.:mad2:

 

[tkos]

This is a 10 gallon tank. Adding loaches, even short term is a silly idea. Just remove food sources and the snails will depopulate themselves. All dead plant materials should be taken out and as much algae as possible should be removed. The snails will die off fairly quickly that way.