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Okay, this is so weird. I'm looking at a plant package on aquabid and the guy is offering a lot of plants with free shipping for like $30. It's not a bad deal.......LOTS of plants. The problem you ask? I emailed questioning if these plants were in a tank with fish and/or snails (helps to have this info) Here's what emailed back:

"Hello,
They are in a separate tank with moina. 2 of the tank are snail free, the third one have snail.
peter"

What the h--e--double--hockey sticks is moina and is it bad for my fishies? I googled it and got some kind of water flea deal that fry are supposed to eat, but I don't have any fry. Should I worry about this? Is this a problem? Snails and moina? I have no loaches to eat the snails, but MOINA???

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

A simple way to protect from those little flea things is to disinfect the plants when they come in. This is effective in getting rid of snails/snail eggs, leeches, etc etc.

There are several ways to disinfect them, but usually the most common way is to use a mixture of water and Alum, or alumininum sulfate. This is available in drug stores. Dilute 10 teaspoons in a gallon of water (room temp) and let the plants soak for at least 30 minutes, but you can leave them for a day or two if you like. Rinse them off well in the same temperature clean water, and plant to enjoy

Do not let the plants dry out!

You can also use household bleach, a 1:19 solution (highly advised AGAINST, as this is very harsh on plants, particularly stem plants, and you can't let the roots or rhiozomes touch) or Potassium permangenate. This can be picked up in a diluted solution in a commercially available product made by Jungle Labs "clear water". Usually a 10 minute soak is enough to get rid of harmful bacteria.

For your situation, i'd use the alum

Good luck,
Tim

Okay, so I go to the pharmacy and get Aluminum sulfate....they will know what I am talking about?

This will kill snails and eggs as well? I'm with you, I never liked the bleach option. I've been told I could use postassium permanganate, but it sounds dangerous.

Is aluminum sulfate expensive?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

The alum will get rid of the snails and eggs, yes.

it's not expensive, and any good store should know what you're talking about.