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I have a 10 gallon tank that i had fish in. I removed the fish. Some went to LFS and some went in my 30 gal soon to be 35 gallon.

Now i have a 10 gallon with a plant growing substrate but i have a massive snail infestation i need to get removed before i can grow plants. I was hoping i could use some form of solution that would not damage the substrate. Only other thing i can think of is drying out the substrate. Any other ideas? I was going to put 2 bolivian rams and 2 blue rams in the tank while im growing the plants.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Well Ive heard that clown loaches love snails.. but not sure a 10 gallon would be a good place for a loach school they can get large and need friends
I know that don't help ya much lol sorry


Quote Rain " I have always believed that this hobby is the art of keeping water and that the fish are just something pretty to look at."

GregB is right, loaches are very good at clearing out snails, but I don't think a 10 gallon is big enough for any species of loach. The smallest, Botia Sidthimunki, really need a school of at least 5 or 6 and are very active - I personally don't think a 10G would be big enough. If you can, you may be able to 'borrow' a few for a week or two - have a chat to your LFS, or any friends that you have that may keep them.

If you have a massive infestation, it may be because you're overfeeding. The snails will only proliferate if there is a plentiful food source for them. From your post though it sounds as if there are no fish in the tank though, so not feeding should begin to reduce the numbers. Try putting in a lettuce leaf overnight - snails should go for it and then in the morning you lift it out, and you've just removed a load of snails. Repeat over a few nights and you should reduce your numbers.

Finally, you could go the chemical route. Personally, I don't like the idea of adding chemicals to my tank and so all I know about this is that chemicals exist. Maybe someone else can help you if you decide to go down this route. I believe copper is very effective against all invertebrates - and if there are no fish in there currently, maybe this isn't too bad a solution (I would just make sure you do some good water changes before adding fish).

Just a word of warning though, you say you need to remove the snails "before I can grow plants" - not necessarily true, depending on the plants and snails in there. I'm reading between the lines, but I'm assuming that you're planning to add the plants once the snails are gone. In my experience if you're adding new plants, you'll be adding new snails.

giving the plants a bath using a stock solution of 0.56%(w/v) kaliumpermenganate will solve snail problems as well as investation with most microorganisms. tis is a practice used by sellers of wter plants; you add enough of the stock solution to obtain a light prurple color and leave te plants for 5 - 10 minutes in the solution. Rinse several times and plant again. Always wear gloves while handling the stock solution. I perform this every time before I add new plants to my tanks.

if u dont want to add fish u could use cucumber. What i did was to take a slice of cucumber and tie a wait to the bottom and a string to the top. The snails will come and sit on the cucumber and then every morning just pull the cucumber up and remove the snails from it. Then replace the cucumber. They cant risit it! It will take about 2-3 weeks for them to go away but it does work.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Currently there are no fish or plants in the tank, all there is currently is the heater,substrate and the hob on the tank with a light of course. Question could I add the solution you are talking about to the actual tank to kill the snails that way and then just rinse the substrate or will that damage the substrate from being used?

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

I don't know what solution you are talking about but I can atell you a little bit more about the kaliumpermanganate that I asuggested (and which I am using myself). I als ouse it to clean tanks (I just got an older tank at my fish clubs meeting and did not trust it). I added the solution to the filled tank to achieve a purple tint and left it like this for 30 minutes follwed by 3 rinses with tap water. Kaliumpermanganate is used as a biological dye in hopsitals to stain tissue and also for dissinfection. It is easy to remove and afterwards absolutely safe. As I have already mentioned, several commercial aquatic plant distributors use it as well (in fact, this is how I got the idea and remembered my school books). realizing that a 0.565 solution might not be for everybody: generate a stock that is almost black (very easy to achieve) and add it to whatever you want to treat to achieve a final concentration that provides a visible purple color. the salt should be available in pharmacies in Europe.

sorry, don't know why I placed you in Europe ... should be available in the US as well (I get mine from my lab).

My cherry barbs are quite hardy and they are snail eating machines! They ruthlessly devour all baby snails. If your snails are already bigger the fish may not be able to get them. Mine still attack the larger snails but haven't been able to damage them yet. However, my tank went from overrun with snails to just a few older snails. The cherries are very effective at keeping them in control. The bigger snails are easy to see. Just grab them out when you see them on the glass. It shouldn't take too long to get your snails taken care of. Cherries are good fish as they stay small, don't absolutely require a big school, and also will graze a bit on algae. Very cheap fish too. Good luck with your tank!

Ok so i havent put the cherry barbs in yet, but last night i put three pieces of Zukini in the tank and i came home today and found snails all over it

So i fished out the Zukini and added fresh lol.. SO its working.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Update

The cherries seem to be doing well, i dont see many small snails now but alot of the snails have been above the water level. I tried a second day of zukini but that hasnt worked very well. I have added lettuce this time to see if that will attract the snails. So far they have not been very fond of the lettuce.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

With a tank as small as a ten gallon its usually easier, all things considered, just to either take out or squash snails as you find them. You can try using the old bottle trap with some vegetable material inside so theyre easier to catch, but on the whole in a 10 gallon I think just manually removing them is easier than treating the tank with harsh chemicals or choosing pest control species of fish, many of which either grow to big for, or are too aggressive and nippy to put in a 10 gallon.

I sympathise with people who have heavily planted 55 gallon tanks loaded with bogwood etc, rooting out snails becomes a chore, but in a 10 gallon its not much effort. Pick them out as you see them and scrape ehhs off plants and glass, and in a couple of months youll probably have nailed all but the odd late emerging snail. Make sure youre not overfeeding and there wont be much for them to eat , and numbers will stay low.