[Wantsome99]

I have 20 years experience in the hobby and I can't get rid of snails. I have some rare sand and I do not want snails infested in it. I'm about to tear down my tank and let every thing dry out for a week before I add the sand. It's the only way I know how to 100% get rid of them.

Assassin snails do the trick but they leave empty shells in the substrate.

No I do not over feed my fish and I keep my tanks clean.

I tried alum and did a 24 hour soak. It killed the snails but not the eggs.

I do not want to have to get rid of my plants. When restarting my tank. I spent a ton of money on Crypts and Anubias.

The only thing I can think of at this point is doing tissue cultures only.

I'm going to experiment with alum and a different tank. I'm going to see if soaking until the eggs hatch does the trick. I don't know how long it takes for eggs or if my plants will survive that long.

 

[cloozoe]

Botia loaches. Problem solved.

 

[Okkie]

Full proof way is via CO2 injection.

Remove fish and shrimp etc. Turn on CO2 while at the same time turning off filter and any equipment that causes surface agitation. The CO2, without surface agitation, will remove oxygen from the water and eventually drive every snail to head for the surface... Then remove at your leisure.

 

[jellopuddinpop]

Full proof way is via CO2 injection.

Remove fish and shrimp etc. Turn on CO2 while at the same time turning off filter and any equipment that causes surface agitation. The CO2, without surface agitation, will remove oxygen from the water and eventually drive every snail to head for the surface... Then remove at your leisure.

You can supercharge this by adding lots and lots of seltzer water. As the snails head to the surface, scrape them off the glass. Rinse and repeat daily for a week, to get rid of eggs as they hatch.

 

[Wantsome99]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a low tech tank but I do have a pressurized co2 system I could hook up.

 

[jellopuddinpop]

Like I said, you don't need to rig up your CO2 system just for this. If you remove all of the fauna you want to keep, you can just dump in seltzer. It shouldn't hurt the plants, it will offgas in a day or so and be safe m oving forward, and it will definitely kill your snails. The beauty is that they will try to climb out first, so they wont die buried in the substrate somewhere.

 

[ZChalk]

alum needs multiple days (i.e. 3 days) 1 tablespoon per gallon. It pickles them and they turn white.

 

[Savetheplants]

My LFS recommended a Zebra Loach. He cleaned the snails out of three of my tanks. The loach is gone now but it was so cool while I had it. It lived five or six years.

 

[mostly moss]

I have a Zebra Loach as well. He’s the last survivor of a group, and I would just note that they do prefer to live in groups. Mine is over 17 now and I feel badly that he is the last left, but I don’t want any more because they eat all my snails. ;-)

They are super fun fish and I have absolutely adored having them. Very busy and entertaining.