Moss with Ammonia and Excel OD

Excel will surely kill your mosses.

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:

Excel will surely kill your mosses.

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I've used Excel in tanks with mosses before without a problem.

-Lisa

Kunsthure said:

I've used Excel in tanks with mosses before without a problem.

-Lisa

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Yeah, but you're overdosing to kill snails, right? You might be able to get away with them at normal dose, but not when you start increasing it.

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:

Yeah, but you're overdosing to kill snails, right? You might be able to get away with them at normal dose, but not when you start increasing it.

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I'll start with the normal dose and see how it goes. The shrimp won't be here til next week at the earliest so I have time to experiment.

Will a high ammonia do anything untoward to the mosses?

-Lisa

High ammonia + excel will be harmful to your plants, though it may not fully kill them.

The ammonia will also send your tank into a cycling nightmare, which is not a good idea before your shrimp arrive.

EntoCraig said:

High ammonia + excel will be harmful to your plants, though it may not fully kill them.

The ammonia will also send your tank into a cycling nightmare, which is not a good idea before your shrimp arrive.

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I guess using "OD" was a poor choice of words (or initials, as the case may be). Raising the ammonia enough to kill things, like to 2ppm just for a few days. Then of course 100% WC and put some of the mysteries back in.

It's funny how different sub-forums give different answers.

-Lisa

Believe me, 2 ppm is not enough to kill snails. My nerites are in a cycling tank that's had ammonia up to 3 or 4 ppm.

Fenbendiazole does a great job at killing pest snails... but you can never keep nerites after that ):

Hmm. I guess I'll stick to the Excel because I know if I go too high with the ammonia I'll harm my BB. I'm glad I kept the receipt for the ammonia.

-Lisa

I'd remove the moss so you don't kill that.

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:

I'd remove the moss so you don't kill that.

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But then she'd likely reinfect the tank with the very things she's trying to kill - limpets and snails.

Complexity said:

But then she'd likely reinfect the tank with the very things she's trying to kill - limpets and snails.

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She can wash out the moss into a bucket to remove most of them, or do a moss-safe dip.

I initially thought I'd dip the 'scape elements in PP but then I'd kill my biofilm so it's all got to be done in-tank.

-Lisa

I'm telling you, the best option you have at this point is to add assassin snails.

You can also manually take 'em out. Put in a piece of blanched cucumber and they'll swarm it.. take 'em out and then repeat till you have the population cut down.

daworldisblack said:

You can also manually take 'em out. Put in a piece of blanched cucumber and they'll swarm it.. take 'em out and then repeat till you have the population cut down.

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That never worked for me. And it's not that I have an overpopulation; I'll find one or two on the glass each time I look. These MRs came from my sponge pre-filters and live in my HOBs; I don't know where exactly the limpets came from but I suspect they came in on the mystery snails because I haven't had limpets in a long time. This tank was torn down and rebuilt completely except for the filters in early June.

Will assassins attack big mystery snails?

-Lisa

Kunsthure said:

Will assassins attack big mystery snails?

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They didn't attack my large nerites, but that was in a 75g tank so they may not have had much chance to come in contact with them.

Do you have another place you can put your mysteries while the assassins are in the tank?

Complexity said:

Do you have another place you can put your mysteries while the assassins are in the tank?

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I'm hesitant to move them because I often find little hitchhikers on them when they're cruising around the tank. They're ivories so I'd never see a limpet and I don't want limpets in any other tank if I can help it.

-Lisa

What about small loaches, such as chain loaches? I doubt they would go for a mystery snail. I know I had larger loaches in my tank with my nerites for years without any problems.