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Thread: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

  1. #1
    Registered Member DISCUS STU's Avatar
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    Default Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Once again I have to bleach (nuke) my 60 gal. as it's being overrun by snails, everywhere.

    The last time I used a bleach solution in my bb tank but probably have a re-occurrence because I didn't remove the planters for my plants which were full of sand to about 3-4 inches. I run Eheim canisters.

    Any advice on admin., dose, and duration? I really hate these snails and don't really have them in my other tanks. Also need to bleach the plants; Radican Swords.

    Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Registered Member smsimcik's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    You can use bleach at 1/10 dilution for a few minutes to disinfect the tank and equipment. I wouldn't use bleach on the plants at any dilution. Bleach strong enough to kill snail eggs on plants, will probably kill the plants. Strong PP might work but I've had snail eggs survive PP dips.
    A much easier solution would be to just throw in about 6 assassin snails and let them take care of the problem. After about 3-4 months, the only snails you'll have left will be the assassin snails. But you can just take them out if you don't want them. They reproduce pretty slow.

  3. #3
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Flubendazole will kill them. It takes a few doses. If theres no fish you could also use fenbendazole. ..cheaper and easy to find as a common dewormer"panacur". ..just dont use it with discus or angels in the water.
    al
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    Registered Member DISCUS STU's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    I was given this as a remedy for treating plants and have been using it for my Radican Swords. I have two large and beautiful Radicans that I don't wan to lose, "Dip the whole plant for 3 min., than ASAP you rinse and put the plant in overdosed Seachem safe / water solution to thoroughly neutralize the chlorine away .

    Its pretty harsh on plants but still the most effective method for plants sterilization . "Dip the whole plant for 3 min., than ASAP you rinse and put the plant in overdosed Seachem safe / water solution to thoroughly neutralize the chlorine away
    Its adivsed for killing everything , from parasite egg cysts to snails and snail eggs.
    It kills and burns plants too , but luckily only the softer / weaker ones."
    Last edited by DISCUS STU; 05-13-2018 at 12:22 PM.

  5. #5
    Registered Member DISCUS STU's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    I'd treated with Kururi Dewormer for my fish but didn't notice any decrease in snails. I believe it's either Fenben or Flubendazole.

  6. #6
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Stu,

    It takes a few doses... but it does usually work..unless you somehow have resistent ones...plus it may vary species to species. I've tried in the tank and in a dedicated container and its worked for me.

    I do agree with Steve though that assassin snails are you best and safest bet.

    hth,
    al
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    Registered Member DISCUS STU's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Thanks everyone for your input.

    I may or may not have access to Assassin Snails but they can't access my canisters or the tubing for them.

    I'm used to having basically snail free tanks. So my strategy is to move my Discus and other living things to other tanks, I'll bleach the swords in the 3 minute bath fist, and then apply bleach to the tank for a few days.

  8. #8
    Registered Member Tshethar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    I had really good luck with Seachem cupramine in a 120 gal Tanganyikan cichlid tank for this problem. Emailed their support and they recommended using half of the usual therapeutic dose, a plan I used successfully for an explosion of pond snails that had taken over the media in my sump and were threatening to lodge in my pump at the time. I left fish and plants alone through the process, and just pulled out or siphoned off dead snails a couple of times a day for a few days until they were completely gone, never to return. Pulling your discus makes sense if you go this route (as I never see anyone treating them with copper) but I think your plants would be fine and would be snail free, and without much risk. Also, you wouldn't have to recycle your media if that is a consideration. Big water change and carbon after you're done and you should be good to go. Anyway, worked for me in a similar situation. Curious if others have tried this.

  9. #9
    Registered Member smsimcik's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    I had no luck at all with Seachem cupramine. I used the recommended dose and saw no evidence that it killed any snails. It didn't even harm the Cherry shrimp in the same tank. Not sure what I was doing wrong. Maybe I got a bad bottle.
    That's when I got the assassin snails. They definitely started killing snails from day one.

  10. #10
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Cupramine is ionic copper... I'm guessing that Bills Tanganyikan cichlid tank was pretty hard water? Not sure what Steve's Water is like, but copper acts very differently depending on the water. I wonder if the Ionic copper changed/precipitated in the african tank, maybe the snails then ingested it. In Steve's tank it would have stayed ionic. I'm reaching here, and chemistry is not my strength! Any chemists out there?

    Al
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  11. #11
    Registered Member smsimcik's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    My water was medium hard at that time. About 150 ppm TDS. I'm not enough of a chemist either to speculate on what may have gone wrong with my treatment. But I did follow the directions, and I even repeated the treatment about a month later and still didn't kill any snails that I could see.

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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Whats the dosage and where do I get Flubendazole?

    I already have a large assassin snail population and the MTS shells are stacking up like a second type of substrate. I plan to switch substrate later this year and will go BB for a few weeks/months to eradicate the MTS issue I have. I'll move the assassin's and RCS to my quarantine tank while this is happening.

  13. #13
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Another recommendation to use Assassin snails. I had tiny round snails, don't know their name, in all my tanks, thousands of them. After a year with the Assassins, and their young, I don't have a single bad snail anywhere in any of my tanks. Well worth their cost of $3 ea.
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  14. #14
    Registered Member Tshethar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    Interesting to think about this stuff (and nice to "see" you guys again--back lurking and thinking about fish :-). I hope someone will chime in who knows as I'm curious and also not able to say. It occurs to me that the reason I thought to try the cupramine in the first place dates back to my days working in a LFS part-time back in the mid-90s. The shop owner used to treat his primary marine central system with copper to help rid new arrivals of pathogens, and for that reason all the inverts needed to go elsewhere, as the copper would kill them. (Neither then nor now could I explain why.) So I thought of copper when I had a huge pond snail infestation, not really knowing about differences between salt/fresh water parameters for effectiveness. The tap water here is really low TDS (around 75 last I checked) and runs a little below 7.0, but when I kept the Tanganyikan tank in our previous house I did used to toss some baking soda into my water when I was doing WCs before I learned through this community not to bother. So the carbonate hardness would have been elevated some. I'd be curious to know whether that would have affected the treatment--maybe so, I'm guessing Al is onto something. It really did work fabulously.

    As an aside, this also helps me understand why I've never seen anyone using copper with discus; I always thought it might be too harsh, but now I'm guessing it might not be effective. Never really used it medicinally for anything myself.

    Anyway, if this is a hijack, sorry Stu and hope you get rid of your snails! If you feel like trying this maybe a chemist could tell you whether you need to add baking soda or salt!

  15. #15
    Registered Member 100fuegos's Avatar
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    Default Re: Nuking Snails Again - Tank Infested

    I accidentally killed all the snails in a tank that I was using for nothing, no heater just a sponge filter. I was keeping the sponge filter alive using 5 ml of pure ammonia every couple of days or so until the plastic siringe I used to mesure the ammount of ammonia broke one day. So I tossed what I though was kind of the same ammount of ammonia directly from the bottle... Well I was wrong, by a big margin I must say lol. That same day every single snail was dead, even the eggs, waaaaay to many of them everywhere, never hatched.

    Ammonia was eventually consumed by the sponge filter so no chemical residue was left behind in the tank. Never a snail again.

    This was an accident I must say, it was never my intention to get rid of the snails.

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