# Found a good but unintended way to kill snails



## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

I have two tanks, my son's 26 gallon and a new 10g I'm starting for myself as a place to grow some plants for a hopeful future 75g, and also as a test run for a dirt planted tank. I've had the 10g planted for about 1 month now with a few snails to try and help control the algea. I was hoping they might help cycle the tank, but I continue to get zero readings across the board for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I guess it's possible or even likely that whatever small amount of waste is made by the snails is gobbled up by the plants, which are doing quite well.

So I got tired of waiting and decided since I want to go ahead and get a couple fish in there to go ahead and start a fishless cycle with the ammonia I got from Ace. I had read several places that I could do this with plants in the tank, so away I went. Well, I guess I have to admit to the fact that I also misremembered the directions and I added 2T rather than 2t. As soon as I added the ammonia I noticed one snail right by where I added it dropped from the side. Hmm, I thought, I wonder why he did that? Then literally as the seconds ticked I noticed them dropping one by one from the sides of the tank all over. Uh oh. Are they in shock or did I kill them? I let a half hour pass and then tested the ammonia which was off the scale, probably somewhere around 8ppm. Upon returning and still a day later they are not moving one bit so I presume I have killed them all. It's not like any of them were prized snails, I can get more and restock later from the 26g, it's just that this was totally unintended and I should have checked first to see what would happen to the snails.

Now I'm not sure how a healthy cycled tank would handle this, but I guess you could speculate that if someone had a snail problem they wanted to permanently deal with, and they also had a second healthy tank to put all their fish in temporarily, they could overdose their tank on ammonia, let a day or two pass for the bio load to clear it, and move everything back in. What say you community experts?

Other interesting tidbits I noticed:

My crypts all immediately went from dark reds to fantastically bright vibrant green. I guess they notice some change from the ammonia that puts them in photosynthesis mode.

There were some 'critters' which had been previously unnoticed which got flushed out from the ammonia. I can only describe them as some kind of aquatic insect. There were two of them and they kind of looked like fast moving transparent centipedes. They seemed to be succombing, though more slowly, to the ammonia as well.


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## Crazy (Mar 1, 2012)

Well, that IS an interesting experiment! Glad the plants are doing well though.


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

lol that'll do it.


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## Subaru4wd (May 6, 2011)

Dont count them out just yet... i have had snails hide in their shells for up to a week if not more, without ever moving... only to come back to life again. You'll know their dead when their patch falls off.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

Subaru4wd said:


> Dont count them out just yet... i have had snails hide in their shells for up to a week if not more, without ever moving... only to come back to life again. You'll know their dead when their patch falls off.


Interesting. I will definitely keep watch and update this thread over the next few weeks whether they made it or not. Honestly, I hope they do make it but I'll be glad to see those water bugs die.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Just outta curosity how long did it take for the ammonia values to come down?

my .02


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

beaslbob said:


> Just outta curosity how long did it take for the ammonia values to come down?
> 
> my .02


This was just last night. I'll check tonight and try to report back regularly. If my ammonia is still off the chart I'm going to do a water change to get it to 4ppm.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

freeasabird said:


> This was just last night. I'll check tonight and try to report back regularly. If my ammonia is still off the chart I'm going to do a water change to get it to 4ppm.


No reason to do that. After all there are no fish in the tank. 

So the ammonia is just plant food. *old dude

But it would be interesting to see how rapidily the ammonia is consumed.


my .02


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I have dosed ammonia with healthy, growing plants. I have heard that if the levels are too high it can burn the plants, but I have never seen it. For future practice dose then test, dose then test, until you have reached the level you want. Sources of ammonia all have different levels of purity and you may end up with way more than you wanted or less. I kept mine at 2ppm. 

And even on a filtered tank the ammonia took a week before it budged off of 2ppm - from the plants. In a tank that has been fully cycled the ammonia source would be gone in less than 24hrs with 4ppm or lower levels.....higher could take a little longer (just what I've seen during fishless cycles). The bacteria seem to consume much, much faster than the plants since it happens 24/7 and the plants only doing with the presence of light.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

Tonight I got home from work and my new API test kit had arrived so I tested using it and it pegged at 8ppm. I see no value from leaving it this high and it could only cause damage to my plants with no possible gain so I did a 50% wc. With a used a test strip it still pegged at 6ppm. I will test with API tomorrow and do another 50% if still above 4ppm. Snails still not moving btw.


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## blue water (Nov 1, 2010)

freeasabird said:


> This was just last night. I'll check tonight and try to report back regularly. If my ammonia is still off the chart I'm going to do a water change to get it to 4ppm.


I thought that the aim was to keep ammonia at zero.From all info i got from aquarium forums, let me know if my info is wrong.Thanks always like new info


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## Manafel (Sep 4, 2011)

blue water said:


> I thought that the aim was to keep ammonia at zero.From all info i got from aquarium forums, let me know if my info is wrong.Thanks always like new info


fishless cycling is different, in order to grow your BB, you need to have ammonia for it to grow, so you keep adding the ammonia until all of your bacteria has come full circle and start producting nitrates in the end. you Don't want any ammo in the water if there are fish.

On the subject of using the ammonia to kill the snails... I thought having TOO much ammonia in the tank could have the reverse effect and kill BB? Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm trying to get rid of a snail problem, and am about to resort to bleaching


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

Manafel said:


> On the subject of using the ammonia to kill the snails... I thought having TOO much ammonia in the tank could have the reverse effect and kill BB? Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm trying to get rid of a snail problem, and am about to resort to bleaching


Depending on how long the cycle takes and how patient I can remain, I may oblige for an experiment once it is complete and let you know the results. At this point the worst I could fair would be repeating the cycle again if I kill all the good bacteria.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

Well, good and bad news. Some of the snails are up and moving so that was quite a shock. Though their 'skin' looks a little scorched. Bad news is I'm still north of 8ppm according to API so another 50% it is. Oh and my crypts are wilting.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

If the Crypts are fairly new they could be melting. It is common with them. Just remove the dead leaves and new ones will start almost immediately. Just give it time and don't throw them out.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

jrman83 said:


> If the Crypts are fairly new they could be melting. It is common with them. Just remove the dead leaves and new ones will start almost immediately. Just give it time and don't throw them out.


Thanks for the tip.

I decided to run some numbers to see how much I should have put in to start with.

10% ammonia solution
4ppm target on approx 10 gallons of water (I know this is not perfect) would be 3 drops of pure ammonia (10 / 1,000,000 x 4 = .00004 gallons, plugged into converter is 2.9 drops). That should come out to be 30 drops of 10% purity, which is .1 tablespoons. So while I don't think I had the tablespoons completely full, I still got close to 20x the dose I was shooting for. I may be in for a lot more water changing.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

I had a feeling I was still a ways away from the mark so I did another 50% wc before running another test. 4ppm - success!! Now I wait.


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## katiesoup50 (Jan 27, 2012)

where the snails a specific type? trying to do my research before i get snails in my tank...so recomend any that work for yout or that would work for me.....14 gallon tank with 5 red eye balloon tetras!


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

katiesoup50 said:


> where the snails a specific type? trying to do my research before i get snails in my tank...so recomend any that work for yout or that would work for me.....14 gallon tank with 5 red eye balloon tetras!


Funny you ask. I purposely introduced a variety with a likeness to Malaysian Trumpet Snails, though I don't know the exact species. From purchasing some plants from aquariumplants.com, some other type with a likeness more akin to a french horn (loop over loop rather than tapered) were introduced, and I'm not really a fan of that type. What seems to be happening is I think the largest of the snails were the only ones to make it. I think all the smaller ones have completely succombed (which includes all the ones I didn't want), though I will continue to update this thread.


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## freeasabird (Mar 21, 2012)

Woo hoo, I have nitrites!! Ammonia bottomed out so I put in 10 drops this time. Will check later tonight if I can I not in the morning and add more as needed.


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