Empty The Whole Tank?

[ashlea87]

just wondering, the other day i found a few snails in my tank, thought oh yeh they r just cleaning or watever, but we found heaps and heaps so we started taking some out just b4 and we took over 50 out, just seeing if it is possible to put my fish else where for a bit while i empty the whole tank and clean it fresh free from snails, and plus my two gouramis that died might help the water too. can i do this?

 

[sophos9]

What size tank do you have?

 

[rdd1952]

Most common cause of snails is overfeeding. They are scavengers and live off excess food that settles to the bottom. It would help to know what fish you have in it. I don't understand what you mean by "my two gouramis that died might help the water too" unless you mean you were overstocked.

You can definitely clean the tank. I went through a similar situation with snails in my 29 gallon tank about a year ago (I don't feed nearly as much now). I had a 16 gallon tub that I used for soaking a piece of driftwood. I siphoned water from the tank into the tub to fill it up, netted and moved the fish and cleaned the tank. Once I was finished and had the new substrate back in the tank, I moved the water from the tub back into the tank (so that the fish were still in their same water - no acclimation necessary) and then topped it off, basically making it similar to a 40% water change.

Keep in mind that, depending on what type snails they are, you may need to replace the substrate. Trumpet snails (that is what I had a problem with) bore in the sand so if you don't replace it, you haven't gotten rid of them.

 

[Christine1014]

Cleaning the tank might be one option, but before doing anything really drastic, I'd try collecting the snails first... clip a decent-sized piece of lettuce to the side of the tank before you go to bed. In the morning, the vast majority of the snails will be on the lettuce and you can just get rid of the lettuce, snails and all. Do this again a couple days later to get any new snails that may have just hatched (or whatever it is that baby snails do!).

 

[rdd1952]

Cleaning the tank might be one option, but before doing anything really drastic, I'd try collecting the snails first... clip a decent-sized piece of lettuce to the side of the tank before you go to bed. In the morning, the vast majority of the snails will be on the lettuce and you can just get rid of the lettuce, snails and all. Do this again a couple days later to get any new snails that may have just hatched (or whatever it is that baby snails do!).

If she has the infestation I had, that won't work. Trust me, I tried every remedy under the sun last year. Mine was so bad, I could scoop out a double tablespoonful of sand and get 25+ small trumpet snails from it. Even when I did use this method, I never had more than 4 or 5 on the lettuce at a time. It's worth a try but may just delay the inevitable.