External Filter Issue

[Notsofab]

OK fish people. I have an issue with my existing tank, but being realitively new to fish keeping (1 year now ) I am not exactly sure what I should be expecting or indeed what is even 'reasonable' in my situation.

I have a 180 litre tank with an external cannister filter (TetraTec EX700) which I had been very pleased with until this problem surfaced. My troubles began when I purchased live plants for my tank. Despite washing them before putting them in, some weeks later we had an out break of snails in the tank.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly bother by the snails as such .............. but this is where the trouble really starts.

My wonderful filter seems to have a massive problem with the snails. I give my filter a thourough clean out ( ie rinsing media in old tank water, manually removing any snails found from the sponges etc ) but within 4 days of doing so, the holes in my outlet spray bar are being entirely blocked with snails / snails eggs. This is seriously affecting the amount of filtration going on within my tank.

My question is ...... should this be happening? I mean, the filter is designed to remove tiny particles from the water, to keep it as clean and clear as possible. So should snails be passing right through my filter as easily as this? And just for clarity it's not 1 or 2 snails occassioally - within 4 days there could be easily upwards of 25 snails in the spray bar. I realise that snails are not the same as particles and get about under their own steam, but even so isn't this defeating the object of the filter?

I have tried many things :
- replaced all media in my filter ( gradually to avoid another cycle ), but it hasn't helped.
- covered the filter inlet with a piece of stocking. This stops the snails getting into the spray bar, but instead lots of debris just collates on the stocking instead of going into the filter. Needless to say, the stocking gets very dirty very quickly which has an adverse affect on the amount of water flow through my filter.
- inserted a piece of stocking into the outlet pipe before the spray bar. Again this stops the little blighters getting into the bar itself, but the build up of snails against the stocking barrier again seriously restricts the amount of water being passed through the filter.

So what I really want to know is, is this a design issue with this particular type of filter or are external filters with spray bars all subject to the same kind of snail problems? I have noticed a distinct lack of Tetratec contact details on the web - I even joined the Tetra Club in a hope of finding someone there who could answer this question. I want to take this problem back to my LFS who recommended this particular filter to me, but feel I am inadequately armed with appropriate knowledge on this topic.

Alternatively if anyone knows how I can irradicate the snails permanently without harming my fish then I'd be interested in that answer as well.

So good people - what do you think?

 

[BigIan]

you could try some of the copper based (anti snail) meds but i`ve never found them to be that effective.

other than that i can`t suggest anything other than snail eating fish, but your tanks looks pretty stocked already.

I`m having a snail problem in one of my tanks and i`m powerless to do anything about it.... soon i`m going to strip the tank down throw away all the decor and plants ect and start again with fresh (snail free plants)

also the amount of snails you have sounds pretty high, maybe you should cut doen on your feeding and clean the tank more often

 

[CFC]

Once snails enter a system they are extreemly hard to eradicate completely, the chemicals which claim to get rid of them are copper based and at best knock the snails out for a few hours or worse kill them all where you cant see them and cause massive ammonia and nitrite spikes, the chemicals are also extreemly hard on the fish and filter bacteria so are not recomended unless all the fish can be moved to another tank first.

Since the snails seem to be colonising your filter the best way to get the numbers down would be to fit a UV steriliser to the return tube of your filter, this will kill any snails and their eggs which pass through the filter and head back to the aquarium. To begin with you will still have to remove the dead snails fom your spray bar but in time the population will be reduced to manageable numbers. The other thing to address is the long term population control, snail explosions are always linked to an excess of nutrients in the tank for them to feed on, this could be algea, left over food or decaying plants. By regularly vacuming the substrate once a week and removing any algea from the glass as soon as it appears (the UV will also prevent algea from spreading as fast) as well as pruning plants at the first sign of a leaf dying you will effectively starve the snails into extinction.

Another trick that can get populations down fast is to place a saucer with a small piece of meat on into the aquarium at lights out. Wait half an hour and then return to the tank and remove the saucer with the hundreds of snails that will have collected on it from the tank. This trick only works if you dont have any catfish or loaches which will otherwise knock the meat off the saucer and eat it themselves

 

[jarmado]

how is your arrangement of media inside the filter?
if the snails are being sucked into the filter or already have colonies inside the filter, they should stay inside the filter because of the several layers of sponge in there.

 

[Notsofab]

how is your arrangement of media inside the filter?
if the snails are being sucked into the filter or already have colonies inside the filter, they should stay inside the filter because of the several layers of sponge in there.

That is pretty much what I thought. The TetraTec filter contains 4 plastic 'baskets for want of a better word. There is a pipe running through each basket which allows the incoming dirty water to go straight to the bottom of the cylinder. The four baskets are then filled with different types of media. I have included a link so you can see how the configuration of this filter is set out.
TetraTec EX700

Having looked at the media configuration of the filter, do you think the fact that I am getting snails into the spray bar may indicate a design fault with the filter?

Thanks

 

[voo]

You could always take the end cap off the spraybar, then it wouldnt get blocked up.

I'm letting snails breed in my tank for my puffer and haven't had any come into the spraybar yet (touch wood!!).