Snail problem in cycling tank

[swanandmokashi]

Hi all

Nice to see everybody after a long time.

I had to give away my fish, unfortunately start of this year , becuase of power failure. Pretty depressing - but now out of it and trying to rebuild my 29 and 3 gallon.

While I was fishless cycling, I got pretty busy with work (literally working day AND NIGHT ), and got negligent with the tanks.
Now I changed the water 90% yesterday and saw 3-4 snails in the 29 gallon I have a good bunch of java moss , 2 tiger lotus and 2 water sprites growing in the tank and now these bastards showed up 8O

So my question - how to get rid of snails in a tank that is cycling. I am afraid the little buggers will start eating my plants. I know that a loach would solve the issue but the tank is NOT cycled and no condition to get inhabitants.

I could use snail chemicals , but always wary of using chemicals in the tank.
But if that 's what got to be done, so be it.

Please advice

 

[Guest]

In your 29 gallon i'd suggest putting in about 10 pennies in your filter dated before 1982. These are copper pennies and will eliminate the snails along with the eggs. Just keep an eye on your tank to make sure everything else stays in check, and if you see more snails start to appear, just add more pennies. After the snails are gone, you can always do partial water changes to rid the tank of the copper elements, or just put the carbon back in your filter to remove the "trace" elements. HTH

Oh fyi, i bought a bunch or hortwort almost a month ago, and little to my suprise, last week i saw 2 snails bumming around in my 29 gallon. I smashed them on the glass, saw another one a day later, smashed it, and haven't had any since. I moved my horntwort to a qt 10 gallon, where i saw another snail on the plant just yesterday, needless to say, that lil bugger is no more. They suggest a "dip" for plants to rid them of hitchhikers, you'll have to seach around for it, untill i have more time to post it, but its a potassium permanganate solution water.

 

[black udder]

If you're still cycling, you might try pulling the plants out temporarily and putting in some lettuce. Let the snails jump on that, then toss it. I think BrianNY suggested putting lettuce in at night (not iceberg) and then checking in the morning. Just toss the leaf and repeat until there's nobody left.

Then you could put the plants back...

This would make sure there are not trace elements hanging about in the tank at all.

 

[swanandmokashi]

wow the copper pennies ideas is very cool

 

[frog girl]

I would be worried about the pennies because copper buildup can be toxic after a while & it doesn't leave the tank very readily (kind of like dosing with a copper containing anti-snail med.). If you ever do this in a tank there is a chance that you won't be able to keep inverts in it from what I have read.

I haven't really looked into levels of copper toxicity but I would be careful.