Restarting my aquarium - some questions

[sciencegirl]

So, sadly, my last glowlight tetra died this morning. He wasn't eating and I think he just starved. It's very sad and frustrating. Details can be found here:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=97907

I have a snail infestation in my 10 gal, so I'm thinking that I'll just start over. I have some questions:
1. Should I hang onto the filter material from the old tank, since it was around for a couple of years? I'm worried that there will be snail babies in there or even just parasites and whatnot.
2. Do I have to do anything drastic to the gravel, aquarium, etc. to ensure that all snails are gone? Or will rinsing in aquarium salt water do?
3. What sort of fish should I get? I was debating between a small school (7 or so) of zebra danios, or maybe 2 small goldfish, or then guppies? What will be happiest in my 10 gal?

 

[flip_lx]

1) you can do a full restart ditch the old material and re-cycle the tank (depending on if you find snail eggs or not in it but this way you could rule it out if when you restart and see snails)

2) Just make sure you go through the tank and gravel pretty good. If you have any old fish medicine that is copper based you could dose the tank a few times and that will get rid of the snails (wont hurt the fish since you'll be cleaning it all out anyways)

3) goldfish well get way to big for a 10gal, best bet is a small school (tetras,mollies,guppies). If it's a planted tank throw in an oto or 3 and a group of tetras (say 5). or you could also raise shrimp in a tank (i did ghost shrimp in mine).

 

[sciencegirl]

Thanks, flip_lx. I've gone so far as to sterilize my gravel, rinsed very well, new filter, starting from scratch. I'll be cycling sans-fish, and am pretty sure I'll be stocking with a school of 5 danios. Not sure about otocinclus - I love them so much, but they died last time I got them. I got some plants from lfs, and I'm pretty sure they are snailey, so I'll have to de-snailify them. I've bathed them briefly in a very diluted bleach solution, and now they're in a dechlorinating solution. I will bait snails with algae wafers, and maybe that will be good. I hope so...it's starting to get sort of tiresome.