Cloudy water - snails in filter

[VN]

I think I solved the mystery of the continuously clouding water in my (freshwater) tank.

I had no idea what was happening. I did water changes, bought "water cloudiness remover" , but nothing seemed to help at all. I tried to clean my filtering device (a Whisper E carbon filter), which was full of smelly sticky stuff all the time (it still is :x Just cleaned it again).

The filter bag was full of stupid, little baby snails. I tried to remove them, I didn't want to change the bag every day.
But now I know what's happening. Correct me if I'm wrong. The snails in filter died and started to decompose, which caused the smelly residue on my filter and it also caused the water to get cloudy. Maybe that was the reason why one of my guppies got a fungus infection. (I'm not sure about that though)

My question is: How can I keep living things out of the filter? If I'd block the intake pipe with a net that would decrease the efficiency of my filter. Wouldn't it? So what can I do?

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

i would probably start by ridding the tank of snails myself...you attached to the snails? they usually end up being a nuisance to most, can't say as i have had a problem like yours, but if there are numerous snails getting sucked up, dying, and decomposing, it would make sense for your water to be foul...

 

[VN]

Yeah, I know I should get rid of them. As I mentioned earlier I can't kill anything, so what I did was I made up a small 5 gallon tank with some rocks and plants for the snails There is no filter in it, so I clean it out real well in every 3 or 4 days, by "vacuuming" the floor and the rocks and filling it back up with clean water.
I also moved my betta in there. He eats some of the snails. I've never heard about bettas that eat snails, but he does. So the snail-problem is solved for now.

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

LOL, now i would have never thought to give them their own tank! glad things are working out though!

 

[Hara]

clown loaches absolutely love escargot.