Stripping a tank to remove snail and algae

[ikan]

I have a small tank 85 x 45 x 45 cm and in the last 6 months or so has been invested by snail also has some hair algae. Now I am going to empty the tank to remove the snail completely and the algae as well if I can.
The tank has a piece of wood full of anuabis nana where the snails are mostly found I think because it's quite dense it's harder for clown loaches to get to them. Also has some other plants in ceramic pots.

I have few questions:
- If I bleach the wood with anuabis nana what concentration should I use and how long? I will also have to do this with all the plants.
- How long should I leave the tank empty to remove all the snail?
- What should I do with the canister filter, bleach the filter media?
- If I dry the filter media under the sun for a day will that kill the snails?

Thank you.

[Simon]

ikan, why don't you try using rams, clown loaches... or even manually removing them (cucumber in dish trap)

[ckll]

If you don't have any prey-looking shrimps, why not try a dwarf puffer. Worked for me. As for hair algae, can use SAE. Does wonders too!

[loupgarou]

go to guardian pharmacy and get some hydrogen peroxide instead. once the tank stops bubbling. do a water change and you should be good to go.

[kadios]

Some people uses ghost shrimps to clear the snails. But make sure you dun have any small fishes else they may turn into preys for these predators.

Cheers!

[sherchoo]

ikan,
Is your snail problem that serious. Eventhough, you should not use bleach for anything except maybe cleaning algae off diffuser. Even that, you should be cautious to dilute the traces of bleach.

Try dwarf puffer first (hope it's available at your place). IMO, it's the most effective method so far. Just have to be careful when the snail population depletes and it will turn on to fish tails.

[limsteel]

Reduce feeding or feed just the right amount really keep their population in check. No food for snails means snails will look for alternate food source ALA ALGAE!!! so have some around is healthy. I am asking Juggler for Malayan Trumpet Snail to introduce into my tank. "Known Graval maintenance crew".

You wanna tear down your tank to remove snails? Abit drastic ain't it... If you were to be unlucky to buy/trade/receive plant with Snail egg The CYCLE will repeat... How many times you wanna tear down your tank... Relax lah!

[bluezing]

agree.if kana again next time...then how?do reconsider.snails is rather unavoidable in planted.they makes gd algae eater sometimes though.and gd food for puffers

[ckll]

My experience with dwarf puffers is that they are relatively timid. They don't actively nip fins, but would do so only when the other fish is weak and unable to defend itself.

Puffers are carnivorous. So, after all the snails have been consumed, you may want to consider feeding your puffer freeze-dried or frozen bloodworms. They don't take pellet.

BTW, if you really do get a puffer, just one will do.

[ikan]

I am thinking of completely eradicating the snails so it doesn't spread to my other 3 bigger tank. I don't know what snails they are, they are very small and white in colour, in spiral shape and flat, not the long ones.

I can see them going down in numbers after I introduce 3 clown loaches.

Also I like to use the tank to breed corydoras and I want to remove the clown loaches.

Do Rams eat snails? I like Rams, I have them in other tank.
I don't mind keeping 5 - 6 Rams in the tank.
I managed to keep the tank free of snails for over a year.

[limsteel]

Ram are cichlid snail can be part of their diet. lucky I read that they are only aggressive during spawning...