*If you missed my previous plant dip experiments using bleach, hydrogen peroxide, copper, salt, potassium permanganate, and alum, check out the series here: **czcams.com/play/PLlBBJ7xBuquZxhVUA-7BVFx3WxG3dqTJr.html*
Thank you for experimenting with this and sharing your results! I decided to do some testing based on your recommendations, but with another pest: leeches. I had an "extras" aquarium that I used exclusively for plants I'd pick up but didn't have an immediate use for. Since it was already basically a quarantine tank I never bothered to treat the plants, (wrongly) thinking the worst I'd get were some "boring" pests like snails or planaria. Never did I expect leeches, but now I know better. Using 1 TBSP of alum per gallon of water, it took between 5-6 hours for the leeches to be completely lifeless. I also had some scuds/gammarus in another tank I figured I'd test too, and found that they are extremely hardy. They were still alive (but looking rough) at 8 hours in so I left them over night. Total of about 16 hours. They were indeed dead by the morning, but I'm not sure exactly how long it took after 8 hours since I wasn't monitoring.
This is the best video! I had a planaria break out that wiped out shrimp. Now I use alum on all my plants! You have saved my fish room!! Some of the plants donât do well like Hornwort, but it bounces back after a month or so, it goes from a string to sprouting needles. I would say before throwing a plant away, give it some tlc and time and youâd be surprised what can survive! I always use the 1:1 ratio, it works so well. Thank you!
Thanks Irene for the updated video of the alum dip.. just got new plants in today they are socking now ..the alum dip and quarantine 3-4 weeks helps me .. with my plants so far .. i have Netrite snails đ and enjoy them love feeding them vegetables.. but i hate when the snails get out of control.. if i put in 6-10 snails i want only 6-10 of .. them not wake up to hundreds
Thanks to you my tank is snail free. Everytime I get new plants I leave them in alum for a few days and quarantine them for a few more days in new fresh water to make sure they are snail free.
To anyone about to try this: either go more than four hours or double the alum. My 15g has pest snails. I love them and thatâs their home. But my rotala is growing like crazy and we wanted to put some in our new tanks. I DID 4 HOURS WITH THESE MEASUREMENTS. All visible ones died but now Iâm having sneaky sneaks pop up in the new tanks. I donât think it killed all the eggs (I have rams/bladder/pond snails). I will say there is ZERO damage to the plants which is fantastic đ Iâm bummed that I have to be on snail watch for a while and airlift all the new snails back to the 15, but I suspect a more concentrated dip will save you all the trouble â€
Ive spent years putting up with snails but i caught them eating fish eggs and now i want all my tanks snail free. This will be very helpful. Awesome work.
Not going to lie I donât have a problem with snails sometimes I intentionally put more snails in my tank but this helped prevent get rid of some planaria on the plants I bought
Good stuff! I used the peroxide on pretty much all my pants with no issues, except for eloida, in which the peroxide would strip all the leaves away, but the stem did grow out new stems at different joints.
Hello, firstable I think you're a great speaker for all your videos, your voice is very clear, and you explain very well, KUDOS for you!! Now to the question... I believe your tank is a 20 G, now I see at the bottom of it what appear to be a rim, but there is none on the top, there are only this transparent corner holders, did you custom made that? If you did share where you got the clear corenner parts... please, petty please, with a cherry in top lol? Thank you and keep the videos coming =)
Awww. Poor snails, but I can understand how some aquarists view them as a plague in their tanks. I found how much I feed my fish to be the key to keeping snails at a managable level - and the ones that survive never get big, they stay relatively small. I also have fish who love to pick at the snail eggs and babies. Any tank where I have female Endlers, there are virtually no snails. I have ramshorn and MTS, would love to have some bladder snails, but they do not like my water, unfortunately... or maybe they get out-competed by the other snails? Thanks for your content, always interesting and informative!
@@mindovermatter2day I didnât realize my betta fish was also controlling my black molly population. The betta died and now I have a population explosion of mollies. I will NEVER own livebearers again! LoL
It's a roundabout method but you can grow newer plants emersed and then plant the newer cuttings in your aquarium. I did this to salvage expensive plants in an aquarium that got infested with cladophora algae.
Awesome video!! When I was setting up my first planted tank I found rams horn snails on a plant and thought " oh snails could be cool." So I dropped them in.đ I still can't get rid of them.
Great video! I really enjoy your videos. Theyâre always so informative and I appreciate your methodical approach to common aquarium issues. Thanks, Irene! While your dip videos showed the planaria that happened to be on your plants getting killed off by some solutions like alum, I would love to see a dedicated planaria plant dip video if you get around to it. They are really a thorn in my side! If delicate plants like crypts and floating plants could be included in your experiments that would be great too.
Hi there. Great experiment and info. I can't be sure but I was treating my tank with Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) (brand Magna Salt) 5 grams/litre for 3 days and noticed all my pest snails died. Can't find Alum in grocery stores in Thailand. Do you think epsom salt works similar to alum to kill snails and their eggs?
I feel like this video was perfectly timed in regards to recent news about Zebra mussels in marmio moss balls. Now only if we can figure out how to eradicate those! Iâm a huge fan of marmio moss balls, so Iâm saddened to see them disappear for the time being :(
Biggest issue is that many companies are sourcing their Marimo moss balls from lakes in eastern Europe that also have zebra mussels. Rather than paying a little more for them being sourced elsewhere that's zebra mussel free. They are then relying on them being properly treated before they get sent out for sale. Biggest issue here is that any slip up of treatment results in the consumer getting zebra mussels.
Page 15 of this article gives all of the studied ways to kill Zebra Mussels. Of particular interest is "freezing". It lists freezing times at 3 different temperatures to kill 100% of them 2 days right at 0 C/32 F 5-7 hours at -1.5 C/29.3 F
Thanks for this great series! I do have one tank just for Ramshorns(cute little buggers). But getting snail free plants, for my other tanks, from outside sources, is nearly impossible. This will help me get the plants I really want, without having to worry about snails.
You can try Flubenol 5% 1 gram dissolve in 100ml water, that will be enough for 500 liters of water, just toss it into your aquarium and thats it. It kills only snails and worm like. Its 100% safe for plants, shrimps and fish, using an overdoze is not harmful unless you are a snail đ Its really also cheap about 40 cents a gram. Its the best and easiest way to get rid of snails. Hope this helps you
Thank you so much, I really appreciate how you conducted your experiments on various substances while having a control group and controlling variables. I set my first tank since I was a kid so didn't think to ask about snails. I really think shops should advise customers to treat plants before putting them in the tank!
I just bought new plants from unknown sellers tonight, so thank you! Last time we had a bladder snail tag along on a plant....took forever to notice it. Until it didn't. It got big, and then it made some friends. A whole castle of Hogwarts. Eventually, my fiance called me Voldemort because I HAD to get rid of them. It was getting ridiculous. I'm so excited for my blue gourami to get a much better planted tank. Wasn't cheap but... he deserves it.
I'm planning on doing a reset into a new rimless tank, so this is great. Also, I loved your nails. Alternating blue - so simple, but really fun to see!
Awesome Video!! This was really helpful to get rid of the snail bomb in my tank đ€Ł I used this on Hornwort and Marino Moss balls. Had a bit of melting on the Hornwort but nothing unmanageable and the moss balls came out fine đđ»
i tried it today and it worked really really well! most of them floated, its like theyre getting deprived of moisture. or theyre getting puffed with air idk. 1 hr has lapsed
So i would assume that since this kills snails it would also kill any beneficial bacteria that might be on the plant. I'm starting a new tank and was hoping the beneficial bacteria would help with my cycle. My local pet store sells established plants.
You know, I actually don't know if it's an antibiotic. I found conflicting reports online, but one article did say: "While alum has some antimicrobial and anti fungal properties, it has not been shown to be an effective alternative for sanitizer or disinfectants." Sooo... maybe? P.S. Thanks for becoming a recent member! Let me know if you have any other questions I can help you with.
I've been doing 2Tbsp per gallon for 4 hours for added security, with no noticeable effects for a while now. I got mine as soil acdifier in a large bag.
Great! Thanks for the tips. I've been dealing with pest snails for 2 years. I'll be emptying & throwing out everything in my tanks & starting over. But, next time, I will treat my plants before planting them.
I have a friend who has been dealing with trumpet snails for a long time now and even after we cleaned the tank out and boiled the gravel he still has them so weâre thinking about getting some Assassin snailsto deal with them so maybe that worth a try for you as well
Hello Irene, Would you please let me know if this method works for floating plants like Amazon Frogbit or Red Root Floater by just leaving them floating or I have to submerge them completely for 4 hours? Thank you
Thanks for this video. I'm moving some plants from my community tank, which has a lot of Bladder and Trumpet snails, into a newly cycled 36 gal soon to be shrimp tank. I'll be testing this 4 hr Alum recipe on some Water Wisteria trimmings, some rooted Corkscrew Vallisneria, and some rooted Bacopa Caroliniana. Now that I know how long it takes to get rid of the snails and their eggs, I'll post an update later and let you know how the plants fared. Thanks for making learning this hobby fun!
For 2 weeks now, I have been killing bladder snails. Just picking them out. I have found if I crush them, the fish love them and eat them right up. Wish they would eat them live. Thanks for your great videos. Love them.
Hi I had a million MTS that took over a 20 long. I removed all plants because they were overrun with the snails đ đ€Ł. I Removed any fish left too. Ok the recipe I used in the tank was 1 alum tin and straight Epsom salt đ§. This turned the whole tank water white but it did settle down, any crawling snails on the glass dropped down. I left tank alone for a week. Now those MTS were dead! So I started all over and am following your alum test for my new plants, I'm crossing my fingers that I don't see any of those đ in my cycling planted tank. No fish for awhile.
Hi! I really appreciate your videos! Have you used alum dips on anubias with success? I used your older alum recipe (didnât see this update video at the time. Lol) on a batch of plants and my anubias ended up rotting. The others did great! (Including subwassertang) Iâm not sure what caused it and was curious of your experience. Thank you for making such awesome educational videos!
Thank You so much for this. I was stressing over this. my tank was infested with snails. this will hopefully be the answer to save all my plants.đđŸ
Iâm glad to see this update. You actually helped me with your past videos. I would soak plants in alum. But after a while, Iâd just soak them in more concentration for a few hours (similar to this updated video) and it did the trick. I do that for any new plants I get now. Trumpets snails donât bother me too much so Iâm okay with them.
Thanks! I just picked up some different floaters and I'm now floating it for 4 hours. I do Wonder though with floating plants can the snail sometimes just hit your right on top of the plant will it work on them but we're giving it a try. I already have a pest nails in my tank but I'm sitting up a second tank and I'm trying to treat everything before I move it over and every new plant I buy from another hobbyist or store
Fortunately, Malaysian Trumpet Snails are the least "invasive" in my experience. They're actually helpful in controlled numbers as they dig and help aerate the substrate, kinda like earthworms for terrestrial plants. PS: I'm kind of a snail lover though. My red cherry shrimp breeding tank has a host of bladder snails...
My Malaysian trumpet snails grew too big for my betta fish tank had to talk them out idk y they grew so big I don't even think they are supposed to grow that big I out them in my guppy tank and they grew even bigger so I just put them in my pond their living there now.The snails were at a stage that they would that big bites of the plants and it didnt lool nice so
I agree with you on this but when you start to get 300+ in a 40gl. tank, it's time to do something. I took everything out of my tank, bleached it for 3 weeks then cleaned it out and reset the tank. A week later it still had over 50 snails in it.
Another great vid! How can I 'sterilise' my filter media from my well established tank so I can use some of it to kick start my new tank set up? Thanks âșïžđ±
Irene, please PLEASE help me get rid of MTS snails!!! I canât suck them up without sucking up my eco-complete, they wonât get on a veggie to be pulled out. I COMBED over my plants for my new tank and ONE accidentally got in and itâs 1000 now!!!! PLease if you find anyway to get rid of them, please help!!! IF I do an ALUM dip on new plants, will the MTS at least FALL OFF so they donât get into the tank? THANK YOU!!!!! LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!!
The most natural way to get rid of snails is getting a pair of Badis Badis (Blue Perch). They will eat the eggs and baby snails, probably not good in a shrimp tank though. Keep up the good work, Irene.
What do you do with you currently established tank where it's too late to pretreat plants? My current plan is to buy a new tank and start over with new substrate and new plants.
Hey miss, I was wondering if you could tell me why my sponge filter makes bubbles at the top of the aquarium, they arenât that big, but Iâm worried I did something wrong. It has an air stone and a check valve and the tank is ten gallons and is for a betta
Hmm, it should make bubbles normally, but they usually pop quickly and don't stick around very long. Here's a video I made on bubbles in aquariums: czcams.com/video/CtvklyqUHZY/video.html
I tried your recipe for 24 hours on Vals. They melted away almost entirely. I trimmed most of the leaves since they were dying. Planted them, gave them light, fertilizer and flourish excel taking extreme care of dosing. Two weeks later, theyâre all coming back to life. So donât panic if plants melt away a bit, theyâll be fine.
Awesome!! My first time using plants, and I ended up with rams horns....got a dwarf pea puffer for that...just ordered more plants...alum it is!! Thank you đ«đ
Hi Irene, can you tell me how snails get into oneâs aquarium..I spotted a small trumpet one,,and netted it out..is it because of over feeding ? ps: I donât have live plants đ±in my tank
I love your videos. I am deaf and use American Sign Language as mode of communication. Your videos are fanastic and very clear in many of them. I have seen the experiment and that made me to go ahead and do alum dye then I saw this video and I was like great, more info! But... no english subtitles. Can you please fix it? Again, I love your videos.
Will do! I've been trying to add closed captions on all of my recent videos but I should go back and add them for the ones that are missing them. Thanks for the reminder!
The english CC is messed up and not at all corresponding to what you are saying. Quite comical, lol. Thanks for sharing your study. I always refrained from doing the bleech dip. I normally just put plants in a bucket and slowly pluck the pests away for a week before planting. Will definitely give this a try
I wonder if this works for scuds. Unfortunately my new shrimp tank turned into an invasive species tank. Bladder snail and scuds hitchhiking on floating plants not from coop. Grrrr.
Omg I love all your videos I did a wee binge a while back and watched stuff not even related to the stuff going on in my tank lol keep up the amazing video
I have a question, I've used this dip and it works amazingly! Thank you so so much :-) but my question is, would this work with getting plants from a nearby pond? Like would it kill things like flukes and other types of bad parasites?
Okay a number of people have been posting about algae blooms of both hair algae and single cell cyanobacteria.. Ken Allen be used to kill off this stuff. The question is obviously going to require the removal of fish and plants but if you didn't want to nuke a tank the alum seems like a irrational approach I guess you could also run a UV light in a filter tray to kill off the free floating algaes Love to hear what your thoughts are maybe it would warrant a video I do love it when you go into details and do experiments
Question- what do I do about the hitchhikers that already made it into my tank (and are breeding like rabbits), how do I get rid of them without harming the fish and plants in the tank?
Im fine with snails BUT. Malaysian trumpet snails always end up in my HOB filter. Sometimes my filter blades will keep hitting their shells making a crap ton of noise. Im seriously impressed and annoyed that they survived your experiment... I would've loved my MTS otherwise.
Both excellent and bad timing. Lost some plants last go... The dip was too long. However just got in a shipment of plants today from the Co-op and I was going to just put them into a QT tank, but I'm going to give this a go. Thanks!!!
I wonder how this might work 'in situ'. I have a heavily planted tank with loads of bladder snails. I would not be willing to poison any fish but what would happen if you remove all the fish from the tank then add alum at the rate of a tablespoon per gallon, leave it for 4 hours then do a couple of 100% water changes before returning the fish. Based on your experiment all of the snails and eggs should perish. My tank is 100 gallons so it would be fairly expensive to buy that amount of alum but if I could rid the tank of all the snails it would be a price worth paying to get rid of every snail without even having to move any plants, driftwood, rocks etc. I wonder if the alum would have any effect on the bacteria in the filter?
Exactly my question. I would have to do a complete tank breakdown/ disassemble if I have to remove all my plants. I was wondering if anyone ever responded to you or if you have successfully found something that worked. Thanks
@@tracys.6033 Crikey, I'd forgotten all about this it's so long ago. No, sadly I never did get a response so I still don't know the answer. On the positive side, over a period of a couple of months the snail population decreased and eventually they all disappeared. I have absolutely no idea why this happened, it was not anything I did as far as I know. I cannot explain it. I am still snail-free and have been for several months.
@@andystokes8702 thanks for responding Andy. I appreciate it. I will cross my fingers that my snails do a disappearing act like yours did! I did read an article that said instead of trying to catch/pick off aquarium walls to remove them you can just squish them. After that several fish species will then eat them. Worth a try! Thanks again.
@@tracys.6033 You may have a point there. I did end up squishing them against the glass because I just couldn't keep up with manual removal so maybe the fish did develop a taste for them, makes sense. I did buy a snail trap but that turned out to be fairly useless because it caught my cories quicker than it caught snails.
Will just wiping down my accessories be ok to move to new tank ? I have I think pond snails and their eggs and shifting my betta to a new tank and do NOT want them to follow
It's worked so far on the sensitive plants I've tried so far, but I haven't treated hydrocotyle tripartita yet. It might be worth dipping some of the stems and then see how they do. Let me know what you find out!
*If you missed my previous plant dip experiments using bleach, hydrogen peroxide, copper, salt, potassium permanganate, and alum, check out the series here: **czcams.com/play/PLlBBJ7xBuquZxhVUA-7BVFx3WxG3dqTJr.html*
I tried the hydrogen peroxide on a bag of frogbit. It worked on the snails, but the frogbit struggled a bit. Iâll try the next time.
I wonder how I would do this with Giant duckweed
Can I use this alum method to get rid of damselfly eggs and nymphs?
Thank you for experimenting with this and sharing your results! I decided to do some testing based on your recommendations, but with another pest: leeches. I had an "extras" aquarium that I used exclusively for plants I'd pick up but didn't have an immediate use for. Since it was already basically a quarantine tank I never bothered to treat the plants, (wrongly) thinking the worst I'd get were some "boring" pests like snails or planaria. Never did I expect leeches, but now I know better. Using 1 TBSP of alum per gallon of water, it took between 5-6 hours for the leeches to be completely lifeless. I also had some scuds/gammarus in another tank I figured I'd test too, and found that they are extremely hardy. They were still alive (but looking rough) at 8 hours in so I left them over night. Total of about 16 hours. They were indeed dead by the morning, but I'm not sure exactly how long it took after 8 hours since I wasn't monitoring.
You missed your calling, Irene; you would have made a great biologist! I love your experiments; always well thought out and variables well controlled.
Little known fact: I was really into science fair projects as a kid. I'm a lot more passionate about my experiments as an adult though. đ
@@GirlTalksFish These experiments would make great science fair projects! :)
@@michaelfox6820 but the teachers don't allow to cause any sort of harm to a living thing but they make exceptions for plants obv
I have always struggled with snails in my aquarium for almost 2 years now. Thank you very much for your hard workđđ.
My pleasure! Hope you find it useful in the future. đ
My mental state irritated by 2 month non priority out door pond snail over growth...
This is the best video! I had a planaria break out that wiped out shrimp. Now I use alum on all my plants! You have saved my fish room!! Some of the plants donât do well like Hornwort, but it bounces back after a month or so, it goes from a string to sprouting needles. I would say before throwing a plant away, give it some tlc and time and youâd be surprised what can survive! I always use the 1:1 ratio, it works so well. Thank you!
Thanks Irene for the updated video of the alum dip.. just got new plants in today they are socking now ..the alum dip and quarantine 3-4 weeks helps me .. with my plants so far .. i have Netrite snails đ and enjoy them love feeding them vegetables.. but i hate when the snails get out of control.. if i put in 6-10 snails i want only 6-10 of .. them not wake up to hundreds
Thanks to you my tank is snail free. Everytime I get new plants I leave them in alum for a few days and quarantine them for a few more days in new fresh water to make sure they are snail free.
Yay, I'm so glad it's been working out for you!
@@GirlTalksFish It's all thanks to you. I love you videos and I always look forward to them.
Does the alum get rid of parasites too and things like algae?
To anyone about to try this: either go more than four hours or double the alum.
My 15g has pest snails. I love them and thatâs their home. But my rotala is growing like crazy and we wanted to put some in our new tanks. I DID 4 HOURS WITH THESE MEASUREMENTS. All visible ones died but now Iâm having sneaky sneaks pop up in the new tanks. I donât think it killed all the eggs (I have rams/bladder/pond snails).
I will say there is ZERO damage to the plants which is fantastic đ
Iâm bummed that I have to be on snail watch for a while and airlift all the new snails back to the 15, but I suspect a more concentrated dip will save you all the trouble â€
Ive spent years putting up with snails but i caught them eating fish eggs and now i want all my tanks snail free. This will be very helpful. Awesome work.
Can i know what type of snails eat your fish eggs?
Not going to lie I donât have a problem with snails sometimes I intentionally put more snails in my tank but this helped prevent get rid of some planaria on the plants I bought
Good stuff! I used the peroxide on pretty much all my pants with no issues, except for eloida, in which the peroxide would strip all the leaves away, but the stem did grow out new stems at different joints.
Hello, firstable I think you're a great speaker for all your videos, your voice is very clear, and you explain very well, KUDOS for you!! Now to the question... I believe your tank is a 20 G, now I see at the bottom of it what appear to be a rim, but there is none on the top, there are only this transparent corner holders, did you custom made that? If you did share where you got the clear corenner parts... please, petty please, with a cherry in top lol?
Thank you and keep the videos coming =)
It's a rimless 5 gallon tank that I bought from Petco. đ
Awww. Poor snails, but I can understand how some aquarists view them as a plague in their tanks. I found how much I feed my fish to be the key to keeping snails at a managable level - and the ones that survive never get big, they stay relatively small. I also have fish who love to pick at the snail eggs and babies. Any tank where I have female Endlers, there are virtually no snails. I have ramshorn and MTS, would love to have some bladder snails, but they do not like my water, unfortunately... or maybe they get out-competed by the other snails? Thanks for your content, always interesting and informative!
Nice! I had no idea some fish like to eat snail eggs.
Can't seem to get bladder snails my self lol
@@GirlTalksFish My betta was hunting the babies and eating them. He totally controlled them.
@@mindovermatter2day I didnât realize my betta fish was also controlling my black molly population. The betta died and now I have a population explosion of mollies. I will NEVER own livebearers again! LoL
It's a roundabout method but you can grow newer plants emersed and then plant the newer cuttings in your aquarium. I did this to salvage expensive plants in an aquarium that got infested with cladophora algae.
Awesome video!! When I was setting up my first planted tank I found rams horn snails on a plant and thought " oh snails could be cool." So I dropped them in.đ I still can't get rid of them.
Oh goodness! They are quite beautiful... as long as they're not in my tank. đ
Same Bethany. đ
Great video! I really enjoy your videos. Theyâre always so informative and I appreciate your methodical approach to common aquarium issues. Thanks, Irene!
While your dip videos showed the planaria that happened to be on your plants getting killed off by some solutions like alum, I would love to see a dedicated planaria plant dip video if you get around to it. They are really a thorn in my side! If delicate plants like crypts and floating plants could be included in your experiments that would be great too.
Why isnât this getting more views? This is a highly informative video
Give some snail..in their tank..they will watchđ
Great research. I work in wastewater and this was very interesting. thanks
Did the 4 hour work for guppy grass or is there an update video?
If I use the alum to clean my new plants, will they still be safe to put in a tank that has shrimp?
Hi there. Great experiment and info. I can't be sure but I was treating my tank with Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) (brand Magna Salt) 5 grams/litre for 3 days and noticed all my pest snails died. Can't find Alum in grocery stores in Thailand. Do you think epsom salt works similar to alum to kill snails and their eggs?
I feel like this video was perfectly timed in regards to recent news about Zebra mussels in marmio moss balls. Now only if we can figure out how to eradicate those! Iâm a huge fan of marmio moss balls, so Iâm saddened to see them disappear for the time being :(
I saw that article! That's so crazy that mussels would hitchhike on aquarium plants.
Biggest issue is that many companies are sourcing their Marimo moss balls from lakes in eastern Europe that also have zebra mussels. Rather than paying a little more for them being sourced elsewhere that's zebra mussel free. They are then relying on them being properly treated before they get sent out for sale. Biggest issue here is that any slip up of treatment results in the consumer getting zebra mussels.
Page 15 of this article gives all of the studied ways to kill Zebra Mussels. Of particular interest is "freezing". It lists freezing times at 3 different temperatures to kill 100% of them
2 days right at 0 C/32 F
5-7 hours at -1.5 C/29.3 F
Once youâve done the alum dip, do you still need to quarantine before they go in the tank?
Thanks for this great series! I do have one tank just for Ramshorns(cute little buggers). But getting snail free plants, for my other tanks, from outside sources, is nearly impossible. This will help me get the plants I really want, without having to worry about snails.
Haha, as long as they're not Malaysian trumpet snails. Glad you enjoyed the video!
You can try Flubenol 5%
1 gram dissolve in 100ml water, that will be enough for 500 liters of water, just toss it into your aquarium and thats it.
It kills only snails and worm like. Its 100% safe for plants, shrimps and fish, using an overdoze is not harmful unless you are a snail đ
Its really also cheap about 40 cents a gram.
Its the best and easiest way to get rid of snails.
Hope this helps you
Thank you! I had so much trouble getting rid of bladder snails. The alum method worked perfectly! đ
Thank you so much, I really appreciate how you conducted your experiments on various substances while having a control group and controlling variables. I set my first tank since I was a kid so didn't think to ask about snails. I really think shops should advise customers to treat plants before putting them in the tank!
So i can use alum that is available in local grocery and make solution of it?
Put the plants in a Pea Puffer tank works for me.
I just bought new plants from unknown sellers tonight, so thank you! Last time we had a bladder snail tag along on a plant....took forever to notice it. Until it didn't. It got big, and then it made some friends. A whole castle of Hogwarts. Eventually, my fiance called me Voldemort because I HAD to get rid of them. It was getting ridiculous. I'm so excited for my blue gourami to get a much better planted tank. Wasn't cheap but... he deserves it.
Can the alum be rinsed off the plants to be safe for a shrimp tank?
Hi Irene, I deeply admire your videos. You are doing a great Job and service to many new Aquarist. Thank you very much.
It worked for me no more ramshorn infestation I soaked my tank and decorations for 4 hours cleaned my tank and haven't seen any since!!! Thank you.
Can I perform the alum dip on bulbs such as the Tiger Lotus bulb?
Thank you! You are the best! Saved me so much time and got rid of snail problem, keep up the good work!
I'm planning on doing a reset into a new rimless tank, so this is great.
Also, I loved your nails. Alternating blue - so simple, but really fun to see!
Awesome Video!! This was really helpful to get rid of the snail bomb in my tank đ€Ł I used this on Hornwort and Marino Moss balls. Had a bit of melting on the Hornwort but nothing unmanageable and the moss balls came out fine đđ»
Has anyone successfully done this alum soak on Red tiger lotus bulbs?
i tried it today and it worked really really well! most of them floated, its like theyre getting deprived of moisture. or theyre getting puffed with air idk. 1 hr has lapsed
So i would assume that since this kills snails it would also kill any beneficial bacteria that might be on the plant. I'm starting a new tank and was hoping the beneficial bacteria would help with my cycle. My local pet store sells established plants.
You know, I actually don't know if it's an antibiotic. I found conflicting reports online, but one article did say: "While alum has some antimicrobial and anti fungal properties, it has not been shown to be an effective alternative for sanitizer or disinfectants." Sooo... maybe? P.S. Thanks for becoming a recent member! Let me know if you have any other questions I can help you with.
Ok love that you tested a variety of times, to get your information!
I've been doing 2Tbsp per gallon for 4 hours for added security, with no noticeable effects for a while now. I got mine as soil acdifier in a large bag.
Great! Thanks for the tips. I've been dealing with pest snails for 2 years. I'll be emptying & throwing out everything in my tanks & starting over. But, next time, I will treat my plants before planting them.
I have a friend who has been dealing with trumpet snails for a long time now and even after we cleaned the tank out and boiled the gravel he still has them so weâre thinking about getting some Assassin snailsto deal with them so maybe that worth a try for you as well
Hello Irene,
Would you please let me know if this method works for floating plants like Amazon Frogbit or Red Root Floater by just leaving them floating or I have to submerge them completely for 4 hours?
Thank you
Thanks for this video. I'm moving some plants from my community tank, which has a lot of Bladder and Trumpet snails, into a newly cycled 36 gal soon to be shrimp tank. I'll be testing this 4 hr Alum recipe on some Water Wisteria trimmings, some rooted Corkscrew Vallisneria, and some rooted Bacopa Caroliniana. Now that I know how long it takes to get rid of the snails and their eggs, I'll post an update later and let you know how the plants fared. Thanks for making learning this hobby fun!
Update?
I've only used hydrogen peroxide. I didn't notice it harm my plants and I don't have snails. I may need to try alum. Thanks for the video.
I love your videos, short, but packed with useful information. I hate pest snails, too, so I'm going to try this with my next low-tech planted tank.
Impressive work Irene! Thanks to you now I am using (tomorrow) alum in Echinodorus Rubin, a magnificent specimen from an old shop! Thanks again! đ€
For 2 weeks now, I have been killing bladder snails. Just picking them out. I have found if I crush them, the fish love them and eat them right up. Wish they would eat them live. Thanks for your great videos. Love them.
Hi Irene, quick question about as you said the alum they use it in ponds. So do you happen to know the mix so animals will not be harmed
This is my first time dealing with snails. I heard that fish might also be harboring eggs. In that case, would alum hurt them?
Hi I had a million MTS that took over a 20 long. I removed all plants because they were overrun with the snails đ đ€Ł. I Removed any fish left too.
Ok the recipe I used in the tank was 1 alum tin and straight Epsom salt đ§. This turned the whole tank water white but it did settle down, any crawling snails on the glass dropped down. I left tank alone for a week. Now those MTS were dead! So I started all over and am following your alum test for my new plants, I'm crossing my fingers that I don't see any of those đ in my cycling planted tank. No fish for awhile.
Hi! I really appreciate your videos!
Have you used alum dips on anubias with success?
I used your older alum recipe (didnât see this update video at the time. Lol) on a batch of plants and my anubias ended up rotting. The others did great! (Including subwassertang) Iâm not sure what caused it and was curious of your experience.
Thank you for making such awesome educational videos!
Thank You so much for this. I was stressing over this. my tank was infested with snails. this will hopefully be the answer to save all my plants.đđŸ
Iâm glad to see this update. You actually helped me with your past videos. I would soak plants in alum. But after a while, Iâd just soak them in more concentration for a few hours (similar to this updated video) and it did the trick. I do that for any new plants I get now. Trumpets snails donât bother me too much so Iâm okay with them.
Thanks! I just picked up some different floaters and I'm now floating it for 4 hours. I do Wonder though with floating plants can the snail sometimes just hit your right on top of the plant will it work on them but we're giving it a try. I already have a pest nails in my tank but I'm sitting up a second tank and I'm trying to treat everything before I move it over and every new plant I buy from another hobbyist or store
I have this white small snails in my tank.I don't know what do you call it but it's multiplying.
Fortunately, Malaysian Trumpet Snails are the least "invasive" in my experience. They're actually helpful in controlled numbers as they dig and help aerate the substrate, kinda like earthworms for terrestrial plants.
PS: I'm kind of a snail lover though. My red cherry shrimp breeding tank has a host of bladder snails...
My Malaysian trumpet snails grew too big for my betta fish tank had to talk them out idk y they grew so big I don't even think they are supposed to grow that big I out them in my guppy tank and they grew even bigger so I just put them in my pond their living there now.The snails were at a stage that they would that big bites of the plants and it didnt lool nice so
I agree with you on this but when you start to get 300+ in a 40gl. tank, it's time to do something. I took everything out of my tank, bleached it for 3 weeks then cleaned it out and reset the tank. A week later it still had over 50 snails in it.
@@jwilkins939 just get a few assassin snails
Pea puffers will be the best solution, IMO
Yesss! If the snails were already in my tank, I would definitely use a more natural solution like snail-eating animals. Plus they're so cute. đ
@@GirlTalksFish agreed!
This event was known as âThe Great Snail Massacreâ
Irene, Thanks so much for this. I am trying this right now. Wish me luck! đ
im really glad you took the time to do all these experiments. thank you very much
Another great vid! How can I 'sterilise' my filter media from my well established tank so I can use some of it to kick start my new tank set up? Thanks âșïžđ±
Irene, please PLEASE help me get rid of MTS snails!!! I canât suck them up without sucking up my eco-complete, they wonât get on a veggie to be pulled out. I COMBED over my plants for my new tank and ONE accidentally got in and itâs 1000 now!!!! PLease if you find anyway to get rid of them, please help!!! IF I do an ALUM dip on new plants, will the MTS at least FALL OFF so they donât get into the tank? THANK YOU!!!!! LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!!
This is perfect! I am getting plants for my new tank and was worried about plants dying more than the snails w/ the old recipe. Thank you!!!
The most natural way to get rid of snails is getting a pair of Badis Badis (Blue Perch). They will eat the eggs and baby snails, probably not good in a shrimp tank though. Keep up the good work, Irene.
What do you do with you currently established tank where it's too late to pretreat plants?
My current plan is to buy a new tank and start over with new substrate and new plants.
Hey miss, I was wondering if you could tell me why my sponge filter makes bubbles at the top of the aquarium, they arenât that big, but Iâm worried I did something wrong. It has an air stone and a check valve and the tank is ten gallons and is for a betta
Itâs also creating condemnation
And I have a heater yoo
Hmm, it should make bubbles normally, but they usually pop quickly and don't stick around very long. Here's a video I made on bubbles in aquariums: czcams.com/video/CtvklyqUHZY/video.html
I tried your recipe for 24 hours on Vals. They melted away almost entirely. I trimmed most of the leaves since they were dying. Planted them, gave them light, fertilizer and flourish excel taking extreme care of dosing. Two weeks later, theyâre all coming back to life. So donât panic if plants melt away a bit, theyâll be fine.
Awesome!! My first time using plants, and I ended up with rams horns....got a dwarf pea puffer for that...just ordered more plants...alum it is!! Thank you đ«đ
Thank you for this, seriously, youâre awesome!!!
I love your experiments very focused and on point just what I needed as I go buy some plants from my local store
Hi Irene, can you tell me how snails get into oneâs aquarium..I spotted a small trumpet one,,and netted it out..is it because of over feeding ? ps: I donât have live plants đ±in my tank
I always love to watch your videos, very informative
I love your videos. I am deaf and use American Sign Language as mode of communication. Your videos are fanastic and very clear in many of them. I have seen the experiment and that made me to go ahead and do alum dye then I saw this video and I was like great, more info! But... no english subtitles. Can you please fix it? Again, I love your videos.
Will do! I've been trying to add closed captions on all of my recent videos but I should go back and add them for the ones that are missing them. Thanks for the reminder!
The english CC is messed up and not at all corresponding to what you are saying. Quite comical, lol. Thanks for sharing your study. I always refrained from doing the bleech dip. I normally just put plants in a bucket and slowly pluck the pests away for a week before planting. Will definitely give this a try
I wonder if this works for scuds. Unfortunately my new shrimp tank turned into an invasive species tank. Bladder snail and scuds hitchhiking on floating plants not from coop. Grrrr.
Mam Irene please just continue infos for aquarist like and others... great work info about all infos from you.
Thanks Irene love your videos.
Omg I love all your videos I did a wee binge a while back and watched stuff not even related to the stuff going on in my tank lol keep up the amazing video
I'm so glad you like my vids! Thanks for watching and lemme know if there are any topics you'd like to see in the future.
Thanks for this!
If I don't have any animals in my 10g planted tank I wonder if I could use this in the tank and then do a full water change?
I have a question, I've used this dip and it works amazingly! Thank you so so much :-) but my question is, would this work with getting plants from a nearby pond? Like would it kill things like flukes and other types of bad parasites?
Nice video â€ïžđ
Do you dechlorinate the water for the alum bath?
Okay a number of people have been posting about algae blooms of both hair algae and single cell cyanobacteria.. Ken Allen be used to kill off this stuff. The question is obviously going to require the removal of fish and plants but if you didn't want to nuke a tank the alum seems like a irrational approach
I guess you could also run a UV light in a filter tray to kill off the free floating algaes
Love to hear what your thoughts are maybe it would warrant a video I do love it when you go into details and do experiments
did you try alum in aquarium with fish and plants
Yes yes yes! Thank you Irene for making this video! Iâve been struggling to get rid of my snail infestation, Iâll definitely be trying this out .
Yay, hope it works out for you!
Thank you soo much... For this experimental video ...
Micro sword really hated alum dipped, for me. Wondering what you thought. But I use it on everything else.
Question- what do I do about the hitchhikers that already made it into my tank (and are breeding like rabbits), how do I get rid of them without harming the fish and plants in the tank?
Im fine with snails BUT. Malaysian trumpet snails always end up in my HOB filter. Sometimes my filter blades will keep hitting their shells making a crap ton of noise. Im seriously impressed and annoyed that they survived your experiment...
I would've loved my MTS otherwise.
Both excellent and bad timing. Lost some plants last go... The dip was too long. However just got in a shipment of plants today from the Co-op and I was going to just put them into a QT tank, but I'm going to give this a go. Thanks!!!
Good luck! I hope it works out well for you.
What do you for the snails living in the aquarium?
Hmm, I would try less fish food in the tank, manual removal, diy snail traps, snail-eating animals, etc.
What are choices for natural feeders of snails
@@smokeyb1669 loaches with pointy snouts, puffers, assassin snails, certain larger cichlids đ
Thank you Irene I'll look for a Coop video on assassin snails. Always enjoy your presentations!
I wonder how this might work 'in situ'. I have a heavily planted tank with loads of bladder snails. I would not be willing to poison any fish but what would happen if you remove all the fish from the tank then add alum at the rate of a tablespoon per gallon, leave it for 4 hours then do a couple of 100% water changes before returning the fish. Based on your experiment all of the snails and eggs should perish. My tank is 100 gallons so it would be fairly expensive to buy that amount of alum but if I could rid the tank of all the snails it would be a price worth paying to get rid of every snail without even having to move any plants, driftwood, rocks etc. I wonder if the alum would have any effect on the bacteria in the filter?
Exactly my question. I would have to do a complete tank breakdown/ disassemble if I have to remove all my plants. I was wondering if anyone ever responded to you or if you have successfully found something that worked. Thanks
@@tracys.6033 Crikey, I'd forgotten all about this it's so long ago. No, sadly I never did get a response so I still don't know the answer. On the positive side, over a period of a couple of months the snail population decreased and eventually they all disappeared. I have absolutely no idea why this happened, it was not anything I did as far as I know. I cannot explain it. I am still snail-free and have been for several months.
@@andystokes8702 thanks for responding Andy. I appreciate it. I will cross my fingers that my snails do a disappearing act like yours did! I did read an article that said instead of trying to catch/pick off aquarium walls to remove them you can just squish them. After that several fish species will then eat them. Worth a try! Thanks again.
@@tracys.6033 You may have a point there. I did end up squishing them against the glass because I just couldn't keep up with manual removal so maybe the fish did develop a taste for them, makes sense. I did buy a snail trap but that turned out to be fairly useless because it caught my cories quicker than it caught snails.
I've seen MTS go up glass, but never on plants. Even so just pick off cuz no eggs.đđđ«
Will just wiping down my accessories be ok to move to new tank ? I have I think pond snails and their eggs and shifting my betta to a new tank and do NOT want them to follow
Best videos on YT for clearing snails,i would use assassin snails for trumpets and alum for the rest.
I'm planning on using your alum method on hydrocotyle tripartita, will it be fine for the 4 hours in alum, is it considered sensitive?
It's worked so far on the sensitive plants I've tried so far, but I haven't treated hydrocotyle tripartita yet. It might be worth dipping some of the stems and then see how they do. Let me know what you find out!
@FNCSP How did yours turn out? I just ordered some hydrocotyle tripartita and Iâm a little worried about dipping them.
@@klanamua339 i decided not to dip them, i just swirled them in a bucket of tank water to remove snails
You are The snail assassin ! â ïž lol. I hate pest snails too. Good experiment
Kekeke, they never see me coming... â ïž
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