*What method do you use to get rid of unwanted hitchhikers on your aquarium plants?* Comment below to share your experiences, and subscribe if you want to see more this videos like this! goo.gl/4q2idY
I know this is not very creative, but I got a school of angelicus loach and they rid my entire tank of snails very quickly. As an added bonus, they're super cool fish to have.
Typically I do the 25% to 33% with hydrogen peroxide. When I have done about 50%, I have ended doing significant damage to plants. Plants that particular did not respond well to hydrogen peroxide at stronger dosages have been dwarf hair grass, dwarf sag, frogbits, red leaf floaters, and s. repens. Plants that have seemed to do fine at stronger dosages have included amazon swords and anubias (but not anubias nana barteri).
@Charles Pressler 1,000,000 pond snails are an absolute nightmare, and then they start leaving empty shells everywhere as they die. I can't stand them.
Irene, I tried the 50% hydrogen peroxide dip for 10 min on new to me water sprite and crypt lutea. It was scary because there was so much bubble action at the roots and it sounded like frying bacon but I planted both right after. It has been a week and the water sprite browned on the existing stems and has put out one brand new stem and the crypt has melted back some but is also putting out new leaves, so i would say a success on that recipe!
Try watering your plants with some hydrogen peroxide. It will kill any fungus near the surface, any bugs you may have and the byproducts will be pure water and oxygen to your plant's roots which they will love. Just go easy.
I personally like keeping snails in my tank, but I watched anyway cuz you're one of my fave fishtubers! ☺️ Thank you for always sharing your experiments and experiences!
This was great!!! I'm one of those anti-snail people out there. In three trips collecting wild fish in Peru I only found them in one location. Also, though I haven't proven it, I believe they create more waste than they supposedly clean up. I always try to clean (pronounced "kill") all the snails and eggs on any plants before adding them to my tanks. I've tried all of these methods except for the Hydrogen Peroxide, I'll give it a go next time. Nice video!
have been using Alum on my new plants since you highly recommend it. I do not see any snail after 1 day treatment the last time round. I am dosing the same today as i got new plants again. I usually will dose Seachem Paraguard after the water change just to be sure to get rid the parasite and some hidden threat. It works for me so far.
I "had" a problem with common pond snails in my tank but once I put some paradise fish in there they obliterated them . Never knew they liked snails so much till I saw it myself .
Hi Irene, I have tried all with varying success/failure. Bleach=1:19 ratio, very successful-also the most harm to plants PP=till it turned super dark pink=the coolest experiment by far but also the least effective-WEAR GLOVES! Salt=varyiing ratio=50% effective depending concentration and contact time=harmful to plants Alum=1tsp/gal=very boring @ 3 days but the most effective/least damage to plant Peroxide-you have to use a lot=effective and slightly harmful to plants=very cool bubbles Copper-effective for adult snails, no noticeable damage to plants, still got baby snails after 1 month. In conclusion: Alum is a winner, needs lots of patience. Thanks for your experiments, definitely one of my inspiration on my own experiment with plant snail control at home.
I've done some wild collecting, so in that case sterilization and quarantine are pretty important. Most sterilization techniques carry a lot of risk to your plants, and like you're showing, not always even effective. Quarantine is honestly your best best, get set up for it with a small plant light, try to keep the lighting at a lower intensity, and consider adding some ferts. Use a bigger tub that creates some space, like you had here. And then use baits, for snails boiled veggies work good. Remove all snails with baits, and throw it a couple more times to be sure. Wait three weeks for eggs to hatch out, and then repeat. Most snails take at least several weeks to begin reproducing, so that's a good cushion. However, on one wild sample I was very surprised to have snail eggs that took 4 months to hatch out, they just appeared out of nowhere, but these were a wild species from a temperate region. I would try some meaty baits for planaria too, hoo boy planaria are way worse than snails in my book. Try fish food baits, and possibly raw chicken or shrimp meat. I utilized a similar philosophy to the thinking behind tissue culture techniques, you want to use the smallest possible starter if you have a species that's easy to propagate and lends itself to using a very small cutting. Also, when you quarantine, set up to get some growth, and take your starter from brand new growth, that eliminates the possibility of weird micro eggs being attached to it. Make sure to check it sometimes at night, because planaria are very good at staying hidden when there's light. I use peroxide to sterilize for algae. People always say that algae spores are just inherrant to an aquarium, but they don't always come from the air, you introduce them like any other pest. I haven't tried it, but if you're talking snails, I've heard an older copper penny can be used in the same way as alum
Just watched both experiment videos and it earned a sub. Such clear results and easily understood. I I'm currently working on making a moss and plant display tank and want to pull things in my aquarium to put in it but don't want the snails. I'll be giving this a try for sure. I'm also working on building a new paladarium instead of aquarium I'm going to need to treat every plant decor item in my big tank. I'll have to remove all of my fish and shrimp before I do it.
I used alum yesterday to disinfect my plants. Within about 5 hours I hadn't seen any bugs, so I wanted to rinse the plants and place in the tank. #sooooexcited As I started to drain, I found some type of worm thing (dead). Figured I better follow your 2 day advisory 🙈 I'm still excited, just less impatient now. Lol
Potassium Pomegranate???? Sis.... No..... Just no..... Thank you for sacrificing a full cup of aquarium salt for us though. Will definitely look into alum & H2O2 options. Quality content, as always...
@@jfy1 nothing i think they are just skeptical because of the staining and the warning signs on the bottle. ppl use it to clear up bacterial blooms as to klls bacteria and fungus and you can find it in liquid form in Jungle Clear Water
Will this work on soft plants like monte carlo and pogostemon helferi ? I'd really like you to do an experinment especially on monte carlo and hydrogen peroxide
If I can't get tissue culture plants, I use the alum method. So far, it works for me, too. I learned about it from your first video experiment. 👍 If I see adult snails I can save, I put them in my snail tank because I feel bad killing them. But I use the alum soak in case there are eggs. Perhaps, eventually, I'll just accept the snails. 🥰
Esha’s Gastropex kills everything in 1 month. You use it for 3 days. Then you wait for a week. Another 3 days for the next snails to hatch. Then again wait for a week. Then 3 days use. And all snails are gone. You don’t need to change your water changing routine. Just remove the nerites and all snails that you want to keep beforehand. Also, it doesn’t kill my shrimps.
I’m very new to the fish tank life. I got a beta fish for my daughter almost two years ago and I decided to buy some live plants and a snail (because I didn’t want to get the dog or the cat my daughter was asking). I didn’t quarantine the plants, I had no idea I needed to do so, and I just found 4 baby snails. I just wanted one snail! I luckily have another tank coming in so I can prepare that one for the beta and clean the snail tank. Thanks for the information. I’m definitely going to try alum!
This has been a very interesting series; I hope you keep up your experiments. I've been using the bleach method found on one of Life With Pets older videos. Mixed results, but I just hate introducing pest snails to a "clean" tank.
Love your scientific approach to aquarium keeping. By the way potassium permanganate is available at hardware stores in powdered form as it is used in many well-water treatment systems. I also don't recommend it because it is a strong oxidizer which stains everything.
I think what I've learnt from this series is that quarantining the plants in a bucket is worthwhile, no matter what method you use. Much easier than quarantining fish too.. Those creepy swimming parasites are good motivation!
I actually take great care to preserve my snails. After a water change I check the water I removed carefully for any snails so I can put the back in the tank.
I had a bladder snail outbreak in my ADA 60-p and decided to use chemical treatment along with everything in this tutorial. I had a sense of victory for a few weeks thinking I was snail free, till I saw a baby bladder snail zooming around. At that point I knew I was back to square one. I rebooted the entire tank and didn't reuse any plants, substrate and equipment. I ended using only tissue cultures and 1 year in no snails (except for my nerite snails). Hope it stays that way.
That nano tank actually died from overgrowth so still not bad the very end I changed water and clipped 50% of tank worth of green out I guess the volume was too much in too little water. Plants are crazy aswell I'm going for big leafs not long stemmed plants this time. THEY TAKE OVER!
Jungle Clear Water is a liquid potassium permanganate that is sold at Walmart in the aquarium section, it isn't illegal. Have you tried carbonated water? It's like a cO2 blast and it's pretty safe. Just make sure it's water only without any flavor or sugars
Until now, I’ve tried using both hydrogen peroxide and salt. I think it works only because, the only one time I didn’t, I found snails in my Java moss and they got into my tank. Only problem though, it kills Java moss. At first, after treating most of my plants, most survived but the moss always turned brown. Didn’t know why at first, but now I know it was either the salt or hydrogen peroxide. I’m thinking it was probably the salt. So I’m going to try the alum on my next plant purchase. I always appreciate your videos!
Just did a 50% hydrogen peroxide dip for my plants after moving 9 hours and it worked wonders on the snail infestation but after a day or so replanted in the tank, they've all melted 😩 I'm hoping they'll make a recovery but I'm investigating online tissue culture plants
potassium permanganate is used to disinfect wounds. Growing up my mother would always use to on my scratches etc so the way you're acting as if it's gonna melt your skin is truly hilarious :P Anyway i use this product to treat root rot but mainly when i root my cutting in water again it helps prevent rot it has also saved my phalaenopsis orchid when nothing else worked and finally i also use it as a foliar fertilizer
I wish I'd known this before my recent plant purchase. 12 hours after the plants went in the tank there were babies everywhere. Eggs weren't even visible. Now I have snails, and I never did before. I'm still hunting them down as fast as I can, hoping to get them all before they make more.
Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that! Prime Time Aquatics did a great video on how to get rid of snails after they're already in your aquarium: czcams.com/video/2OGKjSH6fRw/video.html
This is a bit late but... That'll never work, the same thing happened to me and I only managed to get rid of them once I got a new tank and I didnt transfer ANYTHING from the old tank( except the fish and my 1 neritw snail)
If you did leave java fern for a month in stagnant water, it was more like a lack of circulation than the H2O2 that killed the plant. George Farmer himself told me that Microsorum needs current. Have you tried sparkling water? Completely harmless for plants, but pests can't tolerate it (allegedly).
Interesting! The other java fern did fine, so maybe they're okay for just a month without circulation. I could see sparkling water getting rid of the adult snails, but maybe not the snail eggs. It would be fun to test it if I ever do a round 3 of experiments.
Hi there! Love the videos! You had a video on your old channel where talked about feeding African dwarf frogs. I can't find it on your new channel..do you still have it?
I love potassium permanganate. Aside from breathing it in it’s really not that bad. For anyone with a pool you already know not to inhale dry chemicals. You don’t need to worry about fire unless you know how to use it to make a fire. In most places it is somewhat difficult to find because it is a great oxidizer. But no more difficult then a high percentage hydrogen peroxide. Which believe it or not, has a higher oxidation rating then PP. As far as the staining goes, just allow it to clear over time, or use H2O2 to speed up the oxidation. It was the only thing I was able to find to clear my Dempsey stud from a nasty columnaris outbreak.
Potassium permanganate is a strong oxidising agent and potential component for explosives. That's why the authorities are so touchy about it It's not an explosive !
I had a mix of 150ml of h2o2 per 5 gallons of water and it took 14 days before it stopped killing snail. The container is exposed to a south west window.
Hi Thank you for sharing information. Excellent advice. 👍👍👍👍👍 Can i use alum with guppy grass? You mentioned that your guppy grass died. Is this result of 3 days Alum soak method?
Potassium Permanganate is a strong oxidizer (although not as strong as say bleach), so it'll react with enthusiasm with easily-oxidized materials. So, keep it away from charcoal, for example. Anyway, when it does it's oxidizing thing, it forms Manganese Dioxide, which is a brownish-black substance. That, being an oxide, can probably be cleaned away with vinegar and a toothbrush. It's main effect on your skin is to turn it purplish-pink to brownish black as it does it's oxidizing thing.
How would one treat something like a red root floater before putting them in an established tank??? Also, will the h202 kill other things like parasites that could potentially harm your fish??
I'm only asking because youd have to dip the roots with something like the red root floaters to rid them of anything you potentially wouldnt want hitch hiking to your tank.
This is slightly off topic. My recipe is solely for eliminating black hair algae (and lesser algae), and not for killing snails (although it may, or may not). I place my plants in a ziplock bag and use 3% hydrogen peroxide, full strength. I only use enough that will cover the plant entirely when all the excess air is squeezed from the bag. I seal the bag and continually turn it back and forth making sure to cover all parts of the plant. I soak for a total of 3 minutes, then drain the bag and fill with tap water for about 30 seconds. I dump the tap water and fill it a second time, and then dump it again. The plants go right back into the tank then. Since it's peroxide, no need for any dechlorinating drops. Over the next day or two, the black hair algae will turn bright pink as it dies. My guppies and Mystery snails happily eat it, and whatever is not eaten just dissolves. After 3 or 4 days it's all gone. I've tried this with Java Fern (Windelov), and never have any problems. It's hit or miss with Water Sprite. The Sprite will SOMETIMES melt a few days after treatment, so I limit the bath to no more than 2 minutes with good results. I've not tried it on my Susswassertang or Dwarf Salvinia, as they typically don't get algae on them .
As a retired chemistry teacher I can say that potassium permanganate will ignite if mixed with certain other chemicals. Glycerine is a good example. Have you tried copper sulfate? It’s toxic to invertebrates but nowhere near as hazardous as potassium permanganate. It will however turn the water blue.
Fritz ammonium chloride for fish-less tank cycling. Add enough to bring ammonium levels to 3-5ppm. Be sure the plants get adequate light. The very thing that makes life inhospitable to animals is a boon for many plants. Ammonium can be your friend.
Potassium permanganate, from what I’ve found, works good with snails however you need to have a deep purple solution. I feel like the pink is too dilute. It is a medical disinfectant, it won’t kill you but it does stain lol. I haven’t tried it on my parasites but I’m assuming it would kill them off too. Just don’t dip roots
I also have orchids and so it is recommended to use hydrogen peroxide on new arrival orchids to off the snails and their eggs I am assuming. I wash my new plants and spray them with HP so I'm hoping it continues to help rid of snails. I don't like them myself. I do have aquarium salt around so this video is a help for ideas to help out ..... snails and other creepies. HEEBIE JEEBIES
Hello fish girl -- I am very impressed with your approach. Scientific method! Who knew. Much of what's on youtube is anecdotal. It's a general thing in this country [US]. People don't know about or care about evidence-based approach. Did they never learn about the scientific method in school? Thanks!
So one question. You say to rinse the plant in freshwater after the hydrogen peroxide dips. Is this freshwater from the aquarium or straight out of the tap?
Nice video, I made a channel to show you can make small planted aquariums out of glass bottles and I keep a few shrimp and snails in a glass drinks dispenser! My two latest videos on my channel shows the aquariums with commentary with one showing three shrimp fighting over an algae wafer!
i have an 800 gallon outdoor pond and i got water poppies for it. all of a sudden i now have basically hundreds of snails. there was nothing in the pond prior. the pond doesnt have any fish in it. how do i get rid of these things its insane
This was my problem, got lots of nasties off bought plants on my last lil tank. although it was running for a few year and breeding. Over filtration goes a long way. I also invented telling water thickness by looking at bubble size which blows most pros/shopkeepers minds lol
I don’t mind snails, but I had a tank infested with mts and pond and ramshorn snails. Added six baby zebra loaches - no visible snails after two days... and very fat loaches! After a few months, I moved the loaches. Several months later I have ramshorn snails, but no mts or pond snails.
About BBA and H2O2 this method works like charm actually. If there was bubble H2O2 started to react with BBA, if you would wait with this BBA for 1-2 days it would change color to red and next day to transparent / white. Maybe this is a good topic for next video? ;) For sure there would be someone that can share BBA ;)
@@GirlTalksFish I'm currently finishing the rest of BBA after blackout with this method. I mixing two techniques with spot treatment and whole tank treatment. As a first step I'm calculating how much H2O2 I can put in tank. Water volume (water, not tank size and in liters) divided by 3 this gives how much ml of 3% solution is this safe for shrimps and snails. Then while doing water change, before refilling I'm doing spot treatment with a filter turned off. For this I'm using syringe with needle. Then after 1-2 minutes I'm mixing water in tank. In this moment there is higher concentration of H2O2 in tank. After 1 minute I starting to fill tank with fresh water this dilute solution back into calculated safe zone. Then I'm turning filter back on. This method works even to dense carpet plants like "Cuba", because with needle you are creating narrow and strong stream. Those time range are strict of course. This is for example how much time it takes to bring a buckets with water or add fertilizers/conditioner into them. Sorry for block of text xD I think a key here is to turn off filter to give H2O2 time to react with BBA. Recently I tried it with GSA and it also worked, but weirdly no luck with GDA :/ Thanks for great video ;)
Trying to get rid of snails is like trying to get rid of bacteria. They serve their purpose and is beneficial to all aquariums in balance. They are defined as pests because people don't see their value. They clean the tank, fertilize plants, and some will even eat dead animals like fish so you don't have an ammonia spike. The more life you have in your aquarium, the more natural it will be.
i think the issue is that they reproduce like crazy and people end up with a snail infestation. lol. i'm all for snails, but not the ones that hitchhike on live plants.
Does alum kill algae? I stupidly used a whole bunch of alum to try and get rid of green spot algae on my Anubias with no different results after the first day.
Last time I had a snail problem I cured it with a snail. Assassin snails will clear up the problem, but be prepared to feed the lil guy after he cleans up the snail infestation. Also generally not safe with shrimp fry from what I have read.
What do you feed assassin's afterwards? I have these tiny snails.... Like extremely tiny. The assassin died, snails weren't impacted. I don't know what to do about these tiny nightmares, but I don't want to lose the two I have left yet.
Hi! I bought some Alum to try on my highly infested plants. I am going to put them in a 1 gallon container with regular warm tap water. I would like to make a solution that they can sit in for 24-48 hours. The recipe I’m finding online (1-3 tablespoons per gallon) is pretty strong and wants you to remove the plants after 20 minutes. Which solution did you use. Would 1:1 be ok to leave the plants in the solution for the amount of time I need
*What method do you use to get rid of unwanted hitchhikers on your aquarium plants?* Comment below to share your experiences, and subscribe if you want to see more this videos like this! goo.gl/4q2idY
I know this is not very creative, but I got a school of angelicus loach and they rid my entire tank of snails very quickly. As an added bonus, they're super cool fish to have.
@@brycemartin4130 I love loaches! Great bonus that they can manage snail populations. 😁
Girl Talks Fish
Assassin snails.
Typically I do the 25% to 33% with hydrogen peroxide. When I have done about 50%, I have ended doing significant damage to plants. Plants that particular did not respond well to hydrogen peroxide at stronger dosages have been dwarf hair grass, dwarf sag, frogbits, red leaf floaters, and s. repens. Plants that have seemed to do fine at stronger dosages have included amazon swords and anubias (but not anubias nana barteri).
@@brfinger
Hi Sir
Have you tried it with guppy grass?
Just what I was looking for, with all these pond snails tryna get in my tanks recently...
Yay, I hope it works out for ya!
@Charles Pressler same their so cool!
@Charles Pressler ask the people who have massive planted tanks they are a nightmare
@Charles Pressler 1,000,000 pond snails are an absolute nightmare, and then they start leaving empty shells everywhere as they die. I can't stand them.
Definetly keep testing for a part 3 this is quality content if I have ever seen it.
Oh my goodness, you are so sweet! I'm sure Greg will never run out of snails, so I'll definitely have to do a part 3 again some day. :)
Irene, I tried the 50% hydrogen peroxide dip for 10 min on new to me water sprite and crypt lutea. It was scary because there was so much bubble action at the roots and it sounded like frying bacon but I planted both right after. It has been a week and the water sprite browned on the existing stems and has put out one brand new stem and the crypt has melted back some but is also putting out new leaves, so i would say a success on that recipe!
Try watering your plants with some hydrogen peroxide. It will kill any fungus near the surface, any bugs you may have and the byproducts will be pure water and oxygen to your plant's roots which they will love. Just go easy.
I personally like keeping snails in my tank, but I watched anyway cuz you're one of my fave fishtubers! ☺️ Thank you for always sharing your experiments and experiences!
Awww, thanks! Much appreciated. :)
This was great!!!
I'm one of those anti-snail people out there.
In three trips collecting wild fish in Peru I only found them in one location.
Also, though I haven't proven it, I believe they create more waste than they supposedly clean up.
I always try to clean (pronounced "kill") all the snails and eggs on any plants before adding them to my tanks.
I've tried all of these methods except for the Hydrogen Peroxide, I'll give it a go next time.
Nice video!
Dean, I can't believe you watched one of my videos! Truly honored; thanks so much for the encouraging comment. 😁😁😁
have been using Alum on my new plants since you highly recommend it. I do not see any snail after 1 day treatment the last time round. I am dosing the same today as i got new plants again. I usually will dose Seachem Paraguard after the water change just to be sure to get rid the parasite and some hidden threat. It works for me so far.
Both these videos helped me out so much, thank you kindly for taking your time to do this!
I "had" a problem with common pond snails in my tank but once I put some paradise fish in there they obliterated them . Never knew they liked snails so much till I saw it myself .
Hi Irene, I have tried all with varying success/failure.
Bleach=1:19 ratio, very successful-also the most harm to plants
PP=till it turned super dark pink=the coolest experiment by far but also the least effective-WEAR GLOVES!
Salt=varyiing ratio=50% effective depending concentration and contact time=harmful to plants
Alum=1tsp/gal=very boring @ 3 days but the most effective/least damage to plant
Peroxide-you have to use a lot=effective and slightly harmful to plants=very cool bubbles
Copper-effective for adult snails, no noticeable damage to plants, still got baby snails after 1 month.
In conclusion: Alum is a winner, needs lots of patience.
Thanks for your experiments, definitely one of my inspiration on my own experiment with plant snail control at home.
Thank you so much for doing these experiments so we don’t have to! 😂 Your videos are seriously the most helpful/educational ones out there!
I've done some wild collecting, so in that case sterilization and quarantine are pretty important. Most sterilization techniques carry a lot of risk to your plants, and like you're showing, not always even effective. Quarantine is honestly your best best, get set up for it with a small plant light, try to keep the lighting at a lower intensity, and consider adding some ferts. Use a bigger tub that creates some space, like you had here. And then use baits, for snails boiled veggies work good. Remove all snails with baits, and throw it a couple more times to be sure. Wait three weeks for eggs to hatch out, and then repeat. Most snails take at least several weeks to begin reproducing, so that's a good cushion. However, on one wild sample I was very surprised to have snail eggs that took 4 months to hatch out, they just appeared out of nowhere, but these were a wild species from a temperate region. I would try some meaty baits for planaria too, hoo boy planaria are way worse than snails in my book. Try fish food baits, and possibly raw chicken or shrimp meat. I utilized a similar philosophy to the thinking behind tissue culture techniques, you want to use the smallest possible starter if you have a species that's easy to propagate and lends itself to using a very small cutting. Also, when you quarantine, set up to get some growth, and take your starter from brand new growth, that eliminates the possibility of weird micro eggs being attached to it. Make sure to check it sometimes at night, because planaria are very good at staying hidden when there's light. I use peroxide to sterilize for algae. People always say that algae spores are just inherrant to an aquarium, but they don't always come from the air, you introduce them like any other pest. I haven't tried it, but if you're talking snails, I've heard an older copper penny can be used in the same way as alum
Interesting, I hadn't heard about the copper penny method! May have to give that a try next time.
Just watched both experiment videos and it earned a sub. Such clear results and easily understood. I I'm currently working on making a moss and plant display tank and want to pull things in my aquarium to put in it but don't want the snails. I'll be giving this a try for sure. I'm also working on building a new paladarium instead of aquarium I'm going to need to treat every plant decor item in my big tank. I'll have to remove all of my fish and shrimp before I do it.
I just started watching your videos and I had to subscribe. You explain everything so perfect that noobs like me can understand
Oh yay, I'm so happy to hear that! Welcome to Team GTF. :)
I used alum yesterday to disinfect my plants. Within about 5 hours I hadn't seen any bugs, so I wanted to rinse the plants and place in the tank. #sooooexcited As I started to drain, I found some type of worm thing (dead). Figured I better follow your 2 day advisory 🙈 I'm still excited, just less impatient now. Lol
Potassium Pomegranate???? Sis.... No..... Just no.....
Thank you for sacrificing a full cup of aquarium salt for us though. Will definitely look into alum & H2O2 options. Quality content, as always...
deadfred821 what’s wrong with potsssium perm? Many aquatic plants owners recommend it
@@jfy1 nothing i think they are just skeptical because of the staining and the warning signs on the bottle. ppl use it to clear up bacterial blooms as to klls bacteria and fungus and you can find it in liquid form in Jungle Clear Water
I feel like I’m watching you do a Science Fair presentation. :)
LOL! That's exactly what I told Mr. Gamer.
Will this work on soft plants like monte carlo and pogostemon helferi ? I'd really like you to do an experinment especially on monte carlo and hydrogen peroxide
Hello Irene, I've had good success using your recipe with Alum 1 TBSP / Gallon of water. I enjoy your channel. Many thanks,
If I can't get tissue culture plants, I use the alum method. So far, it works for me, too. I learned about it from your first video experiment. 👍
If I see adult snails I can save, I put them in my snail tank because I feel bad killing them. But I use the alum soak in case there are eggs. Perhaps, eventually, I'll just accept the snails. 🥰
Lol, I'm not sure I'll ever accept snails, but maybe one day... when I keep puffers again. 😜
Esha’s Gastropex kills everything in 1 month. You use it for 3 days. Then you wait for a week. Another 3 days for the next snails to hatch. Then again wait for a week. Then 3 days use. And all snails are gone. You don’t need to change your water changing routine. Just remove the nerites and all snails that you want to keep beforehand. Also, it doesn’t kill my shrimps.
Thank you for your experiment. There is sooooo much info out there!
I’m very new to the fish tank life. I got a beta fish for my daughter almost two years ago and I decided to buy some live plants and a snail (because I didn’t want to get the dog or the cat my daughter was asking). I didn’t quarantine the plants, I had no idea I needed to do so, and I just found 4 baby snails. I just wanted one snail! I luckily have another tank coming in so I can prepare that one for the beta and clean the snail tank. Thanks for the information. I’m definitely going to try alum!
This has been a very interesting series; I hope you keep up your experiments. I've been using the bleach method found on one of Life With Pets older videos. Mixed results, but I just hate introducing pest snails to a "clean" tank.
Thanks girl for your detailed report thanks a lot 🙏🙏
YES! Thank you for all this info just about to scape my tank with heaps of plants.
This really helped
Sweet, perfect timing! Best of luck with the new plants. :)
Girl Talks Fish Thank you 🙂
Love your scientific approach to aquarium keeping. By the way potassium permanganate is available at hardware stores in powdered form as it is used in many well-water treatment systems. I also don't recommend it because it is a strong oxidizer which stains everything.
Thanks for all your experimentation. It has been a big help
I think what I've learnt from this series is that quarantining the plants in a bucket is worthwhile, no matter what method you use.
Much easier than quarantining fish too.. Those creepy swimming parasites are good motivation!
I actually take great care to preserve my snails. After a water change I
check the water I removed carefully for any snails so I can put the
back in the tank.
I had a bladder snail outbreak in my ADA 60-p and decided to use chemical treatment along with everything in this tutorial. I had a sense of victory for a few weeks thinking I was snail free, till I saw a baby bladder snail zooming around. At that point I knew I was back to square one. I rebooted the entire tank and didn't reuse any plants, substrate and equipment. I ended using only tissue cultures and 1 year in no snails (except for my nerite snails). Hope it stays that way.
I can’t believe Cory hasn’t rubbed off on you yet with regard to snails! 🤣 In all seriousness, this is great.
Lol, not yet...
Cannot wait. Ironed out my 2 mistakes. No.1 throwing stuff straight in. No.2 very difficult nano tank.
Going for a forever tank with a sump!
That nano tank actually died from overgrowth so still not bad the very end I changed water and clipped 50% of tank worth of green out I guess the volume was too much in too little water.
Plants are crazy aswell I'm going for big leafs not long stemmed plants this time. THEY TAKE OVER!
I remember the plants releasing alot of held particles i knew it was gonna be bad...plants fault
Jungle Clear Water is a liquid potassium permanganate that is sold at Walmart in the aquarium section, it isn't illegal.
Have you tried carbonated water? It's like a cO2 blast and it's pretty safe. Just make sure it's water only without any flavor or sugars
Thank you so much for a very informative, easy to understand, and in-depth video. You have definitely done your research on this.
I've never heard of the alum one. Thank you!
Hydrogen bath for black beard algae on wood works great
Please do another fine tuning of the ALUM powder. Please include sensitive plants like Java moss and morimo balls.
I like pest snails and so do my Pea Puffers
Hehehe... 😋
Ordered from BucePlant a month or two ago and wish I woulda used some of the methods on the plants. Next time I shall!
Until now, I’ve tried using both hydrogen peroxide and salt. I think it works only because, the only one time I didn’t, I found snails in my Java moss and they got into my tank. Only problem though, it kills Java moss. At first, after treating most of my plants, most survived but the moss always turned brown. Didn’t know why at first, but now I know it was either the salt or hydrogen peroxide. I’m thinking it was probably the salt. So I’m going to try the alum on my next plant purchase. I always appreciate your videos!
Just did a 50% hydrogen peroxide dip for my plants after moving 9 hours and it worked wonders on the snail infestation but after a day or so replanted in the tank, they've all melted 😩 I'm hoping they'll make a recovery but I'm investigating online tissue culture plants
potassium permanganate is used to disinfect wounds. Growing up my mother would always use to on my scratches etc so the way you're acting as if it's gonna melt your skin is truly hilarious :P
Anyway i use this product to treat root rot but mainly when i root my cutting in water again it helps prevent rot it has also saved my phalaenopsis orchid when nothing else worked
and finally i also use it as a foliar fertilizer
I wish I'd known this before my recent plant purchase. 12 hours after the plants went in the tank there were babies everywhere. Eggs weren't even visible. Now I have snails, and I never did before. I'm still hunting them down as fast as I can, hoping to get them all before they make more.
Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that! Prime Time Aquatics did a great video on how to get rid of snails after they're already in your aquarium: czcams.com/video/2OGKjSH6fRw/video.html
This is a bit late but...
That'll never work, the same thing happened to me and I only managed to get rid of them once I got a new tank and I didnt transfer ANYTHING from the old tank( except the fish and my 1 neritw snail)
If you did leave java fern for a month in stagnant water, it was more like a lack of circulation than the H2O2 that killed the plant. George Farmer himself told me that Microsorum needs current. Have you tried sparkling water? Completely harmless for plants, but pests can't tolerate it (allegedly).
Interesting! The other java fern did fine, so maybe they're okay for just a month without circulation. I could see sparkling water getting rid of the adult snails, but maybe not the snail eggs. It would be fun to test it if I ever do a round 3 of experiments.
That java moss you bought was hilarious xD
excellent job. appreciate it
Hi there! Love the videos! You had a video on your old channel where talked about feeding African dwarf frogs. I can't find it on your new channel..do you still have it?
I love potassium permanganate. Aside from breathing it in it’s really not that bad. For anyone with a pool you already know not to inhale dry chemicals. You don’t need to worry about fire unless you know how to use it to make a fire. In most places it is somewhat difficult to find because it is a great oxidizer. But no more difficult then a high percentage hydrogen peroxide. Which believe it or not, has a higher oxidation rating then PP. As far as the staining goes, just allow it to clear over time, or use H2O2 to speed up the oxidation. It was the only thing I was able to find to clear my Dempsey stud from a nasty columnaris outbreak.
Did you try any of this on java moss?
Potassium permanganate is a strong oxidising agent and potential component for explosives. That's why the authorities are so touchy about it It's not an explosive !
Any updates on these tests?
is alum safe for shrimp/fish? i have so many snail eggs in my 10 gallon shrimp tank that i just want to put alum in the tank.
I had no idea when buying plants that snails would appear suddenly in my tank how on Earth do I get rid of them and should I get rid of them?
So which dip would you recommend for microscopic parasitic worm eggs?
Thank you! The snails have taken over my shrimp tank and may be planning an entire aquarium takeover!
Assassin snails help a lot and they breed very slow. Try a few loaches they love them snails too.
I had a mix of 150ml of h2o2 per 5 gallons of water and it took 14 days before it stopped killing snail. The container is exposed to a south west window.
Hi
Thank you for sharing information.
Excellent advice. 👍👍👍👍👍
Can i use alum with guppy grass?
You mentioned that your guppy grass died. Is this result of 3 days Alum soak method?
Potassium Permanganate is a strong oxidizer (although not as strong as say bleach), so it'll react with enthusiasm with easily-oxidized materials. So, keep it away from charcoal, for example. Anyway, when it does it's oxidizing thing, it forms Manganese Dioxide, which is a brownish-black substance. That, being an oxide, can probably be cleaned away with vinegar and a toothbrush. It's main effect on your skin is to turn it purplish-pink to brownish black as it does it's oxidizing thing.
How would one treat something like a red root floater before putting them in an established tank??? Also, will the h202 kill other things like parasites that could potentially harm your fish??
I'm only asking because youd have to dip the roots with something like the red root floaters to rid them of anything you potentially wouldnt want hitch hiking to your tank.
Parasites you would have more luck in a salt bath I would think. Alum would kill too. But I’m not 100%
This is why I'm here.. Did you find the answer? 😅
This is slightly off topic. My recipe is solely for eliminating black hair algae (and lesser algae), and not for killing snails (although it may, or may not).
I place my plants in a ziplock bag and use 3% hydrogen peroxide, full strength. I only use enough that will cover the plant entirely when all the excess air is squeezed from the bag. I seal the bag and continually turn it back and forth making sure to cover all parts of the plant. I soak for a total of 3 minutes, then drain the bag and fill with tap water for about 30 seconds. I dump the tap water and fill it a second time, and then dump it again. The plants go right back into the tank then. Since it's peroxide, no need for any dechlorinating drops. Over the next day or two, the black hair algae will turn bright pink as it dies. My guppies and Mystery snails happily eat it, and whatever is not eaten just dissolves. After 3 or 4 days it's all gone. I've tried this with Java Fern (Windelov), and never have any problems.
It's hit or miss with Water Sprite. The Sprite will SOMETIMES melt a few days after treatment, so I limit the bath to no more than 2 minutes with good results. I've not tried it on my Susswassertang or Dwarf Salvinia, as they typically don't get algae on them .
As a retired chemistry teacher I can say that potassium permanganate will ignite if mixed with certain other chemicals. Glycerine is a good example. Have you tried copper sulfate? It’s toxic to invertebrates but nowhere near as hazardous as potassium permanganate. It will however turn the water blue.
Another excellent post ❗️🙏😎
I use the pea puffers method i have a pea puffer in almost all my tanks works great and fun to watch.
Lol, I love that method!
Me too. They are good at controlling snail population but they can't get them all unfortunately.
@@tsitsu8345 why not do you think?
With the alum, did you add fertilizer?
Wouldn't it be better to try the H2O2 treatment in a dark place?
Fritz ammonium chloride for fish-less tank cycling. Add enough to bring ammonium levels to 3-5ppm. Be sure the plants get adequate light. The very thing that makes life inhospitable to animals is a boon for many plants. Ammonium can be your friend.
Potassium permanganate, from what I’ve found, works good with snails however you need to have a deep purple solution. I feel like the pink is too dilute. It is a medical disinfectant, it won’t kill you but it does stain lol. I haven’t tried it on my parasites but I’m assuming it would kill them off too. Just don’t dip roots
Great educating video but did you see any positive affect on algae?
Can I use the hydrogen peroxide method with water hyacinth?
I watched your video on the bleach bath which works but not so well on java moss or a grass we got. I’m going to try the peroxide and alum
Yeah, I didn't have much luck with bleach dips for plants either. I definitely recommend alum as my favorite, with peroxide as a second favorite. :)
I also have orchids and so it is recommended to use hydrogen peroxide on new arrival orchids to off the snails and their eggs I am assuming. I wash my new plants and spray them with HP so I'm hoping it continues to help rid of snails. I don't like them myself. I do have aquarium salt around so this video is a help for ideas to help out ..... snails and other creepies. HEEBIE JEEBIES
Which one should you do for plants that will be going in a shrimp tank?
Thanks for the info love the video you the bomb 💣
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
Hello fish girl -- I am very impressed with your approach. Scientific method! Who knew. Much of what's on youtube is anecdotal. It's a general thing in this country [US]. People don't know about or care about evidence-based approach. Did they never learn about the scientific method in school?
Thanks!
So one question. You say to rinse the plant in freshwater after the hydrogen peroxide dips. Is this freshwater from the aquarium or straight out of the tap?
Nice video, I made a channel to show you can make small planted aquariums out of glass bottles and I keep a few shrimp and snails in a glass drinks dispenser! My two latest videos on my channel shows the aquariums with commentary with one showing three shrimp fighting over an algae wafer!
i have an 800 gallon outdoor pond and i got water poppies for it. all of a sudden i now have basically hundreds of snails. there was nothing in the pond prior. the pond doesnt have any fish in it. how do i get rid of these things its insane
Setting up a fresh tank and almost forgot about making plants safe and clean :O
This was my problem, got lots of nasties off bought plants on my last lil tank. although it was running for a few year and breeding. Over filtration goes a long way. I also invented telling water thickness by looking at bubble size which blows most pros/shopkeepers minds lol
@@ThirstysURL water thickness?
Have you tried Ocean Free snail remover? I wonder if its safe for shrimps, fishes, and plants. These snails drive me crazy!
read up on P P its used as an antiseptic
Anyone, do you know if I can just put my plants in fresh water floating around if I don't have time to plant them in my tank yet?
Tips for removing snails once they are in your tank?
get a fahaka puffer fish. lol
I don’t mind snails, but I had a tank infested with mts and pond and ramshorn snails. Added six baby zebra loaches - no visible snails after two days... and very fat loaches! After a few months, I moved the loaches. Several months later I have ramshorn snails, but no mts or pond snails.
Wow, interesting that the ramshorn snails still stayed in the tank! Thanks for sharing your experience. :)
Can you do a video on bottom feeders and fish that are ok with axolotas
Good suggestion! Here's a great article on axolotl tank mates to help you in the meanwhile: exopetguides.com/axolotl/axolotls-tank-mates-guide/
i use hydrogen peroide no water and dip for like 25 seconds
Ooo, I need to try that next time!
Yep!
Will this get ride get rid of Detritus worms
Potassium permanganate is an accelerant, it can be used to make homemade explosives. That's why it's so regulated 😅
what the heck is alum? i never heard of it before and you cant buy it here anywhere either
No snails were harmed in the making of this video.
I was hoping to see the Val test again with Hydrogen peroxide
Hi do you think this would work for any potential zebra mussels?
Not sure, I've only tested snails and planaria.
About BBA and H2O2 this method works like charm actually. If there was bubble H2O2 started to react with BBA, if you would wait with this BBA for 1-2 days it would change color to red and next day to transparent / white. Maybe this is a good topic for next video? ;) For sure there would be someone that can share BBA ;)
I've actually tried to treat BBA with H2O2 several times with no luck. I never get that nice color change in the BBA. :(
@@GirlTalksFish I'm currently finishing the rest of BBA after blackout with this method. I mixing two techniques with spot treatment and whole tank treatment. As a first step I'm calculating how much H2O2 I can put in tank. Water volume (water, not tank size and in liters) divided by 3 this gives how much ml of 3% solution is this safe for shrimps and snails. Then while doing water change, before refilling I'm doing spot treatment with a filter turned off. For this I'm using syringe with needle. Then after 1-2 minutes I'm mixing water in tank. In this moment there is higher concentration of H2O2 in tank. After 1 minute I starting to fill tank with fresh water this dilute solution back into calculated safe zone. Then I'm turning filter back on. This method works even to dense carpet plants like "Cuba", because with needle you are creating narrow and strong stream. Those time range are strict of course. This is for example how much time it takes to bring a buckets with water or add fertilizers/conditioner into them. Sorry for block of text xD I think a key here is to turn off filter to give H2O2 time to react with BBA. Recently I tried it with GSA and it also worked, but weirdly no luck with GDA :/ Thanks for great video ;)
@@kazukiorg Thanks for the detailed instructions! Can't wait to try it. :)
Potassium permanganate is KMNO4....Not PP
Trying to get rid of snails is like trying to get rid of bacteria. They serve their purpose and is beneficial to all aquariums in balance. They are defined as pests because people don't see their value. They clean the tank, fertilize plants, and some will even eat dead animals like fish so you don't have an ammonia spike. The more life you have in your aquarium, the more natural it will be.
i think the issue is that they reproduce like crazy and people end up with a snail infestation. lol. i'm all for snails, but not the ones that hitchhike on live plants.
Is a 10 gallons tank good for a betta? Someone plz tell me.
It's a great size. 👍
And one more question if you don’t mind?
Snail genocide! How dare you! Great vids and info. thanks
Does alum kill algae? I stupidly used a whole bunch of alum to try and get rid of green spot algae on my Anubias with no different results after the first day.
Unfortunately, alum doesn't kill algae, but hydrogen peroxide seems to do a better job. Not sure about green spot algae though. :P
I haven't finished video yet, but does it kill fish?
Last time I had a snail problem I cured it with a snail. Assassin snails will clear up the problem, but be prepared to feed the lil guy after he cleans up the snail infestation. Also generally not safe with shrimp fry from what I have read.
What do you feed assassin's afterwards? I have these tiny snails.... Like extremely tiny. The assassin died, snails weren't impacted. I don't know what to do about these tiny nightmares, but I don't want to lose the two I have left yet.
@@yiacrazy did it get better?
Hi! I bought some Alum to try on my highly infested plants. I am going to put them in a 1 gallon container with regular warm tap water.
I would like to make a solution that they can sit in for 24-48 hours. The recipe I’m finding online (1-3 tablespoons per gallon) is pretty strong and wants you to remove the plants after 20 minutes. Which solution did you use. Would 1:1 be ok to leave the plants in the solution for the amount of time I need
She left it in for 3 days