Ammonia Dip For Plants?

[Jeremy180]

Okay, so I got some aquarium plants tonight and I need to kill any pest snails that may be on them.
I don't have any alum, and from all reports I've heard, bleach does more harm than good.
However, I do have a lot of 10% ammonia from fishless cycling, and from what I hear plants are
several orders of magnitude more tolerant of ammonia than fish and snails.
I'm not going to post a link since it's from another aquarium forum, but somebody accidentally dosed a tank with snails with 10x the recommended amount of ammonia, and every snail in the tank was k'oed within a few minutes, and only a few of the very largest one survived, not coming back out until after two 50% water changes, with obvious ammonia burns on the skin.
All of this resulted in with no apparent harm to the plants, except the crypts melted, but they may have done so anyway.
 I was wondering if a slightly higher dose would work as a dip to kill all snail eggs while still not harming the plants?
 
Does anyone know the highest ppm that plants can tolerate for 12 hours?
would this be enough to do the job??

 

[Jeremy180]

Well, I didn't have time to wait for a reply, so I went ahead and made a 33 ppm solution of ammonia in a bucket and put the plants in for one hour last night .
When I took the plants out, there were several tiny snails in the bottom of the bucket and still no apparent harm to the plants as of 11:00 this morning.
 
I'll probably still have to closely monitor for any survivors, as well as any potential harm to the plants, but so far, it seems to have worked at least a little (knock on wood).

 

[Byron]

I just came to this thread, but will offer my comments nonetheless.
 
There is nothing you can use to effectively kill snails and algae (either) on live plants that will not harm the plant itself.  Rhonda Wilson wrote this more than once in her former monthly TFH column on planted tanks.  Note, I said "harm," which is not necessarily "kill."
 
Ammonia at a specific level is toxic to all life, be it animal, plant, bacteria.
 
Aside from the above science, I always wonder why someone is so keen to eradicate a creature that is their best friend and a sign of a healthy aquarium, the snail.  Now, there are pest snails that will eat plants, but here I assume you are thinking of the little snails like pond, bladder, ramshorn or Malaysian Livebearing, that really do help in maintaining a biologically healthy aquarium.  These critters get everywhere, eating anything organic (dead plant matter, fish excrement, etc) and break this down faster so the various bacteria can get at it.  The number of these snails will be proportionate to the food available (and as just noted, we are talking food aside from any uneaten fish food which they will also devour obviously), so this in itself tells you how useful they are.
 
Byron.

 

[StevenF]

Ammonia at a specific level is toxic to all life, be it animal, plant, bacteria
 

 
 
True pure Ammonia will kill plants.  However plants also need Ammonia to survive.  So the 33ppm dip solution and 1 hour exposure probably didn't do any harm.  However 33ppm would kill every animal in a tank in a relatively short period of time..  
 
.  You are largely going to do some experimenting to find the most effective level of ammonia and dip time.  One hour might not have been enough time but kill all the snails and it will take some time to determine if the plants were harmed..   If the plants appear OK and the snails come back I would cut the ammonia level to maybe 2ppm  and do a longer dip (half a  day maybe).  I have no idea how resistant snail eggs are to Ammonia.
 
Let us know how it goes.  I am sure that there would be a lot of people interested in the results.

 

[NickAu]

I also just saw this and am in total agreement with Byron.
 

 
 I always wonder why someone is so keen to eradicate a creature that is their best friend and a sign of a healthy aquarium, the snail.  Now, there are pest snails that will eat plants, but here I assume you are thinking of the little snails like pond, bladder, ramshorn or Malaysian Livebearing, that really do help in maintaining a biologically healthy aquarium.  These critters get everywhere, eating anything organic (dead plant matter, fish excrement, etc) and break this down faster so the various bacteria can get at it.  The number of these snails will be proportionate to the food available (and as just noted, we are talking food aside from any uneaten fish food which they will also devour obviously), so this in itself tells you how useful they are.

 
Snails also make great free fresh fish food, Just squish one a bit between your fingers and drop it in the tank, I have yet to see a omnivorous fish refuse to eat one. My Kuhli loaches almost fight over bits fresh snail, That's the bits that make it to the bottom  because my Betta missed them.

 

[Jeremy180]

Actually, If it were up to me, I would have just put the plants straight in the tank, as I won't be adding fish until about mid- January (The LFS has a monthly 2 for 1 sale on all freshwater fish + plants), which should be enough time for any parasites to die off. 
But it's not just my tank, it's also partly my sister's and she does not like snails much, I'm having a hard enough time getting her to let me add nerites.

BTW, the Plants (Java fern, Water sprite, Vallisinera, and Banana Plant) are still looking okay, and so far no sign of any snails.
 
Also, If anyone is interested in a "natural" snail control for small tanks, I've read that Ghost Shrimp will eat Snail eggs and hatchlings pretty well, and without any assistance (squishing).