As a way of dealing with snails.....found this on applesnail.net
NOT THE AUTHOR OF THE BELOW TEXT:
Aquaria and ponds
Prevention
Use Clean Planting Material
Inspect new plant material carefully for eggs and snails.
For better guard against snails and their eggs, one could use a weak potassium permanganate solution of 10 mg/l. Bath the plants in this solution for about 15 minutes and rinse the plants thoroughly with running water after the bathing. This will kill all snails and eggs.
Another option is to use snail-killing chemicals that are sold in pet shops. Use the recommended dose mentioned of the package and put the plants in this solution for 2 to 3 days before introducing them in your aquarium.
Food reduction
Only feed the fish as much as they can eat within a few minutes. When there are no food excess, the snail population will stay stable and won't cause much troubles (at least if they don't eat the plants).
Controlling the population
Manual removal
Hand picking won't eliminate all snails, but it's a good option to control population excesses.
Remove the snails as you see them by hand or crush them against the glass. The fish will eat the crushed snails so there is no need to remove the food excess. Crushing, however, is not recommended with though snails as Melanoides snails (trumpet snails) and with large snails.
To facilitate the hand picking a bait can be used. Put some lettuce or potato pieces in the tank and dim the light for a few hours. Many snails are attracted by the bait and will collect on it, which makes it easier to remove the snails.
Another option is to use a 35mm film canister with holes in the lid and some bait like lettuce, fish food or bread in it. The snails will enter the baited trap and can be removed without much trouble.
The advantage of the canister method is that it enables you to use baits that strongly attract snails like fish food, without having the bait eaten by the fish.
Complete tear down of the tank
This very drastic method is one of the best methods if you want to remove *all* snails from an aquarium, but for most of us, it the last option if all other methods fail.
A complete tear down means removal of the fish and the water, taking out all vegetation and collect the bottom material.
All fish should be put in a separated tank with adequate water quality. A good option is to use the water from the tank as the fish are already adapted to this water.
Remove all snails and eggs from the plants and after that they should be threatened with a weak potassium permanganate bath (see above) or another snail killing bath.
The gravel should be boiled to kill all snails and their eggs that are hiding in here.
Clean all other objects thoroughly and clean the tanks itself as well (don't use detergents for this!). A good sponge and warm water should do it.
The filter should be cleaned as well (obvious): put the filter without filter material in the 10 mg/l potassium permanganate solution for one hour (with the filter running). Rinse the filter with clean water and put in new filter material.
After all this the aquarium environment can be put together again.
Note!: The cleaned aquarium needs some time to rebalance again and the fish should only be reintroduced after this period (3 days to a week). Use a part of the old water to speed up the balancing.
Snail eating fish
The introduction of snail eating fish can help to control the snail population.
Not all snail eating fish are equally good in removing snails and some fish are great snails eaters, but aren't well suited for most aquaria. An example of the latter are puffer, which primary feed on snails, but also tend to get aggressive towards other fish.
A list of snail eating fish is available at the Ecology section of this site.
Chemical
There are many products available for extinguish snails from aquaria, but I won't recommend these as they are not healthy for the fish, plants and other creatures and the massive die off of the snails could create serious problems for the water quality.
If you go for this option, follow the instruction carefully and do regular water changes after the treatment. Check the ammonia levels during the treatment as these can rise to dangerous levels as a result of the decaying snail bodies.
Rather use the chemical warfare option if all other methods fail.
Andy
