Need a new tool…

[Magnum Man]

So I have a 45 gallon tall, that is built in, and set up to view on 3 sides… I like the tank, but it’s extremely hard to work on, being it’s set up 4 feet off the floor, and being tall tank… I’ve tried to make it a lower maintenance tank, but I have an outbreak of pest snails… I added a couple assassin snails, several months ago when I 1st noticed them, but they aren’t making a dent the pest snail’s are bladder / pond snails… my water was messed up before, and maybe that kept them kind of in check, but after I started blending in the RO water they seem to have exploded

I’m thinking about making a thinner type gravel sucker( it needs to be about 36 inches long ) by maybe 1/2 or 3/4 inches in diameter with a flattened end , so I can scrape them off the glass, and the smaller diameter the would have enough velocity to suck them out while doing water changes…

I had more than a dozen visible on the glass this morning so I need to do something

I have an extra long set of tweezers but need more length than that ( and control at that distance ) think the sucker will work…

Any other suggestions welcome

 

[Wills]

Weigh a lettuce leaf down and wait for them to gather when they are on it pull it out - do it a few times and you’ll be rid of the visible ones

 

[Magnum Man]

I’ve heard the lettuce works before, but have never tried it… do they really like it that much better than the other plants In the tank???

I have a lot of Java ferns in that tank, which is likely where they came from in the 1st place

 

[Colin_T]

Pvc pipe with a reducer on one end and attach the hose to that.
Use a heat source (small butane torch or even a gas hot plate on top of the stove) and warm one end of the pvc pipe than squish it flat a bit.

Alternatively look for a long gravel cleaner. They do them in 2 foot and 3 foot lengths.

 

[Acorno]

Just throw a few loaches in the tank and the snails are gone.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have battled snails for many years. The main reason is that I breed some fish and fry need plenty of food and that means snails. A few assassins is not enough because they were my main solution. I started with about 10 and added another six about 12 years ago I think. Since then I have sold a few 100 and always have them in most tanks.

Almost every meeting of my fish clun I bring 26 snails to sell at the regular auction. I bag then as a baker''s dozen. While I have the snails in grow tanks, I do not like them in the breeder tanks as they will eat more than snails. The same applies to amaon shrimp. So in some tanks I have the pest pond snails.

I collect the pond snails from those tanks and drop them into the tanks with the asassins since they wiped out the pond snails in those tanks. I use a small hose to siphon the pond snails out (I think it is about 3/9 of an inch inside diameter).

I also keep two species of loach- sidthimunki and clown. So be aware of these facts re using loaches to deal with snails. Sids are one of the smallest loaches one can find. They love snails but becuase the sids are small they only eat small snails. They cannot handle adult snails. On the other hand clowsm as they grow will eat the bigger snails but not the small one. They suck the snail out of shell. When my clowns started to get big, I stopped throwing pond snails intotheir tank. I was worried the clowns would end up inhaling the snail shel and all and I an not sure how safe that would be.

Given enough time the sids cleared their tank because they ate all the kids until the adults finaly died from old age. The clowns do the reverse which means once there are no more snails big enough to reproduce before the clowns get them, this will also end the problem. However, my clowns are now in a 150 gal. Their first permanent tank was a 75 gal. They need to be kept in as many numbers as one can and certainly at least 5 or 6. And they will get big over time. I am down to 10 as i lost my biggest in the past year. It was wirh me since early 3003 when it was a given to me with 3 others at about 4 inches. I estimate it was between 23 and 25 years old.

 

[A Fishkeeper]

The assassin snails will do their job. Just give them time. I had a major infestation of bladder snails as well as a few rams horns. They ate the rams horns first but then demolished the bladder snails. This did mean I had hundreds of baby assassins (I bought 5 of eBay, but ended up giving over 50 to LFS) but the assassins didn’t do any harm I only got rid of them because I was changing my set up. Give them time, they are master snail munchers

 

[powerdyne6]

Just throw a few loaches in the tank and the snails are gone.

No.. not all Loaches eat snails and you shouldn’t be adding fish to take care of these kinds of things.

Most likely it was introduced from a plant. Limit the amount of food for them and the problem will start to disappear.

I went through this in my previous tank and eventually they all disappeared

 

[Magnum Man]

Trouble is I’m trying to grow some fish in this tank… so everyone is eating good right now… I have some big Coolies in here, but they likely won’t eat snails… maybe eggs??? But they have been in there since before the snails

I told myself no new fish, until I had the water straightened out

 

[Magnum Man]

I found some clear 3/4” square tube that is 36” long… which I think is about the right size, as long as I can get a transition to 1/2” hose

 

[Magnum Man]

square tube...

Amazon.com

I had good luck reforming the end of my big tube, that I use on my Tilapia set up ( actually shrinking it to fit tight on a PVC fitting ) buy putting the fitting inside ( it was a little loose ) & heating the end with a heat gun, & tightening a hose clamp around the hot tube...
I think I can do the same thing with the square tube, by inserting as big of round metal as fits in the square tube, heating thatend of the tube, & tightening a hose clamp tight on the round metal... that should form it round, then I have a chunk of 3/4" silicone hose with a shaker style syphon starter on the other end...

I could take a file, & file the inside of the other end of the square tube, to sharpen it some, & it should give me a flat edge to scrape & suck the snails off the glass

I do have these snail that I inherited with other plants in most of my other tanks, but those are all easy to work on, but if this works as good as I expect, I may use it every other water change... one week vacuum the gravel, next week vacuum the snails... since this is a 2 pack of tubes, I may cut one at a traditional gravel vacuum length, as I really only need it that long for that certain 45 gallon...

 

[Ram419]

Maybe this would work. I've used it for a while for my small pond. And works great if you have a tank low to the ground and can't rely on gravity to drain the water. NICREW Power VAC Plus Electric Gravel Cleaner, Automatic Aquarium Cleaner with Sponge Filter, 3 in 1 Aquarium Vacuum Gravel Cleaner for Medium and Large Tanks