Did something stupid I think

[slp2772]

Well Im fairly new to this only had my aquariums for six seven months. I have two tanks a 30g and a 20g. The 20 has a couple gold fish in it and some live plants they like to eat. The thirty has some (or had ) school fish in it. Well about a month ago I knowticed a snail crawling around on the glass of my thirty gallon (This has a gravel filter with powerhead and biowheel). I squished it and went about my buisness. Then I started seeing them suckers everywhere big ones, small ones ,eggs here and there. So I took all the fish out put them in my twenty gallon and dumped half a gallon of bleach in the tank. Well needless to say I nuked the biology of the tank. All the algie died and it took on this strange aura (Think I seen it glowing a couple times) and if you can believe this, The snails didnt die!. Well right away anyway, Im starting to see snail shells float around now. I dont know if it was the bleach or lack of stuff to eat thats killing them. Anyway if anyone knows how long the snail eggs take to hatch or if the bleach evaporated them when I added it I would love to know. And how do I make this tank livable for my fish. The bleach smell is gone and its been sitting both filters running for about a month now. Think im starting to see some algie on the wheel. If I add half of the water from my 20 would that help any. Any advice would be helpfull. Thank you.

[TheOldSalt]

Oookkaaayyyy

Tear the tank down and start all over again. It's better than fighting with it for the next several weeks.

[COM]

Leave your 20 alone and start over. Drain the tank, replace the gravel if you can, fill, dechlorinate, cycle, all that. Take TOS's advice and stop now.

[welchrock]

Start over definitely and the next time you have snail problems - use 'Had a Snail'. It is very cheap and effective within 48 hours or so.

From the prevention side of things - mix some pre-1983 pennies in with your gravel. These were made with real copper and should help control snail populations brought on by newly-purchased live plants.

[Obsidian]

Also with snails, drop a cucumber in there, the snails will gather on the cuke, then you just pull them out.

In regards to this tank, definitely just start over. It will all be good in the long run I would replace all the filter media, but the rest of it I would not worry about so much (ie I don't think you need to scrub your gravel, just a good rinse and I think it will be fine, the bleach would have taken car of pretty much anything bad in there). Bleach evaps out of a tank fairly easily so it shouldn't be that bad. If it were me I would just replace filter media, clean the tank out and scrub the sides, add water and put in some extra dechlorinator just for kicks, and perform a fishless cycle.

I WOULD take out all decorations and really scrub them just in case any snails survived.

Tada new tank

[slp2772]

Ok Ill just tear it down, The fish should be fine in the 20 for a while. The gold fish are much larger and like to push them around a little. So if I add five or ten gallons from my 20 would that help speed up the cycle process. I didnt like the gravel anyway. My wife decided to mix some white with blue. Looks rather tacky so I get to fix that. If I add the filter from the 20 to the 30 gallon with half its water would that stress the eco out to much on that 20 gallon.?

[Good Wolf]

I was recently told that the bacteria is on the surface and not in the water so adding cycled water to a new tank won't help it.

[slp2772]

Well, Just drained the tank, And guess what? There was a snail crawling down one of the air lines. So im guessing theres snail eggs galore under that gravel filter. Hardy little creatures arent they? right up there with ****************roaches.

[slp2772]

LOL! That wasnt an obscenity. Petty strong filter there.

[JustOneMore20]

Snails aren't horrible. As long as you don't overfeed, you won't be totally overrun with them. I don't see why people are so determined to be totally snail free....its not gonna happen once you bring them into the tank. You've caused yourself alot of hardwork over them...hehe.

Agreed, I'd start completely over. Rinse, rinse, rinse everything and let it air dry before you set it up again.

[Ricker]

Ya I know what you mean I like snails but not hundreds. I was checking out my 55 today and looked in a corner and OMG there were like 6 snails. I have no idea how they lived with no water really in the tank for 4 days but I was very surprised. Long story short you don't want them just pick them up ether put them in a diff tank or flush them.

[Obsidian]

Also some snails do not reproduce as readily as others, so you can always research and get really cool snails that won't overpopulate your tank.