sk_s

thanks for reply. I Think I will stick with tap water, and maybe occasionally half distilled, half tap.

can you recharge api softening pillows with aquarium salt and distilled water rather than tap water? it seems counter-intuitive to use tap water, as this would be exposing it to the hard water you are trying to correct.

you are right. the only other solution for snails is the one you took. I might have to do that as well. I can"t figure out who is breeding anymore, there are so many of them. I curious about something, though. And it"s off topic. But I was wondering how people treat tb now. I had a problem years ago, losing one fish every week or so. no sign of ich, clamped fins or any other problem. I lost a breeding pair of angelfish, and that got me mad. Come hell or high water I was going to figure out why they were dying. Not much on line about it,so I went to the library and took out every book on fish disease I could find. After much very dry reading, I figured out it was picine tuberculosis. back then pet stores sold isoniazid. this med is still used on people in some parts of the world. anyway, tb is transferred through cannibalism,not through the water. the med was expensive, so after a while I watched the fish more closely. At the first sign of a problem the got the fish the hey out of the tank, and the cycle of death stopped. So, what is the standard treatment for tb now? Do they still sell a medication for it, or do people just use quarantine as the standard treatment. I"m curious to know.

I tend to over clean my tanks, so probably wont be getting shrimp. anyway its too small a tank at 10 gallons. only live stuff are fish,so its the perfect tank for using cupramine. there were literally thousands of those damn snails in there, never would a plastic trap have made a dent in a population that large. I don't like loaches or catfish,and they end up dying because there is not enough food for them. I have a fish overpopulation problem because they keep breeding. And some of the fish are 3-4 years old, so nobody ever dies. I have been using clove oil to euthanize them because I can"t donate them. I feel bad about doing it but I don"t know of another solution.

i have a bunch of medical bills right now,so i am going for the cheap version.. im waiting three days and then doing water change. if i use cuprasorb then i also have to get muriatic acid, so i am just using carbon. this tank is being used as an experiment. I have more fish then I can handle because they wont stop breeding. so as long as I don"t mix it with the sodium thiosulfate in api stress coat I should be ok. so far so good. still no visible snails. I will still have to redose on occasion because of the snail eggs, but anyway thats the plan. if all goes well I will do the same with my other tank. so far happy with the cupramine.

wow! i have been struggling with little tiny hugely annoying snails for a long time. I have at least a million in my ten gallon tank.I was scared off using cupramine, but it was the last straw with those snails attached all over the aquarium glass, looked like the tank had the measels. Anyhow finally used it, and within 15 minutes they were GONE! I know they are still in the substrate but that doesn't bother me. I just don't want to look at them. fish are fine. sorry it took me so long to use it. I underdosed a little, I wont use dechlorinater for a couple of days. I dont have real plants because i kill the real ones. But I recommend using it . worked quickly. no bad effects

Thanks for plant suggestions. I put names of the plants in the fish file I keep.I found out the petco near me does not correct the hard water here,so I will get plants there as they should already be acclimated. I don't have a pet shop available so I have to buy from big chain pet stores

I use sea chem neutral regulator,API stress coat and small amount of baking soda. My ph is 7.6, kh is 4, but can't change the GH because my tap water is liquid rock. My tanks are too small for RO system,,and also out of budget. Lugging distilled water not practical. can I grow live plants in this,or will it kill the plants?

The photo actually makes them look bigger. One of these fits on the head of a pin. I think a lot of them are already dead because I only see a few moving at a time. I have practically no algae in my tank,and frankly they seem kind of dumb,if snails can be dumb.they are never on top of where the algae is, they only hang out where the filter shoots water out with the most Force. I'm going to try removing gravel with water changes and will see if that helps. If it turns out a lot of them are dead it should help. So I guess I will wait and see if it helps

I think what you suggest is the right way to go.I plan an removing some gravel with each water change,if that's not enough will remove all gravel and replace.

I really don't have a choice about putting old aquarium water done the drain. I have health issues and live on second floor of apartment building without an elevator. The people in my building would also complain if I dumped it out on the grass, and anyway it go back into ground water. I hope water treatment for drinking water will kill them. Or just drying them out in the heat until I believe they will be dead. I am holding off on using chemicals for now

I think I might just remove a cup of gravel with water changes, that will remove a couple hundred of them,and then put that in a bucket on my balcony.i live in Arizona so they will dry out and cook in the heat. After awhile I can throw away in garbage. I will change the gravel to natural from black so you at least can't see them. I don't feed every day so I don't think I am over feeding.

Now I'm scared. They look very similar. I got them from a privately owned fish store, I think. So their eggs float in the water? I can keep the snails them selves out of water changes,but are there eggs you can't see in the water? I have them in both my tanks. What do you use to kill snails like this?

I will do photo later today. They are hard to see,but man! There are millions of them. So,here's a picture of the little pests. They appear larger than They really are,two of them could fit on the head of a pin.I have plastic plants ( because I kill the real ones) and just fish,nothing else. Can anyone recommend a chemical I can use to rid of them. Also is there a strong siphon that will remove the bodies? Maybe someone should invent one.I would buy it in a heartbeat

I will do photo later today. They are hard to see,but man! There are millions of them

I think I have snails but not sure.they are soo tiny,one can fit on the tip of a pen. There's millions of them in the gravel,where I can't really see them.my siphon isn't strong enough to suck them out of the aquarium. does anyone know what these things are? They eat algae but I don't have much algae in my tank. Is there a siphon with a motor that could remove these pests? I don't want to replace both my aquariums because of much expense and work. Hope some one knows what these things are

For 20 gallon tank I used this formula for safe: 2 teaspoons/120 ml, equals 1 teaspoon/60 ml, so one ml is 1/60th of a teaspoon.but I think safe powder is not the best choice for small tanks, fritz makes a good product I hear,and now I use api stress coat. That 1/60th of a teaspoon is too small to put in water changes,it would take hours to work. I have used more than that for water changes and it doesn't seem to hurt anything,but there are better choices for small aquariums than seachem safe.

Zenzo thanks for info. I think I will give up on sea chem safe,the manufacturer won't say it isnt made for small aquariums but I think that's the case. Will try fritz complete after I use up API stress coat which is what I have for now

I can get the dose of 1/60th a teaspoon of seachem safe powder for 20 gallon right,so is chemically accurate,but because it is so small a dose,I think it would take maybe 10 hours or more to dwell in replacement water for it to work,as opposed to api stress coat which can mix in water quickly. Does anyone have a thought on this? Maybe seachem safe is not appropriate for small tanks.