Using Alum with Prime (or Fritz Complete), Root Tabs and Easy Green

[Alesha]

I've started up a 20-gallon to grow out some plants. Just ones that I have here already. No big plans, just thought I'd see what I could do with them.

Does anyone know - if I dose the tank with Alum to take out all snails and eggs, while using the above mentioned chemicals, will they all play together nicely?

Does the Alum cause the Root Tabs and Easy Green to fail? Does the water conditioner negate the Alum? Lots of chemical equations and such going on there and I am no chemist. So I'm asking here, in case somebody else has that knowledge and information.

Many thanks in advance,

Alesha

[Irene]

Sorry to hear about your snail problems! I've played with alum a bunch, but always in a quarantine tub with no substrate, no fertilizers, and no dechlorinator. Unfortunately I don't have any experience nuking an entire tank and can't recommend it without more experimentation. 😅 Also, I've had two plants (guppy grass and pearl weed) that reacted badly to it, so be aware that some plants are too delicate even for alum. 

If you have a stem plant that needs pruning, you could throw the clippings into a small plastic container and conduct an experiment to see what happens to the trimmings if you add alum, fertilizers, and water conditioner together. In my brief Google search, I didn't see anything about adverse chemical reactions, so do some more thorough research to be sure. Let me know what happens!

[Alesha]

Thanks, @Irene.  I don't mind the snails in my fish tanks.  I just wanted to see if I could manage a snail-free plant grow-out tank. 😉

That's a great idea to do an experiment with it! If I do get to that,  I'll let you know. Thanks so much!