Snails for my cycling planted tank

[Jess]

My 17-gallon tank has been running for 3 weeks.  It's full of plants - some melting, some kinda chillin', and some taking off.  More details and tank parameters at the end for those interested.

I'm so grateful to see some baby snails that hatched in the tank (first saw 2 as teeny-tiny specks on 12/14, and now they are a bit bigger and I see more).  I'm glad they are around to start cleaning up some of the dead and dying plant matter.  My question is this: I'd like to control this snail population naturally, and I don't plan to add snail-eating fish to this tank.  I know that if I can keep the food source limited, I have a good chance at limiting their population.  I don't really mind them...they are helping me now.  What I don't want to happen is their population explodes because of all the plant matter available now, and then once the tank stabilizes, the plants take off, and I add fish in a couple of months, the snails start dying off and causing problems when I can't find their little dead bodies in and amongst the plants!  So, I'm considering adding one or two nerite snails.  They are larger, so they'll eat more and if they die I stand a better chance of finding them.  My thought is they'd help "absorb" the excess plant matter and thus control the pond snail population to a reasonable level.  I can't easily vacuum or snip the dead matter because it causes the plants to uproot from the soil, and I'm giving them a chance to melt and come back.

Any thoughts from the crowd?  Is this a good idea?  Do you have a better suggestion?  Am I worrying about this too much?  (Also, comments on the timing...should I wait until the nitrites are 0 or will that give the snails too much of an edge, LOL?)

Thanks, everyone!

 

More tank details:  It's got ADA aquasoil (wanted to try something different) and pressurized CO2 (about 1 bps).  It's consistently running at pH 6.4, KH and GH 2 degrees, and total ammonia 1-2ppm.  Nitrites 0ppm until two days ago, when they started spiking to 3 ppm.  Nitrates have been around 0-2.5ppm (probably from the rainwater; I use a combo of rainwater and tap), but now at 20ppm (they were 10ppm the day after I dosed Easy Green for the first time).  In this 3-week period I have added some FritzZyme 7, and I also left all the rock wool in from my various plant shipments over the past 3 weeks (I bought from 4 different sources, including Aquarium Coop). 

[Dawn T]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you wait until plants are well established (no more melting) and the snail population stabilizes fully, you won't need to worry about any snail die-off causing spikes. Wait until after that happens and the water parameters are good to add fish. That's what I'd do, anyway.

[Jess]

Thank you!  That sounds like a good plan.

[Frank223]

On 12/23/2020 at 12:30 PM, Jess said:

My 17-gallon tank has been running for 3 weeks.  It's full of plants - some melting, some kinda chillin', and some taking off.  More details and tank parameters at the end for those interested.

I'm so grateful to see some baby snails that hatched in the tank (first saw 2 as teeny-tiny specks on 12/14, and now they are a bit bigger and I see more).  I'm glad they are around to start cleaning up some of the dead and dying plant matter.  My question is this: I'd like to control this snail population naturally, and I don't plan to add snail-eating fish to this tank.  I know that if I can keep the food source limited, I have a good chance at limiting their population.  I don't really mind them...they are helping me now.  What I don't want to happen is their population explodes because of all the plant matter available now, and then once the tank stabilizes, the plants take off, and I add fish in a couple of months, the snails start dying off and causing problems when I can't find their little dead bodies in and amongst the plants!  So, I'm considering adding one or two nerite snails.  They are larger, so they'll eat more and if they die I stand a better chance of finding them.  My thought is they'd help "absorb" the excess plant matter and thus control the pond snail population to a reasonable level.  I can't easily use my pond vacuum or snip the dead matter because it causes the plants to uproot from the soil, and I'm giving them a chance to melt and come back.

Any thoughts from the crowd?  Is this a good idea?  Do you have a better suggestion?  Am I worrying about this too much?  (Also, comments on the timing...should I wait until the nitrites are 0 or will that give the snails too much of an edge, LOL?)

Thanks, everyone!

 

More tank details:  It's got ADA aquasoil (wanted to try something different) and pressurized CO2 (about 1 bps).  It's consistently running at pH 6.4, KH and GH 2 degrees, and total ammonia 1-2ppm.  Nitrites 0ppm until two days ago, when they started spiking to 3 ppm.  Nitrates have been around 0-2.5ppm (probably from the rainwater; I use a combo of rainwater and tap), but now at 20ppm (they were 10ppm the day after I dosed Easy Green for the first time).  In this 3-week period I have added some FritzZyme 7, and I also left all the rock wool in from my various plant shipments over the past 3 weeks (I bought from 4 different sources, including Aquarium Coop). 

Hey, Jess! How did you decide it finally? I'm thinking about nerite snails too. I got 20 gallon tank(this) but I'm sure that size doesn't matter, does it? 

Edited March 14, 2022 by Frank223

[Jess]

2 hours ago, Frank223 said:

Hey, Jess! How did you decide it finally? I'm thinking about nerite snails too.

Hi Frank.  In the end, I didn't get nerite snails.  My water is very soft, I remineralize to 5-6 dGH - a happy balance for the needs of both my plants and fish - but I don't feel like that's enough for nerite snails long-term.  My pond and ramshorn snails don't get over-populated...the population always stays about the same.  They do a fantastic job cleaning up decaying/dying plant matter and I really think they play a crucial role in my tank's stability (I can go even a couple of weeks without a water change, if necessary, without excess algae growth).  My original ramshorns (from January) have all died by now I think...and I find their shells sometimes with a lot of holes in them.  😔 So I think ramshorns prefer harder water than pond snails.  Seeing this, I definitely wouldn't put nerites in - for the sake of their own wellbeing.  But if you have hard water, they should be totally fine.  

I hope that's helpful!