Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Ok, I've moved out the shrimp and most of the snails. A few hours, between netting the larger ones, and siphoning the tiny ones with airline tubing. I halfway emptied the tank in the process (10 gallon) nad refilled with hot tap water dechlorinated. The temp is only 90, and the heater wasn't designed to slow-cook anything, only goes to 92 on its temp scale. How do I raise the temp to 110 for several hours?

why do you want to?
get the thermostat to stay turned on, dodgy old heaters often stick in the on postion, not nice if you dont want it

just add boiling water

andrew

Be carefull adding boiling water, you'll crack the tank.

My heaters have separate temperature probes. I can just pull the sensor out of the water and it stays on.

Just go to the LFS and get a VERY cheap heater that will enable you to raise the water temporature.

I decided to go with my original idea, and dosed the tank with copper sulfate. The temp wouldn't go any higher than 90, but the hydra and remaining snails are all dead. Now I'm changing the water, and will restock the tank when it's refilled with fresh water. I thought about using boiling water, but don't think the plants would appreciate that method.

You'll need to change the water more than once. Be sure to test for copper before any shrimp or snails go back in.

I siphoned the water out, then rinsed the tank/plants/gravel with 5 gallons of fresh (dechlorinated) water. Siphoned that out, and refilled the tank. I also put a fresh cartridge in the hob filter, though the sponge filter was removed before I started. So far, (15 hours later) all seems well. The shrimp do seem more active than they were before, possibly because there's a stronger current from the hob filter. I completely rearranged the plants in the process. I had to move most out to catch the shrimp, then put back in to treat the tank. The surface was half-covered with riccia and duckweed. Now the riccia is mostly wrapped together, and at least half of the duckweed was lost in the process. The crushed coral/gravel substrate is clean though, and the snail population has been reduced by at least 1/3.
No more hydra, less competition from the snails (temporarily), and a clean tank. If they aren't dead within a week, I'll count it as very successful

Your tank hasn't cycled, so you may have some issues with your amonia and pH. Best of luck to you.

Does copper kill the bacteria as well? I did move the sponge filter out before treatment, so I know it's still active.
I have another sponge filter running in a 29 that can be moved if necessary. It's sole purpose is for just such use.

If you have a good bio load in the sponge, you should be OK

Before I started stocking with clown loaches, I had a bad battle with snails several times. I would flush the tank with hot water mixed with bleach, including all the equipment. Somehow, I must have missed something, becuase I started seeing snails again. I'm assuming it was from snail eggs I missed somewhere.

So be prepared to repeat this process several times, if necessary.

crazie.eddie wrote:Before I started stocking with clown loaches, I had a bad battle with snails several times. I would flush the tank with hot water mixed with bleach, including all the equipment. Somehow, I must have missed something, becuase I started seeing snails again. I'm assuming it was from snail eggs I missed somewhere.

So be prepared to repeat this process several times, if necessary.

I think the OP was trying to rid the tank of hydra...not snails.