Had anyone tried this before - use H2O2 to eliminate the snails.
I had read somewhere sometimes ago that most plants do not care about low dosage of H2O2. As looking at my shrimp tanks (with countless snails in it and maybe hundreds of snail egg clusters), sudeently H2O2 jumps into my mind.
I did a quick test. I grab a 32 oz container and fill it with water and several snails from the tank. Then I add about 1/4 oz H2O2 (bought from Walmart, I ude it for angelfish hatching tanks). Guess what, all snails died in less than a minutes.
So I just need to move all shrimps to other tanks (no need to touch the plants, rocks, drift woods, etc). With 50cents or less (32oz bottle of 3% H2O2 fro Walmart is 92 cent + tax ==> $1) for each 20gal tank, I can eliminate all snails in less than a minute (maybe need to treat one more time a new days later after all snail eggs hatched).
Anyone knows what is the safe dosage of H2O2 for plants?
By the way, I was surprised to find out daphnia do not care about H2o2.
H2O2 to kill snails
Moderator: Mustafa
-
chlorophyll
- Shrimp
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:22 am
- Location: Hawaii - USA
From a trial that I've done with average pond snails involved, I've seen that plants will be hurt/bleached by H2O2 at levels lower than what would be needed to detroy the snail population. The plants I used were a few types of aquatic mosses and elodea. Strangely enough, the hair algae I had also outlasted the plants. Many snails may die, but just a few survivors is all they need.
Ouch! Your reply came in a bit late.
About half an hour after I post the message, I decided to give it a try (my thought it if the plants do not survive, I can re-plant the tank with plants from other tanks).
I picked a 20gal tank (because all shrimps in it are adult shrimps that are easy to find). I moved all shrimps to other tanks. Then I added in about 15oz of 3% H2O2. Instantly many tiny bubbles start... and snails started falling to the bottom of the tank one after one and started twisting their bodies.
As in the morning, there is no moving snails in the tanks. The only moving things are daphnia (I have some daphnia in the tanks. So the water does not turn green). I have Java Moss, Chrismas moss, duckweed, and several other plants (can't remember the names). At this point, I did not see obvious damage to the plants.
Time will tell ...
About half an hour after I post the message, I decided to give it a try (my thought it if the plants do not survive, I can re-plant the tank with plants from other tanks).
I picked a 20gal tank (because all shrimps in it are adult shrimps that are easy to find). I moved all shrimps to other tanks. Then I added in about 15oz of 3% H2O2. Instantly many tiny bubbles start... and snails started falling to the bottom of the tank one after one and started twisting their bodies.
As in the morning, there is no moving snails in the tanks. The only moving things are daphnia (I have some daphnia in the tanks. So the water does not turn green). I have Java Moss, Chrismas moss, duckweed, and several other plants (can't remember the names). At this point, I did not see obvious damage to the plants.
Time will tell ...
Just remind myself one thing: I had already added some H2O2 to a shrimp tank un-intentionally for weeks so far:
I have a 2 1/2 gal tank that I hold pregnant cherry red shrimps in order to collect the newly hatched baby shrimps to start new shrimp tanks. At a point (before I moved it to its current place), it also had a lot of snails. The tank is now next to the tanks I raise baby angelfish. For baby angelfish tanks, as I change water, I do add some H2O2 to the aged water to be added to the tanks.
I had already added the same H2O2 treated water to this 2 1/2 gal tank to make up the evaperated amount.
That explains why the tiny snails disappeared in this tank and a few large red ramhorn snails I purposely added were also dead (I was wondering why they died. Now I think H2O2 must be the reason).
However the pregnant female cherry red shrimps do not have (or show) any problem. Also the Java Moss in this tank also shows no problem and grows like crazy.
I have a 2 1/2 gal tank that I hold pregnant cherry red shrimps in order to collect the newly hatched baby shrimps to start new shrimp tanks. At a point (before I moved it to its current place), it also had a lot of snails. The tank is now next to the tanks I raise baby angelfish. For baby angelfish tanks, as I change water, I do add some H2O2 to the aged water to be added to the tanks.
I had already added the same H2O2 treated water to this 2 1/2 gal tank to make up the evaperated amount.
That explains why the tiny snails disappeared in this tank and a few large red ramhorn snails I purposely added were also dead (I was wondering why they died. Now I think H2O2 must be the reason).
However the pregnant female cherry red shrimps do not have (or show) any problem. Also the Java Moss in this tank also shows no problem and grows like crazy.
-
chlorophyll
- Shrimp
- Posts: 218
- Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:22 am
- Location: Hawaii - USA
Well, it kinda sounds good if you put in the treatment and the snails got irradicated in one shot. Your snails really respond to the treatment it seems. I don't know much about snail species. My pond snails look more or less like these shells with larger specimens being 6-10 mm (usually not larger than 6-7 mm).
My plants may have suffered more because I submitted dose after dose on progressive days. They might be fine if it's just one shot. I dosed at about 5 ml / 2 L (using 3% H2O2). Also I had the trial running near some pretty strong lighting. May have decayed the peroxide too quickly? I really don't know.
I can say that peroxide in brackish water is probably a bad idea. I don't really understand the chemistry of it, but I was making some microalgae culture and decided to try sterilizing the brackish culture water several days before adding microalgae.... not even considering the peroxide might react with salt water differently instead of decaying cleanly. Every time I tried to infuse the water with algae cells, the water was clear again the next day. Could have also reacted to the algae ferts. What a dumb idea!
Luckily I didn't kill my stock cells, even though I did use that same culture water on the original algae culture disk... I don't know what the heck went on; just knew I did something stupid
My plants may have suffered more because I submitted dose after dose on progressive days. They might be fine if it's just one shot. I dosed at about 5 ml / 2 L (using 3% H2O2). Also I had the trial running near some pretty strong lighting. May have decayed the peroxide too quickly? I really don't know.
I can say that peroxide in brackish water is probably a bad idea. I don't really understand the chemistry of it, but I was making some microalgae culture and decided to try sterilizing the brackish culture water several days before adding microalgae.... not even considering the peroxide might react with salt water differently instead of decaying cleanly. Every time I tried to infuse the water with algae cells, the water was clear again the next day. Could have also reacted to the algae ferts. What a dumb idea!
Luckily I didn't kill my stock cells, even though I did use that same culture water on the original algae culture disk... I don't know what the heck went on; just knew I did something stupid