Question about filling the tank with water and snails!

yes, fill the tank all the way up. i have it about 1/2" above the bottom of the black ring so you cannot see it.

do you have live plants in the tank? what kind of substrait do you have?

i have a few pond snails in my tank and i just pull them out when i see them. i have not found very many, maybe 10 total, and haven't seen any in at least 3 weeks.

i think the height that you fill the tank depends on your tank equipment and on your own personal preference. some filters are so low (like my whisper internal filter) that my water level has to be an inch below the black rim or else it is higher than the walls of the filter. you want to have water movement at the surface of the tank - as long as you have that, then it's okay.

as for the snails, have you added any plants to the tank lately? they often hitch hike that way. make sure you're not overfeeding and clean the gravel regularly to get rid of any excess food the snails are getting. that will cut down on their breeding and maybe cause them to die back a little. if you get something like a jelly jar and put a lettuce leaf or algae wafers in there and leave it in the tank overnight, you can take it out in the morning and it'll probably be covered in snails. freeze them and throw them away, don't set them free.

When you buy live plants from LPS, usually there is snail egg attach to the plants already. That's probably where it came from.

I personally like having snails in the tank because they take good cares of algae for me. Whenever they start multiplying, I just remove them by hand.

Snails often hitch rides on plants when brought from your LFS. They do sell container plants that are snail free, but often the plants are not as healthy. They do sell products to get rid of them like " Had a Snail " but use with caution. The jelly jar idea is probably the best way to get rid of them. Snails do help some tanks by eating algae and uneaten food. The only problem I have found with them ( the larger ones really, 1/4 inch or more) is a dead snail becomes very toxic so watch if you have a lot.

I told a LFS about this problem and they said to soak the plants in lime, but there is a product out called "Lime-It" by Aquatronics that kills the snails and their eggs before they overpopulate your tank.

For the snails try loaches. Depending on what size tank you have yo-yos might be a good choice. Personally I think that snails are good. If they overpopulate to quickly then most likely you have poor water conditions.

I second the Yo-Yo loach idea. They tend to keep the snail population in check.

Its best not to add chemicals to remove snails. Try to remove them by hand, and clean out any eggs you see. They look like little jelly splotches. Just becaue your store says they clean the plants, it doesn't mean that they do it well.

The only problem with adding fish to solve problems is, his tank might be stocked or maybe he doesn't want (or can have) any of those kind of fish. It is an option though.