Help! Unwanted rapidly growing Snail population

in addition to not overfeeding, make sure to increase water changes. You should be vacuuming the gravel at least once a week, as well. Those two things (in conjunction with reducing feeding) will reduce the amount of leftover food that allow the snail populations to grow.
 
I had the same problem in my 10 gallon a few months ago. I was told by LFS to put a lettuce leaf on top of the water when the light goes out. The snails went to the lettuce leaf over night and I was able to remove them the next morning. It took me 3 days of the lettuce treatment, but I finally did remove all of them. I did discover that they hitched a rid on some anacharis I purchased.
 
yup, snails are VERY common hitchhikers on aquatic plants. That's why some people dip their new plants in potassium permanganate or a dilute bleach solution. I do the dilute bleach (1 part bleach to 20 parts water) for a few seconds. It kills the snails almost instantly and you'll see then fall to the bottom. Then, just rinse the plant off really well in tap water and dip it in another container of water treated with extra dechlorinator. Bleach is just a concentrated chlorine compound, so is neutralized by the tap water conditioner.
 
I learned that lesson the hard way. I use the bleach method on all the plants I purchased from that snail outbreak point on. It is so hard to find any snail free plants.
 
Kamryn said:
It is so hard to find any snail free plants.
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totally. Just be careful with sensitive plants. So far I haven't had any problems, but limiting it to 5 seconds or less should be OK for most plants. This method also works great for algae on the plants or your decorations :)
 
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