How to treat plants before adding?

[Zen4t5]

I just setup my 20G L for about 3weeks now. Right now I have a sword and a java fern, but I have more on the way. I plan to plant pretty heavily.

Now my problem. About half an hour after a water change, I noticed 3 tiny snails on the glass. I removed the snails by hand. That was 3 days ago. Today I found another one, but lost him in the flourite. I hate snails. This is completely a personal thing. I plan to get a yoyo loach for the snails. Now my question is what can i do to treat new plants?

 

[kveeti]

Specifically for snails: Alum (aluminum sulfate). You can buy it at a grocery store (spice section, most commonly used for pickling), it's a white powder. These are the instructions I have copied down from somewhere a long time ago: Use 1 tablespoon of alum per gallon of water. Soak the plants a minimum of 20 minutes, up to a maximum of 2 hours. A two-day soak will kill snails and their eggs. Avoid using this method on extremely fragile plants. I quarantine my plants, anyway, and then if I notice snails, I take out the plants and treat them in a basin or jar. I have used it on java moss, java ferns and crypts.

Note, after I rinse really really really well in multitude water changes.

 

[VeryLongFishPoo]

I had about 200 snails in a 29 gallon tank. Upon moving my live plants to a 40 gallon (new tank), I also used Alum for 30 minutes. Not one snail survived the spicy-trials.

 

[Zen4t5]

Soak the plants a minimum of 20 minutes, up to a maximum of 2 hours. A two-day soak will kill snails and their eggs.

I am confused by this. How can I do a 2 day soak when max time is 2 hours?

 

[ibjhb]

I was wondering that too