here's what i did. i took out all the tank water, and reserved 25%. then i removed all plants and decorations, and set them in a dish pan so the snails wouldn't be crawling all over the floor. get a five gallon bucket and fill it up with hot, hot, hot, water. dump the hot water into the tank. all the snails will die, but your bacteria will die, too, so make sure you have stress zyme, or cycle or something like it. siphon out the hot water, and sift through the gravel to remove all the dead snails you can, so they wont pollute the water. next put some hot water in a bowl or ice cream bucket, but not too hot to put your hands in. mix in enough table salt until it can't disonve anymore, and add a little more. dip all plants (including live) and decorations in for about ten seconds. the snails will fall right off, and it kills the eggs, too. when you set up your tank again, add your commercial bacteria every day for about four days to really get your cycle going. with stress zyme or cycle, add 2 tsp. per ten gallons. i've never had any problems with my live plants after the salt dip. i dip them this way before i put them in my tank.