andspencer11

I am cycling my tank and it has been about a week. I bought a piece of driftwood with a plant on it.

Yesterday I noticed a snail on it. It is small, a little smaller than a pencil eraser. His shell is somewhat clear. Should I remove this little guy? or let him be? so far there is only one that I know of.

Thanks,
Andrew

andspencer11

I forgot to add...
The snail comes out during the day. But I dont really look for him when its dark.

And could you look at my water test readings? I am cycling and went fishless. I added ammonia until it was 5 PPM. and used a little cycle to get things moving.

Thanks again

Barbrella

Without seeing it, I would say you have a pond snail. They can multiply into huge numbers in a tank, but often if you make sure there's no leftover fish food hanging around, they might not become a nuisance.

As for your cycle, just keep doing partial water changes. The product "Cycle" is actually pretty useless.

Lucy

I don't think having the snail in there counts as a fishless cycle because it is producing ammonia.

Adding ammonia for a fishless cyle will probably kill it.

I agree with Barbrella, cycle contains the wrong kind of bacteria.

According to your water readings, you're tank's not cycled.
Pretty close though if you started with a reading of 6.

Your tank will be cycled when your readings are 0 for both ammonia and nitrites with some nitrates showing.

Good luck.

clinton1621

I would say he will most likely die anyway from the ammonia and nitrites in the tank... so I would take it out to prevent more waste when he does

Lucy

Gotcha, clinton

clinton1621

Wow those typing classes work fast

welshalien

I read here about someone who actually uses snails to cycle with -- they said they had good luck with it and that the snails don't appear to be affected by the ammonia or nitrites in the tank. Can't remember who it was though . I'll see if I can find the thread....

Kelly

Edit: here the link to the thread -- http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/fr...tml#post414370

clinton1621

I would personally say it was just that, luck and nothing else... ammonia is toxic to every living animal.

welshalien

You're probably right about it being luck, Clinton -- I did find the thread and edited my previous post to include the link. I don't recommend the process, just knew I'd read about someone doing it. And for once, I was able to put my fingers right on it! Usually, I'd drive myself crazy for days trying to figure out where I'd seen it!!

Kelly

andspencer11

should I do partial water changes while cycling the tank? I have been trying to find a little more information and have not found anything about that.

Thanks for the replies!

welshalien

if you have removed the snail, then you're cycling fishless and don't need to do water changes during the cycling. if the snail is still in there, you need to do water changes.

Kelly

andspencer11

ok, good! I did remove the snail this morning. I don't feel like having a snail or snails at the moment. He must have hitch-hiked on the piece of planted driftwood I bought.

The cycling is going smoothly so far. I didn't check the water yet today, but it seems to be making progress everyday.

My tap water has a little less than 5ppm of nitrates. Will this cause any problems?



So once the ammonia and nitrites are at 0, I should add enough ammonia to see the nitrites go up a little?

clinton1621

No... once the ammonia and nitrite levels BOTH go all the way down to 0 and you see an increase in nitrates then you are completely cycled... adding more ammonia after this point will only make your tank cycle even longer.

Also with 5 ppm nitrates right out of the tap you definitely need to keep regular weekly water changes up or your nitrates will get excessively high... which leads to algae and even fish stress if it gets really high (25 ppm and up). One thing you could also do to help with nitrates is live plants, they actually use it as a food source =)

andspencer11

I was planning on doing weekly water changes anyway but there is more reason to do so now.

I do have plants in there currently. I was using a light that only had 40 watts so that was only .75 watts per gallon. The plants were not looking all that great. I returned that light yesterday and got one that gives me 3 watts per gallon.

Butterfly

welshalien - I think that person was using snails to cycle like someone else would use fish but that isn't fishless ( or creatureless ) cycling, so would have to do water changes during cycling to keep the ammonia levels at a tolerable level.

During fishless cycling the ammonia being added is store bought and the levels can get quite high, but this is good because the cycle goes faster.
Carol

Ghostfish

There were problem snail eggs on the plants. I had some sneak into my tank as well. I see those little pond snails show up every so often. I just toss them out into the yard.

Butterfly

It's always a god thing to dip plants before adding them to your tank if you don't want snails. There are several dips that can be used.
http://www.aquajake.com/blog/plantin...fore-or-after/
Carol

andspencer11

butterfly, thanks for the link!

Butterfly

welcome
Carol

Ghostfish

Good link, but I am just too lazy for that. My black ghost knife will be large enough to eat them soon. That saves me time in feeding him, killing snails, and dipping plants.

Yay circle of life.

Butterfly

Yes I understand I used to raise snails for my clown loaches too BUT... for someone who doesn't want snails a quick dip is the answer
Carol