# Killing everything on supplies by freezing?



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Does anyone know for SURE if freezing kills ALL parasites?

I was told that if I completely dry out my HOB and filter media, then freeze it outside overnight, that it will kill any malysian trumpet snails and or pond snails.

I want to know for SURE if this is true?


----------



## ndblaikie (Oct 12, 2011)

It will not only kill them probably but it will also kill all the good bacteria meaning you will also have to recycle the filter.

If you are using co2 overdose it as well, the snails hate it and will come to surface where they can be picked off.

Do you have any fish in the tank? and if so what?


----------



## ndblaikie (Oct 12, 2011)

Adding a clown loach to the tank if at all possible is a good way to get rid of MTS.

If they are becoming a problem then you are overfeeding, cut down on the feeding and the snails will die off.

They are active at night, so you can just net them out the tank when they come out after lights out.


----------



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

The tank has been taken down for a few months already. I would just like to use the HOB on another tank since its an AquaClear (=good one)...

does anyone know if freezing my filter will kill malysian trumpet snails 100%?


----------



## ndblaikie (Oct 12, 2011)

If the tank has been taken down, then there can be no possible food source for the snails to live on.

If the filter is dry already then wash it with a bleach solution, rinse it very well and let it dry thoroughly.

If you are just wanting to kill the snails then boil them.

Do you have snails or are just wondering how to get rid of them in another tank?

Slightly confused.

I would avoid freezing as the plastic will become very brittle and you risk cracking it.,


----------



## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

I would not freeze a aquaclear filter. The plastic is brittle enough as it is. Just use bleach and water and rinse well. You should be good to go.


----------



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I have a fishroom. One tank somehow got Malysian Trumpet Snails in it - probably off a plant.

I removed all fish, and poured 3 cups of bleach in the 40gal tank. I ran this thru the filter for a couple days. Then did a massive waterchange and snails were still alive! So I drained the tank and let the filter dry out. Now its been sitting for a few months and I'd like to move the filter onto another tank. The filter is completely dried out, but I really dont want trumpet snails in any of my tanks.

So thats why I'm wondering about freezing as a last resort... just to be 100% sure they dont transfer to another tank...


----------



## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

None of the health agencies recommend freezing as a way to disinfect things as far as I know. I would not relie on it with MTS and they are certainly a problem that I would not wish on anybody. Bleaching for at least overnight would be far better to me.


----------



## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Sorry. Posting at the same time as you. I suspect that there were areas on the filter where eggs were laid and while running the filter the bleach did not reach the eggs or they could have been in some spot where it was damp enough to live but not enough chlorine to kill them. This is a problem that I'm going to have to deal with at some point as I have them in my tank. They can live almost indefinitly in damp substrate.


----------



## ndblaikie (Oct 12, 2011)

I would bleach absolutely everything in the tank again. With a high concentration of bleach, rinse it very very well and that will kill most, if not all the snails eggs.

Any easier option as well, get a bottle of ich medication which contains copper sulfate and rinse the filter in it. This will 100% kill the snails and any eggs that may have survived as copper is lethal to 99.9% of all inverts.


----------



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Since the bleach didnt seem to work in the tank - what abour Vinegar?


----------



## areuben (Jul 17, 2003)

Beachtan,
I am with you on this one. I recently had an issue with MTS in a large 225. Very frustrating. I have since sold the tank, but what I have done with equipment, etc I would have done regardless. I've heard too many stories about people bleaching, etc for MTS and still having problems afterwards. Seems the snails can close their valves and hold out for quite a period of time. By the way, MTS don't lay eggs, they lay live young and they are real tiny. Anyhow, I bleached everything that I kept from the tank - filters (2 Eheim 2262 cannisters) and large rocks since many of them were between 15 and 50 pounds and were nice river rock, similar to holy rock but beige in color, called river rock here in Canada. Lots of nooks and crannies in these rocks. Anyways, after bleaching and scrubbing I left the rocks and all other material to dry for 6-8 weeks, and I still found small MTS shells on the floor under the rocks where this material was left to dry. After this long-term drying which I assumed would have killed everything, I took everything and left it outside in below freezing weather for several days - pretty easy here in Canada at this time of year. I figured if any MTS miraculously made it through the drying, that freezing would surely kill them as it wouldn't take much to freeze their small body size. I just wanted to be sure that I wouldn't face this problem again. I did the same with the filter bio material from the filters, dried it out and then let it freeze outside for several days. Being that these large Eheims hold a S***load of filter material, I wasn't excatly going to throw the stuff out.
Good luck.


----------



## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

Assassin snails. I'm amazed more people haven't heard of them. Order a group of them they will decimate pond/ramshorn/MTS completely down to zero and they themselves are unlikely to reproduce. Also very attractive snails. Keep 5 to 8 in a 20 gal and you'll never see any other kind of snail again. It'll take a month or two for them to kill off all the other snails. It's a very pretty black and yellow banded snail. It won't attack large snails like apple snails only snails of equal or lesser size will be preyed on. You'll barely ever notice them and it's a much more 'silent' way to control snails than say, loaches, which you may not like and are very obvious, but will also decimate snail populations. Assassin snails can burrow deep to chase down MTS under the gravel too. Great critter.

Freezing would also kill snails. But you don't need to go to such an extreme. Just leave assassin snails in your community tanks and other snails will not be a problem.

http://aplantedaquarium.com/wp-content/ ... -snail.jpg
^
That is the species you want


----------



## ndblaikie (Oct 12, 2011)

aquariam said:


> Assassin snails.


I was going to suggest them but have heard stories of them working wonders on MTS but then themselves dying off due to starvation.

If you use them and want to keep the assassin snails, make sure to have something to feed them with.


----------



## areuben (Jul 17, 2003)

I've also heard of assassin snails, yes, but when you're dealing with a large tank I don't believe assassins are going to get the job done adequately. I also hear they are not that great with the adult MTS. And you still have an issue with MTS which will find their way into filters, tubing, etc - they get everywhere. Assassin snails are also $2-3 apiece from any of the sellers that I have seen and a dozen or so assassin snails are going to make progress in a large tank at a "snails pace". In a 20G tank, sure I can pick them off individually and move around rocks. In a large tank with lots of aquascaping, good luck. And I also know that we can control the numbers of snails with lighter feedings, but if you keep fish that require heavy feedings or are messy eaters, that throws that option out the window and into the wind. Some people like snails and there are pros and cons like with everything else, but for me, I don't want them in my tanks, period. And only 1 MTS, which is asexual, is eventually a problem.


----------



## Woodworm (Jan 3, 2009)

Assassin Snails (Clea helena) do do a good job. I have them in a few of my tanks where they slowly but surely brought the other snails under control. I like the look of them and they are easier to introduce to the tank then the addition of some "snail eater" fish that may or may not work with the thanks inhabitants that are already there. I do have various loaches in other tanks but they were planned as part of stocking list because I like them their fondness for snails is just a side benefit. I still find snails and eggs in my HOB's and canisters when I do maintenance on them so ether "snail killer" types can't get in there so diligence is the key there. Having some MTS's in the tank isn't all bad since they spend much of the day burrowing in the sand turning it over helping prevent dead spots that can release poisonous gases into the tank.

On a side note...
I moved this last year and when I moved I placed all my substrate in plastic totes for transport and I left a few of them on the porch for a few weeks till I put it back in the tank and I found live MTS's in the totes. They survived for close to a month in nothing but damp "sand" with no addition of food, no air circulation and the wild temperature swings that were going on at the time.


----------



## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> Assassin Snails (Clea helena) do do a good job.


I've had similar good luck with these and like them for the same reasons.


----------



## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

All suggested remedies have failed to rid my tank. I have tried loaches (clown and yo-yo) assassin snails, picking them out and cutting back feeding. The last two are a total joke in a planted 55 gallons tank. There's not much point in starving the fish if the plants are still there to eat and I will never find ALL the snails that are less than a 1/16 inch in all that sand and gravel. Until I get to a point where the tank needs to be totalled, I am getting by with letting it be a growout tank for small haps. They pick at the snail when they see them out of the shell and it seems to have driven them underground where at least they are out of sight. When I pull a plant and have room, I take out a scoop and pick the snails out but isn't that a fun way to spend New Years eve?

When I do kill them it will be with bleach. A critical point on bleach is the contact time. It does need some time for the chemicals to react with the muscle holding the shell closed to get inside. A few hours may only give them the aquatic version of a sunburn! Twelve hours minimum with 24 being better.


----------



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

PfunMo said:


> When I do kill them it will be with bleach. A critical point on bleach is the contact time. It does need some time for the chemicals to react with the muscle holding the shell closed to get inside. A few hours may only give them the aquatic version of a sunburn! Twelve hours minimum with 24 being better.


Thats what i thought too - i poured a ton of bleach in there - so much that I got scared that the fumes would hurt the tank above!! So I diluted it down to about 3cups of bleach in the half-full 40gal tank. I ran the filter overnight with the bleach water - then just let everything sit cuz I got busy... it sat for days before I looked again and saw snails crawling up the sides! So I added another cup of bleach - then let it go for about 3 more days (too busy here!) and then finally drained the thing. I dont know if its cuz MTS have that "trap-door" thing and can hole up for days or what - when I first added the bleach I saw them all dropping off the glass so I thought I was all set! Maybe I have resistant super-snails!! :roll:

another thing - i think bleach dissapates with aeration... maybe running the filter was my problem. I dont know but I am really unsure if i should re-use my filter or just throw it out


----------



## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

Sometimes snails lay eggs above the waterline. You have to either make sure you fill the tank completely, or manually clean up around the tank rim. You don't need to run the filter, just put the whole thing down in the tank. There are also commercial products made to kill snails, but I haven't tried them.


----------



## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

You are correct that the chlorine does gass off from bleach. Several things tell you that. The first one is the smell! If it were not gassing off your nose would have nothing to smell. If you really want to prove it gases, leave the jug open near some really nice metal tools! Chlorine reacts with metal to make iron oxide. Some people call its RUST! 
It is not going to be a problem with other tanks. It is a problem to make it stay in the liquid bleach so once it is free in the gas form, it will not go back into liquid to settle in tanks like petroleum sprays might. May Stink quite a bit but that is because it all wants to be a gas and run up your nose.

The problem may be that the snails do avoid the bleach if possible. Since it only takes one or two to get them started again, possibly one was up near the rim where he could avoid the bleach water??? A bummer for sure.


----------



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks so much everyone! I had missed reading a few of the prior posts - so I'm going to freeze the filter and HOPE it doesnt become too brittle! then I'll get it running and see what happens. I think I'll add a few assassin snails to the tank just to make sure...

sounds like the post about the snail up by the rim could very well be what happened. And maybe I diluted the bleach too much when I got scared about the fumes - good to know now that bleach fumes cant get back into the water! :thumb: I was paranoid about that cuz when I lived in an apartment, they sprayed for bugs and the insecticide fumes got pulled into my tank thru the air pump which was on the floor and killed my huge pet oscars. terrible.


----------

