# Glutaraldehyde as snail killer



## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

Hi all 
Just wanted to report that glu does kill snails. 
My 50 g planted angelfish tank had an bad case of algae and snails. 
Due to my resetting & uprooting of plants a lot of substrate was disturbed and i had a bad attack of algae. 
snails has always been a problem in this tank. 
To take out algae I dosed 5 ml of 25% glu ( this is a very high dose), also I shut off all lights. The tank remained in dark for three days. 
On day 4 when lights were put on, all the algae had gone. I was very happy but did not notice that snails had also gone , but they were gone 
The procedure I followed is as below: 
Vaccum the gravel, change some water. Shut of lights and dosed 5 ml of concerntrated glu in my 50g tank. The specs are 50 g tanks, planted with vals, e tenneleus, glosso, h cuba, echinidorus, cabomba. 
The results were 
Flora: 
Algae- zapped, zero gone 
Snails- zapped zero gone 
vals- melted but still holding 
tenneleus- they were planted just 15 days back, leaves of some have died, don't know if this is effect of glu or not 
glosso- no effect 
H cuba- no effect 

Fauna 

Angels- No effect, in fact one of my black angles had fungus infection and an infected eye, she is fully healed. antibacterial effect of glu. not sure. 
Guppies: No effect. 

This was an unintended side effect of glu but is sure a very welcome one. 
I have not come across an effective remover of snails without proving disastorous to fish or plants. 
Please read more about glu before attempting it. 
Vals, moss, anarchias are damaged, I do not have information on other plants. 
Shrimps, invertibrates take a hit. 
Please post if any of you have similar effects.
Thank you


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

What % glu is in Seachem Flourish Excel?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Isn't 25% glutaraldehyde very high? 

By the way, I've always found that I can actually raise and lower snail populations very easily: feeding. If you have an explosion of snails, it is usually a sign of overfeeding.


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## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

Yes 25% is a very high concerntration. 
I have used 30 ml of this in one lit of water to arrive at 1.5% and used as replacement for Co2 fertilization.
In planted tanks overfeeding is not always a reason for snail population, although it does contribute to it.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Assuming the precentage is glutaraldehyde by volume:

25% = 250 mL/L

C1V1 = C2V2
C1 = 250 mL/L
V1 = 30 mL = 0.03 L
C2 = ?
V2 = 1 L or 1.03 L (depending on if you used 30 mL of glutaraldehyde and added water to make 1L, or if you added the 30 mL to 1L of water...but the difference is small). We'll use 1L

C2 = (C1 * V1) / V2 = (250 mL/L) * (0.03 L) / 1 L water
C2 = 0.0075 mL/L = 0.75%

This is about half of what you though it was.


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## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

epicfish said:


> Assuming the precentage is glutaraldehyde by volume:
> 
> 25% = 250 mL/L
> 
> ...


Whoops!! Sorry
It was 30 ml in 500 ml of water and not 1000ml or 1 lit.
Thanks for correction


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## Ulan (Oct 2, 2006)

I wouldn't be too generous with killing things by using glutaraldehyde. All detrimental effects to living things are cumulative in this case. On the plus side, you can mount your deceased fish with pins in a collector's case afterwards .


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## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

Ulan said:


> I wouldn't be too generous with killing things by using glutaraldehyde. All detrimental effects to living things are cumulative in this case. On the plus side, you can mount your deceased fish with pins in a collector's case afterwards .


This thread is about killing snails using glutaraldehyde, I don't see a single mention of a any fish being killed.


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## Brevin (Jul 20, 2006)

Glutaraldehyde is very toxic to aquatic organisms it specifically targets the central nervous system and heart. It crosslinks proteins very efficiently, so I would be careful using it long term or for high doses.


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## dirtmonkey (Mar 12, 2007)

The Seachem Gluteraldehyde is said to be an isomer developed by them- different molecular arrangement- no specifics of course. I wonder if their composition was found to be les toxic to more aquatics than that used for immediately killing cells for study, or for embalming dead humans. 

I did see the Seachem statement about recommended (not over-) dosage levels in another forum, but don't weight the statements of company reps very heavily.

No specifics of course, but I don't have access to the scientific literature, and I doubt a proprietary formula like that would be published anyway. I wish I knew what the different isomer is.


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## Leonard (Mar 4, 2007)

Do you think it will kill my snails and shrimps in recomended doses?


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

I dose Excel regularly at recommended doses in one of my tanks. Over the course of this hobby, I've overdosed many times. Snail population is always there. Not too many since I use really soft water now, but there.


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