# Potassium permanganate



## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I am escalating the snail war. So I am wondering where I can buy Potassium permanganate? Anybody know?


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Sears Hardware Stores in the plumbing section.
Jungle Labs makes a product called Water Clear (the fizz tabs; not sure about the liquid) that contains PP (a lot safer to handle)


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks. I'll see which I can find.


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## mooncon (Oct 12, 2011)

You can always use assassin snails and cut back on feeding a little


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

But then you have assassin snails.
Clown Loach is a better option IMO.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I've tried assassin snails. I have snails in tanks I do not feed at all. The most effective thing I use is cucumber in baby food jars. Right now I want a tank with no snails and a good way to treat things in order to keep the snails out .


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

I think there is no way to rid a tank once it has snails in it unless you completely disassemble it and sterilize all the parts. 
Once you’ve done that you need to treat and carefully inspect the plants you put in the tank. Also check any live fish food like tubifex and black worms. They may contain snails. 
What kind of snails do you have? 
.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I am not really looking to rid a tank of snails but rather start a tank without them! Mostly I am taking aim at pond snails. I have others but they are confined to the tanks they are in. My understand is that the potassium permanganate is the best solution to what I am after. Unless someone has a better idea.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

The PP may also kill your nitrifying bacteria.

I think Ray is correct.

I bought some fissden a while ago for my shrimp tank. It came with flat ramshorn snails. They found their way into my 75. This spring I'm taking it down and starting from scratch.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

In my experience pond snails (_Pseudosuccinea_ or _Radix_ spp. ) tend to do poorly in aquaria with fish, especially when the fish are nipping at them like livebearers and barbs do. In any case I haven't seen them in problematic numbers. Are you sure you don't have another species of snail (like bladder snails _Physa acuta _or something like that)?

At first I disliked the snails to, but since I tried to identify the species I came to love them. In my aquaria they are not really a problem, but I have only plants which are not very sensitive to snail damage liky crypts and mosses.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

No I am not sure what they are. I am afraid my knowledge of them isn't all that great. I just know the basic shapes. These are fairly small. 

I would guess in the last week I have removed 20 to thirty of them every day from a 10g tank.


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## AquaDean (Oct 29, 2009)

The Potassium Permanganate dip on plants works pretty good to rid them of snails before putting them in a snail free tank. I still check very carefully for eggs but I've seen the snails die within about 15 minutes. I use the PP powder and add enough to tint the water dark pink, leave the plants in it for about a half hour then rinse and rinse, then into a bucket of clean water with double the prime in it. I've been pretty lucky and have only seen two snails that somehow made it through alive. But luckily not long enough to lay eggs.

You can find PP on eBay, just do a search for it and get the 98% pure powder. Be careful using it cause it tends to get everywhere otherwise.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

That sounds more like bladders snails to me. You can look at the shape of the antennae: thin, thread like = bladder snails; triangular flaps= pond snails.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

Perhaps a more important question: when you have so many snails, that means that they have a lot to eat. When you remove the snails, what will happen with the uneaten (fish)food?


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Illustrator, I think you are probably right. I am seeing the antennae now. 
http://www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/freshwater2.html

I have had pond snails for years, large yellow ones, and never had such a problem before. I have red ramshorns in another tank and they never seem to be a problem.

Thanks for the tip Dean. I am going to run over to Sears today and see if I can find it . Otherwise I will order some on line.

edit. illustrator I am not feeding some of these tanks at all. There are no fish in them. These snails are living off the algae and the plants.


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## ray-the-pilot (May 14, 2008)

BruceF said:


> Illustrator, I think you are probably right. I am seeing the antennae now.
> http://www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/freshwater2.html
> 
> I have had pond snails for years, large yellow ones, and never had such a problem before. I have red ramshorns in another tank and they never seem to be a problem.
> ...


Could be that having no fish is the problem.

When I set up my first tank I was careful to keep snails out but still the tank became infected from plants that I treated with PP. They were a nuisance at first but I use soft water (70 ppm) which tends to give the snails soft shells. 
When I added some discus, they were able to eat the smaller snails and there are very few in my tank now.

When you start from scratch, make sure everything (filter, tubing, substrate etc.) is clean and sterilized with chlorine bleach and rinsed thoroughly.

When you reassemble, take special care when adding any plants. I would treat plants with PP and then put them in a quarantine tank for a week or so to make sure there are no snails left.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I think you are right Ray. I have about dozen 10g tanks and those with fish mostly have killies and guppies these days. I hesitate to add fish like loaches simply because of the size of the tanks. Except for maybe dwarf puffers I don’t know a fish that would stay small enough and eat the snails. 

I have a colony of xenoteca eiseni in a 35g tank with the ramshorns and that seem to work well. The problem there of course is that I have too many fish but that is a whole other story.


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## HDBenson (Sep 24, 2014)

Dwarf cichlids have been fantastic snail hunters for me. Particularly Pelvicachromis pulcher and M. ramirezi. Bolivian rams for me didn't eat them as readily. Likewise, P. sacrimontis, P. tanaeitus did not relish snails like the P. pulchers. But, in these two tanks - again, for me - there were dozens of snail shells scattered all over these tanks. If they got to be large enough the dwarfs left them alone though.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks for the ideas. Right now I am waging a cucumber and net war that is having remarkable results. I found a local source of the chemical today so I will be getting it for future treatments. 

Like duck weed, persistence seems to be the key ingredient!


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## HDBenson (Sep 24, 2014)

I was doing a water change on one of my tanks about an hour ago and saw one of my Pulchers thrashing.. I thought there was something wrong with my water.. looked again and hit had a little pile of snail shells in his "spot" working on another one, lol.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I'm not a huge fan of buying fish to solve problems, but snail control is definitely one of the few instances where this strategy works very well. A few clown loaches will easily eat every snail in a tank over time. I've cleared my tanks several times using clowns. 

I have not tried them vs. MTS snails which burrow so I don't know how they handle them or if they can completely eliminate them from a tank.

Copper sulfate also kills snails pretty well, but it can damage plants, so they should probably be removed.

Potassium permanganate, I've never heard of it being used in a tank to remove snails. Only as a dip. Not sure if I'd recommend that, especially if you have fish. That stuff may harm them.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Yes the local fish shop is always trying to sell me clown loaches. I just don’t want such large fish in the end. Perhaps I need to look into renting them for a spell! I continue the cucumber traps every day which are making a big dent in the problem 

In the mean time I am trying to figure out dosing measurements and times for the dips. I did read the other day a warning about not dipping the roots but I can’t understand that one. So now I am looking into the proper process.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I usually add a small pinch with my fingers to a large jug of water. The stuff is pretty potent. Then you do a 5-10 minute soak and rinse the plants off. It will stain snail eggs and other pests purple. If they are stained they are dead.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Thanks.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Please explain the 'cucumber trap'

Thanks


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I think I did but... It is just a piece of cucumber stuffed in a baby food jar. I remove the seeds and cut the cucumber on a bias so that it is stuck in the jar. In the morning I remove the snails and the soft parts of the cucumber. After two days I replace the piece of cucumber.

Just this morning from one tank alone I must have removed 30 snails. It works well.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Just thought I would follow up a bit. I've been manually removing the snails for months now. I've put a huge dent in them but never have gotten them all. One tank had an end of tank co2 dump and I found tons of snails at the surface and was able to remove most of them. Recently I got a male and two females Fundulopanchax sjoestedti (Blue Gularis). They removed every snail in a ten gallon tank in less than a week. 

For some reason the bladder snails seem to have disappeared in most of the tanks where larger pond type snails have taken over. It could also be that some guppies are finding the smaller snails easier to feed on. Of course in those tanks guppies are becoming the problem. 

I got the Potassium permanganate but I still haven't used it.


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