# Does CO2 really kill snails?



## njoker (Feb 9, 2008)

I read some where and on PT that co2 poisoning could kill snails. I don't know if this is true or not, but I have been over gasing my 10 gal for over 8 hours now and yet no dead snails. I have two diy co2 with bubble airstones attached. I also have a Hagen co2 system going at 3-4 bps. If the co2 poisoning really works, is this enough co2 to kill.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Too much CO2 can kill not only snails, but shrimp and fish as well. Once the water is saturated with CO2, it will interfere with CO2/O2 exchange, and you will end up with unhappy (and possibly dead) livestock. The water can be completely saturated with O2, but if there is too much CO2 as well, organisms will still die due to the inability to expire the CO2.

Of course, injecting CO2 will also decrease your pH; I'm not sure what pH is required for snails, but if it gets too low, they'll die as well.

3-4 bps in a 10 gallon seems like a lot to me; I've run a 2.5g nano with DIY CO2 at about 1 bubble every 3/4 seconds, and my drop checker (4 dkH solution) turns yellow within a few hours...


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## njoker (Feb 9, 2008)

My bad, I meant to say a bubble every 3 seconds from my hagen system. I've also got a bubble every 2-3 seconds from each of my airstone which are then diffused into tinier bubbles.

There's no livestock in there right now. The few shrimps added to help cycled the tank have been removed. I've set this tank up for about 3 weeks now and am planning to make this a shrimp tank. There's anubias, guppy grass, rotalas, pennywort, and mosses in there right now.

I woke up this morning to find many snails still alive, but they're all near the unsurface of the water. I've also turned off the filter and lights. Hopefully, I can get rid of them.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

IMO you'd be better off removing the snails by hand than by trying to poison them with CO2? Dead snails will end up polluting your tank, especially if these are MTS; you'll never be able to find all the dead snails buried and rotting in the substrate...


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