# why doesn't my tap water kill snails??



## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

I had put some moss in a Tupperware a while ago and I guess there was some snails.

Moss is long gone sold but I have since put other random plants in. The whole time doing weekly wcs of about 80% and snails in there never die. I think they even breeding.

Explain how untreated water doesn't kill snails. MTS and ramshorns.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

philipraposo1982 said:


> I had put some moss in a Tupperware a while ago and I guess there was some snails.
> 
> Moss is long gone sold but I have since put other random plants in. The whole time doing weekly wcs of about 80% and snails in there never die. I think they even breeding.
> 
> Explain how untreated water doesn't kill snails. MTS and ramshorns.


snails could probably survive a nuclear explosion lol. Your best bet is to use potassium permanganate to kill them. Do a quick forum search to see how to dilute and how long to treat.


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

Get yourself some assassin snails. They will eat the snails and they reproduce slower than other snails. Even if they reproduce, they look pretty nice and you can make a couple bucks from selling the offspring.


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## IDR (Apr 12, 2014)

Because snails survive almost anything. They live in the substrate and in all sorts of tiny cracks and crevices.

The better question is -- why do you want to eradicate them so badly? You can control the population with ease with a handful of Assassin snails, and the ones you have are actually helping keep your tank clean.


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Snails are pretty hardy critters--MTS especially. 

The two big bads in tap water are chloramine--which not every water company uses--and chlorine, the levels of which can vary highly and which breaks down pretty rapidly. Back before de-chlorinators were widely used, folks prepped tap water for their tanks by pulling it a couple days early and letting it sit. Your snails might be a bit stressed right after the big water change--but 80% isn't 100% and if your water doesn't naturally have high levels of chlorine, the dilution could be significant even with only a small percentage being unchanged.


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## JoeRoun (Dec 21, 2009)

*The Inquisition Will Be Out For You…*

If I read it correctly, you wonder about snails removed from your tank, placed in a Tupperware container, moss is gone and snails continue.


The fact is the dying and dead moss provided the tiny bits of decaying matter that no doubt created a bloom of microorganisms the snails actually live on, when as the microorganisms reduce, the snails do as well, but the snails deaths provide renewed blooms, this can go on for a very long time.

I know the religious dogma holds that the snails eat live healthy plants, but as anyone with a mason jar (or a Tupperware container) could easily discover, this is not so. At least in the pond/bladder snail community.



I understand the priests will come out shrilly shouting blasphemy, After all aren't there hundreds of posts saying so. 



This is one of those,_ *you-can-look-and-see-for-yourself*_ situations. If you have a good magnifying glass you probably will be able to see some of the “food” being trapped in their slime trails. A microscope will let you see a wondrous amount of life in your little Tupperware world.

To seriously blaspheme, add a piece of (fresh) lettuce and notice how even though the snails will swarm over the lettuce, which unless fresh from the field has already been decaying for a while. 



The snails will not consume any of the un-decayed portions, they will use the surface of the lettuce to lay their slime trails to capture the creepy-crawlies out of the water as the lettuce produces more i_nfusoria._

_Then to risk the knowledge that could well lead to your being burned at the stake. Add an aquatic plant, give it some substrate and see how in a container teeming with snails, the plant can live healthy and happy, cared for by those “evil” snails._

_*On the other note: *
_
_In mature aquarium water the residual amounts of chlorine and/or chloramines (usually under 2-ppm, though in farm areas it may run to 4-ppm) that enter are homes are unlikely to affect our aquariums (or filters) as you can see in your Tupperware menagerie it has stunningly little influence._

Joe


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## Ripple (Sep 2, 2014)

Gonna say something that will no-doubt upset many...


But the answer is tap water is just not as bad as people say it is. Of course every area will have a different TDS....AND you don't know what particular things make that up. And other conditioners like stated, etc.

But, just from my own personal experience, people are overly terrified. I have been using un-treated or aged tapwater for decades. I use it in my reef tanks and my planted tanks. I will admit I am newer to planted tanks than I am to reef tanks but I have never had a problem with tap water. I do things with tap water people will swear are impossible.

It just is not as bad as people make it out to be! (of course, again, to re-iterate, all tap water is different)

Tap tanks. All of em. Now if my freshly mixed salt-tap water doesn't kill my uber sensitive corals it certainly is not going to kill your hardy snails.


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

Wow... I got a lot more response to this than I expected.

First off let me say I love my snails and don't plan to get rid of them. I wasn't trying to kill them either.

I simply had moved the moss out of my maint tank before it got sold. Since I have snails in my tank they obviously hitched a ride with the moss to the temp Tupperware home.

I put as many back into my tank as I could. But just was curious how the tap water didn't kill them.

I thought snails were hardy but not bullet proof.

Anyhow, you all don't have to worry about my trying to eradicate my snail colony. I understand how great they are for my tank and I out as many in there as I can.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

What you see is part of why we need to know what to expect from chlorine. It is just really handy stuff if we know what to expect. In drinking water we want to kill off large amounts of bacteria that might grow and increase to a level that would make us sick. We don't want to use enough to kill all the bacteria as that much would kill the bacteria in our digestive systems and give us major troubles, if you know what I mean? 
So drinking water has levels set by the health departments who have determined between 3PPM and 10PPM are good. For round numbers we used to think of that as about a teaspoon of 6% bleach in 50 gallons. Tap water is not strong enough to kill hardly anything, just enough to keep it held down to safe levels. 
But when we want to kill snails and their eggs or other tough things, we have no reason not to bump the concentration of chlorine way high as we don't plan to drink it. 
So a half cup or so in a 55 gallon tank is quite a lot stronger and does kill snails. It has to be strong so that when they close their shells, the chlorine will eat through the "muscle" and get inside to kill them. Takes stronger chlorine as well as time to get it done. 

The funny part is when folks are scared to death of chlorine. They don't realize that anybody who grew up before throw-away diapers spent the first year or so with a bleached cloth wrapped around their bottom!!!


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## powerplay85 (Sep 23, 2014)

Ripple said:


> Gonna say something that will no-doubt upset many...
> 
> I do things with tap water people will swear are impossible.


...go on:icon_eek:


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## Steve002 (Feb 7, 2014)

Tap water is normally meant to be potable so the chlorine can't be allowed to be too high a concentration. As chlorine, an acid, starts to dissolve organics of any sort its acidity starts to lower itself and soon becomes neutral.


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## brandon429 (Mar 29, 2003)

Our tap water doesnt even kill all the nitrifiers in the water. you get some free dr tims with your ice tea. seriously, check your water reports for total aerobic counts, nitrifiers are part of that. there are specific studies on the web showing dna/genus and species specifics from that about nitrifiers as well. 

we only thought tap water was all sterilizing. if so, surgeons could scrub in with it by itself. its a retardant, the amm chlor, but not a sterilizer in tap.


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