cleaning silk plants AND snails

Question
How long has your tank been set up? 3 years
<BR>How big? 30 gallons
<BR>What type of fish? Mollies, danios, neons
<BR>How many? 15-20
<BR>Type of filter? canister, rated for 60 gal tank
<BR>pH, ammonia,nitrite? ??
<BR>How often do you change water? 4 months
<BR>How much water? 1-3 to 1/2

I want to clean some silk plants that have been in my aquarium for about one year. Can I use ordinary dish soap and ammonia to get them really clean? How long would I have to rinse them so as not to harm my fish.

I also recently have very small snails everywhere...any way to get rid of them?

Thanks.

Answer
Hi Pete;

Don't ever use soap, cleaner or detergent of any kind on your decorations or aquarium equipment. It absorbs into them and often will never come out. I use a mild bleach solution on mine because bleach completely evaporates leaving no residue when used properly. I place them in a bucket and add about a teaspoon of bleach for every gallon of water. If the plants or decorations have very bright colors, I use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon. Let them soak for an hour or so and swish them around with a spoon to see how it's going. Once they seem clean.... rinse, rinse, rinse. Put them back in the bucket, refill with fresh water and add a few squirts of water conditioner. The water conditioner neutralizes the bleach the same way it does chlorine in the tap water. It's basically the same thing. Once it soaks in the conditioned water for an hour or so, rinse them again and take a sniff. If they don't have a trace of bleach smell, it's safe to add them back to the tank. If you aren't sure, just let them dry out for a couple of days. The bleach evaporates completely.

Snails are difficult to eradicate. It is important to reduce their source of food so they don't overpopulate. Overfeeding the fish is the culprit usually. Cut back on food so the snails have less to eat. Also, the fish will get a little hungry and begin to see the little snails as food. Mollies like to eat sails as long as they aren't too well-fed from us. It's healthy for our fish to forage and hunt anyway. There are certain fish that REALLY like to eat snails but they aren't compatible with what you have right now, or they get too big for your tank. Puffers and clown loaches are the two main ones. Puffers would eat your other fish and clown loaches get way too large for your tank.

You really should make water changes and gravel vac more often too. Every tank needs a weekly 25% water change and gravel vacuuming. I neglect mine too often too but it really should be weekly to keep organic wastes down and avoid shocking the fish when we finally get around to it. It helps keep snail populations down too. Even every two weeks would be better than every 4 months. Just 25% is fine. Do your best. I'm trying to do them more often as well. You know, "practice what I preach". ;-)

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins