Plant Dip for Snails: Bleach, Alum & Copper Comparison 

*What method do you use to get rid of unwanted hitchhikers on your aquarium plants?* Comment below to share your experiences, and subscribe if you want to see more this videos like this! goo.gl/4q2idY

I am blown away by the quality of this video. It's like a very expensive professional production video. I wanted to watch it because my daughter hates snails, and true your advice is golden. On the other hand, the production quality of this video is mind blowing. No joke. You really out to think about going into this sort of thing for a living. WOW!

This is by far the best and most information driven video about this subject. Not just talking about it, but actually showing the process and results. Thank you very much.

This vid needs more views! So far, the BEST vid on how to keep aquarium plants snail-free. Thank you Gamer's wife for taking the time to show us the process and results of your experiments, highly appreciated and shall be shared!

I thoroughly enjoyed both your presentation and experiment. Well done.

Your video was recommended to me by Greg Sage. I asked him if worms and parasites can be introduced to our aquariums on new plants and he said, "Yes." I had never considered horrible parasites being introduced into our aquariums, not only with new fish, but also new plants. ~ I DO like snails, but I'm concerned now, with how to quarantine new plants, to kill parasites. I have recently had an outbreak of Callamanus Worms and Greg has been very helpful teaching me how to treat this. Although I quarantine all new fish, with Aquarium Co-op's Quarantine trio, it doesn't kill Callamanus Worms. Once I get rid of these horrible red worms, I don't EVER want Callamanus Worms again!! Perhaps we have more to fear, on new plants, than just snails :o( ~ Your video is EXCELLENT and very professional! Thank you!!

I love this woman. I'm a newbie so of coarse I spend way to much time researching on youtube. The face you made (hilarious) on the video intro and the word snails made me look. I didn't watch it then, but it stayed on my mind so naturally when I bought my first 7 plants I knew I had to dip them first as I always error on the side of caution when starting a new hobby or adventure. Low and behold the 7 beautiful plants I received from a very popular online store had some little odd orange color tiny pebble looking things around my Java Fern pot and I noticed a stringy white thing that almost looked like a root next to my Anubias Golden Coin and I thought all crap. Luckily I had them all in my 10G plant holding tank while I was working on the theme of my 1st 15G planted tank. I went back and found your video which was easy since I'm a happy subscriber :) Alum it is and I was just in the grocery store earlier..if only I knew then..lol Thanks again and your da best :)

Irene - i went back into the archives for help with a snail outbreak. Your videos are so valuable! Thank you!

Interesting . Alum is pretty old school. I remember using alum to soak plants before putting them in my aquarium 50 years ago. Another one that I have been hearing about is Tea Tree Oil. Am curious is that works or not. Anyway, great video :)

I got some Red Root Floaters on Etsy after looking for a long time. They came with bladder snails and eggs. 😕 I decided to use alum in the stronger dose for 3 hours on about a third of them in case the plants were sensitive. Interestingly the alum bleached the red roots to white! The plants are growing just fine but I now have White Root Floaters. LOL LOVE YOUR CHANNEL! Keep up the great work.

Thank you this is the best video for getting rid of snails and snail eggs. No one had the answer fully! I appreciate this video thank you!

Excellent experiment! Happy you took the time to do this study!

Can I just say, THANK YOU for this video. I really needed some more info on how to kill off snails because a lot of people who didn’t rinse their plants got them from the sellers I am buying from. Just got in some java moss that is mostly healthy, came in slightly brown, examined and found ONE single egg. Going to do a strong alum soak for a few hours to see if it gives any results!

I think this is one of the best vids I've seen on this issue. Well done and thank you.

Great test! Please do more tests on new plants for parasites and bacteria, algae and anything else 👍👍👍👍 Buying new plants is a real gamble. Supply chains are having a tough time in the UK, brexit and covid have affected supply of Tropica plants which have been reliable for me. I have bought plants from other places, and despite rinsing them, and looking at them carefully, I have had a recent outbreak of snails, hydra, planaria and bba! Ive also been feeding more live food, and I’ve narrowed down small mistakes, like removing some floating plants, and feeding wafers on substrate instead of in a feeding dish. It’s alarming after my two tanks have been doing so well. Thanks! 💕

You are a GODDESS for doing this! I just noticed a snail infestation and I ripped all my newly bought plants out. I’m immediately doing the 3 day alum treatment on them!

Now that is a thorough tutorial, well done. I'm informed and know exactly what to do next, this is the standard we all should aspire for when people rely on people for quandaries they need help on. I am at the pet stores getting all exchanges on the 4 live plants and dumped my tank in the backyard lawn, let em deal with that scorching sun, they ruined my aqua plant scape with brown rot everywhere so I tipped over their world. Maybe that wild backyard frog will make use.

So in theory i only need to quarantine plants for 3 days in Alum ? This is going by your experiments.

I am team: KILL WITH FIRE! Thank you soo much for this video! I've tried many methods and nothing worked, then I tried alum and it worked perfectly! I love your channel, keep up the great work :)

Hello Irene Thank you so much for this video , I always wanted live plants but no snails .. but with this video I got some Alum and bought some plants from Aquarium Co-op I now have 6 plants if they survive .. The Alum does work there was a few not many snails .. and I have them in quartine to be sure there no eggs or babies Thank you for all your videos and information it is helping this plant beginner allot Bless you

would love to see this test again with less sensitive plants

I quite like snails, as long as I don't get a population explosion. I always think it's a good way to know if you're over-feeding. BUT I am just so impressed with your experiment! So clear and helpful.

Hahahaha, I enjoy snails in a tank with a balanced bioload. They really keep the algae off of the plants in a heavily planted tank, and are quite good at eating everything that is decaying, including fish poop. Although, it is quite difficult to find the perfect bioload to plant load, to nutrient load and so forth... once you get there, it's excellent and the snails are a great addition and no longer a pest.

i found hot water from the faucet works fill up a bucket and dip the pants in about 5 to 10 times the hot water shocks the snails and they fall off - it has worked for me with water lettuce

We've used bleach on Java fern and anubias and it was successful. Plants are still going strong around two months after treatment. We used alum rocks broken up with mortar and pestle and soaked for 6+ hours. Last time, used powered alum ( from Krogers, like you), and soaked same amount of time, a little over six hours. We prefer alum, either crushed or powdered form, wait for it, tra la laaaaaa. Very good video and methodology. Thanks.

Just had to comment that this is a great and well presented video. Very impressed with your experiment- thanks for taking the time to do this!

WOW, I've never heard of Alum before and I'm pro snails they are in all of my tanks and I sell them ;). I have been told (here in Australia) that if you want to eradicate snails and eggs on newly purchased plants, you can use a small amount of Seachem Flourish Excel and use a paint brush to brush the Excel onto the leaves of the plants, leave for approx 5 mins, then rinse with clean tap water. They can then be placed into the tank as normal. Seachem Flourish Excel is also useful for the removal of blackbeard algae used in the same format as described.

HEADS UP: HORNWORT WILL NOT SURVIVE THE ALUM METHOD AS DESCRIBED HERE. I am starting to put in some plants in my tanks. I was looking for ways to sterilize them and did a saltwater dip from the instructions (1C of aquarium salt in 1 Gal. of H2O, then dip the leaves for 20 secs. and then rinse) that I saw on RU-vid and online. It was for the first batch of plants that I got. I did Jungle Val, water sprite and a Dwarf Sag. Only the Sprite survived. My Vals all melted away and the Sags that "survived" barely have any greens left. That's why I asked Aquarium Coop for advice and they referred me to your video. I initially wanted to try the bleach method before I got my plants. And changed my mind to the Alum one when I saw your video. I did your Alum method as described here which is excellent. I had Anubias, Hornwort, Sags, Crypts, Java Ferns. I did the full 3 days. And when it was time to rinse it, the hornwort was just a pile of "needles" at the bottom of the container. The only thing left floating was its main stem. The other plants I believe did survive this alum method. They still looked fine last night when I was rinsing them. Now I got them for further quarantine. Maybe if I did the Alum for a shorter time frame on the hornwort. Maybe, IDK. A lot of what-ifs. But yeah don't do the Alum for 3 days on hornworts. It will kill them.

Hi Gamer's Wife. We've been subscribed for a few months now, and are thoroughly enjoying your channel. We just set up a new tank over the weekend and were fully prepared to do the dreaded bleach dip on all the plants we were moving from our 10- and 20- gallon tanks, as they are infested with pond snails. At the very last minute, I decided to do ONE more search on the subject and found your video. Your experiment was very well documented and easily understood. Thank you for that! We did use the alum, doing the 3-hour dip method that I found recommended elsewhere. We dipped java moss, hornwort, ruffle swords, moneywort, wisteria, vesuvius and one more that I can't remember right now. The eggs in the eggsacs all turned white, just like they did for you. I will try to come back in a few weeks and let you know if it indeed killed them all. It did kill all the live snails. So THANK YOU for your video! It was so much easier to use the alum than to deal with bleach and it's been 3 days and my plants still look awesome.

This video is a keeper🙏👍. I have java fern and Italian val in my tank. The val never did well with the bleach dip. Now using alum to pre-soak all plants as well as when algae gets out of hand. Thanks!

Team snail! Snails easily help with getting a nice ecosystem in your tank, and can help break down food and eat algae. They are also way more hardy than shrimp (just not as pretty lol)

Thank you!! Just bought Alum & started the dipping process yesterday!!

This is an amazingly well put together video and thorough experiment. Great job! Personally I keep my snails. I’ve found them to be effective against algae. I also have puffers, and a snail infestation is a free puffer food source for me.

What about fish parasites that hitch rides from plants? What do you recommend for that without killing the plants? I tried potassium permanganate on water lettuce and water hyacinths for my koi pond. That didnt go well at all. They never bounced back. Now that im getting back into tropical fish tanks, id like to have live plants but would like to know whats the best way to treat the plants without killing them.

Like your experiments, very professional and informative!

I'm more team in-between. I originally added a couple small snails to mine and my wife's aquariums to keep algae down. They multiplied so quickly it was unbelievable. I had to do a complete tear down of both tanks and used a bleach soak on everything. My advantage was only having fake plants at the time and soaked everything for 2 hours. I now have Nerite snails in both tanks and love them. They are great for algae control and do not breed in freshwater. I will be using your Alum dip for live plants.

I'm sorta Team Snail. I got a single bladder (pond, pest) snail and a mini-ramshorn in some plants at one point, and I've been happy to let them do their thing. Except their thing is now asexual reproduction, so now I have many mini versions of both. I may be Team Kill-Them-All soon... Regarding your plant dipping...I've heard/read(?) that especially with a bleach dip, don't do the roots/rhizomes? But, judging by your experiment and bleach efficacy (or lack thereof), the point seems to be moot. Awesome video regardless, and now I'll be picking up some alum!

I hate all the snails. I pretty much know all of this but I needed a good review, great video.

Have you experienced leeches yet? I just had the unpleasant experience of finding a few in my tank and they dive so deep into the substrate that they can't be picked out. I'm going to take the substrate out and dry it but I want to make sure there are no eggs on my plants. Any tips? Have you tried alum baths on leeches before?

Awsome, thank you!!! I had written alum off because it didn't work for me. But now I realize you have to soak it for three days. I will definitely do this with my next plant purchase.

snails are adorable and i love em- BUT those flatworms made me shiver

Do you know if the plants will be safe for the snails i DO want in my aquarium after treatment?

This was well done. I would have liked to see how H2O2 and KMnO4 would have worked.

Wow!!!! What an incredible experiment! I can't thank you enough.

Another Great video Irene! thanks for the update from the last video.

Does the Alum dip work with stem plants also? Is 3 days the minimum or did you ever test 2 days? Thanks for the great info!

I know this is an old one. I for the most part like snails but there are tanks that I do not want them. I do not want them anyway near or in my shrimp tanks they end up out competing my shrimp for food. I like the Alum method as it is the most natural the copper one I would not use as I will forget what plant has been treated I also have shrimp so cant risk it. Thank you for taking the time to do this

Thanks for the tip! I did not know alum can kill snails also potassium-alum crystal/powder is used as deodorant so be prepared for the smirks when you buy alum crystals from the pharmacy. Lastly there is a running joke that potassium-alum powder looks like cocaine.

This is an excellent video with great information, thanks! Would love to see you test an aquarium or kosher salt solution in the future.

You know, I may try an experiment like this myself; I usually swear by dirted tanks and water changes. It's my "magic" ingredient - Foxfarm Ocean Forest (organic) soil. Thus, I was thinking, why not put dirt (or some substrate) in the bottom of the tubs? Cover with gravel, like a mini dirted tank... but for quarantining. No need for any special lighting either, for my experiment. If you use dirt in ANY tank, I kid you not - only bright indirect light is necessary. I've grown vividly red Alternanthera reineckii, in soil, with only ambient window light! Not to mention the swords, crypts, crinums, microswords...the nutrients in the dirt seem to rule out the need for higher light and co2. Not saying you WANT to be doing this, but I have had 110% success. Mostly though, I do have moderate lights with dirt, never had co2 or needed it. That could change. I digress... This is SLIGHTLY more work, I know, but my choice. I'm thinking that it gives the plants a chance to get growing, & develop some healthy new roots, before being planted. Maybe the nutrients will beef up the plants a bit more? I think it's no surprise your Vallisneria didn't do too well, anything that requires nutrients in the soil will likely fail without dirt. I don't know how people grow plants successfully in sand, or by root tabs, or just dosing the water column. Do they have CO2? Many times no they don't. So, is it the T5 HO lights?? JK. I know lights are more important than CO2, in the end...but dirt! DIRT DIRT DIRT!! lol

Ty for the experiment I didn’t know about Alum! You should revisit with a salt dip, prob similar results to bleach or copper. I’m glad I finally found your channel, gives me hope in humanity.

Hello! A young fishkeeper currently seeking urgent advice! I wanted to try out a planted setup for my betta fish and moved too quickly. Few weeks later I see wiggly worms, algae everywhere and white debris (eggs?) freely floating. First plant I have is amazon frogbit, I plopped in all the floaters without even cleaning them (mostly because I didn’t know how to specifically clean those.) I stressed that was a dumb move but I didn’t think that much about it. Second plant was Anubis and I used hydrogen peroxide, diluted it with fish tank water a little. I scrubbed it off well so I doubt it came from the Anubis but it’s a possibility. Any idea on how I could get rid of it anyone? This will honestly help me a ton as I love my betta a lot and it would kill me to lose him. Tank information: Volume: 5 gal Filter and heater: yes (heater is at the required temp) Plants: Amazon frogbit, Anubis (both from separate stores) Cycled: I cannot tell as my tests reads as 0 mostly if not that ammonia is a little on the yellow-green side on the API results. 1 cartridge out of 2 is usually replaced monthly. Tests: last time I checked my PH is 7.5-7.6 Amonnia is a little on the yellow-green side everything else is 0 Sorry for this random comment with possibly terrible grammar I was in a hurry. Any advice is greatly appreciated!! 🙏🙏

Got to admit, the thumb nail threw me off. Finally clicked video and DAMN was i happy I did. An awesome test. Love the side by side comparison. Great video and very informative. Thank you. Edit: new subscriber here also 😁

Thank you so much for all the videos you make. They are so helpful to me. I have one question can this method Māori with driftwood?

I heard that you can also use snail leeches - leeches that apparently only attack snails. But I don't know if this would be replacing one problem with another.

I'm not a fan of pest snails but my nerite snail in my 5 gallon beta tank keeps the algae down so I like him.

Sorry to go off topic but is your tap water hard or soft...please? And.....do you think Alum works well against any bacterial infections in our fish tank?

after you dip plants in alum is it safe to put them in a shrimp tank?

Can you do an experiment on what will kill worms and worm eggs? I assume what will kill a snail will kill other unwanted guests but I'm curious for some good data. I'm thinking specifically for freshwater leaches, tubafex or black worms- you know the ones that will turn your dirted tank into a mud box.

Thank you for a very well done experiment. One I feel I can really trust. So after destroying so many plants with other methods I will now happily try Alum!

I bought a bunch of plants about a month ago and felt like I checked them over enough that I didn't want or need to dip them. They were all fairly small and I figured there couldn't be much if anything on such small plants. Today I finally saw a bladder snail. I pulled it out and killed it and checked the whole tank trying to find any others but haven't yet. I hate the idea of pest snails. My next plant order is shipping soon and you bet I'll be dipping them in alum. I'm guessing post alum you also added ferts to that clean water?

Every plant i bought from PetSmart had snails despite the label saying "snail-free" :/ glad i found this

This video is great! I do have a few questions on the alum method however. First, while soaking the plant in alum do you use chlorinator? Also the brand of alum I bought (McCormick) is definitely not a cornstarch consistency. It looks more like how aquarium salt looks but with smaller grains. Will this affect the efficiency? Thank you!

Great video!

I have a question for you...can I use ALUM in my tank with a established plants/fish/cycled ? Will it be at all harmful to my tank with the exception of those pesky pond snails ?

Fantastic video, but I found it too late. Unfortunately I now have snails all over my yard. How do I get rid of them?

Dear girl talks fish, I did 3 days alum dip and my new floating plants seem to be dying/brown leaves after I cleaned them off and put them in my new cycling tank. I am cycling with ammonium chloride and the water test ammonia nitrite readings got way high. I wonder if that could be the reason for the floating plants to die off? Anything I can help with that? I did put Seachem flourish ferts.

I have a question- I have a Betta and also bought a tiger snail in a 3 gallon take(I'm in process of buying a bigger tank) and now I found 2 small bladder snails, now many times a week should I do a water change? I Normally do it one a week but I do a 50% change. I'm new to this!

I’ll try soaking in Chlorine once and submerging in Alum for a few weeks

Oh this is so helpful. Thanks for this! :)

Is Aluminum Sulphate the same thing? I can't find alum at the grocery but saw aluminum Sulphate in the plant section/! Gardening

Just want to say, outstanding video. I know it has been some time since you made this but I just came across it when I typed in the search bar for ways to get rid of snails in my aquarium. I know I may have to try it out and see what happens, but by chance would you know how to treat an aquarium with pest snails using the alum? I currently have one tank with this issue as I put new plants in here about 3 months ago. Typically I have not had snail hitch hikers in the past when I have purchased them from one of my local fish stores but this time their java moss must have had them. My thoughts were to catch all of the fish and move them into another tank, then treat my 10 gallon tank with the alum. Here, I am not sure if I should keep the sponge filters running or turn off the air. I see in your video you treated the plants themselves in small containers but I need to go ahead and treat the entire tank. I guess I can treat the tank (minus the fish) and keep in the sponge filters and plants for 3-4 days then do a water change and then turn back on the sponge filters and observe things for a another week or so before I place any fish back in. Any thoughts? Thanks

I had a snail once my brother found it in a swamp and before I knew it there where tons of snails I was soo happy when they were gone they are soo gross

Awesome! Thanks for doing the science for us😁

Great experiment

Like nerite snails for cleaning, mystery snail...although kinda dirty, dont like little pest snails like the mini ramshorn or pond snails.

Please do not change how you do your videos! Super informative and I am a visual learner! Do you have a how to plant different types of plants video? lol Anyways, thank you for this!

Do you have a video on how to get rid of them once in the tank? I've heard no plantara could be an option that is copper free

Do you have to treat the plants for 30 days? or is it alright to treat once then put in? New to live plants. While I have a few tanks i don't care if they get snails. I have one tank that can not have snails in it.

My banana plant died after this. Not sure if it was the cause or not. My “octopus plants” were stunted. Half died. I think I will just deal with the snails next time. The video was awesome though.

Great information. That is what I will use in the future.

I had a 75 gallon African cichlid tank. Somehow I ended up with Malaysian trumpet snails. There were so many snails the substrate would come alive when feeding my fish. The gravel looked like it was boiling. I put six assassin snails in and within 2 months no more MTS. I swear they ate every Malaysian trumpet snail in the tank. I couldn't believe how efficient they were. I had to throw the substrate out is was covered in empty snail shells.

I am steam snail, successfully managed to hatch 170+ of them, now left with 130 of them. Does snail eggs hatch later on? Suddenly seeing baby snails again

Seapora Snail Zap works great. I haven't had snails in my 55 gallon tank for over 2 years now. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS!

Would alum kill the snail and other things off of subwassertang without kill that plant. Cause they say you can't do dips on them?? I'll be watching for you to do update on subwassertang .

i used a high doses 2 times potassium permanganate (water was really dark pink) and this did not kill pestsnails, eggs and ostracods. So alum is maybe a better solution. I'm not really worried about my snails, but i don't like to spread the seedshrimp (ostracods) to my other tanks.

Can this process be used for floating plants (water lettuce)??

What about a planted tank with fish? Will the alum harm the fish? How do I get rid of snails while not removing the plants? I fear my whole tank may have a snail problem😵

Thank you so much for this!

Would you put alum in an established tank with no live stock in it? Debating on taking all fish and shrimp out then blasting the tank with alum

Great video! I just found this and I’ve been looking for ways to get rid of my hitch hikers on my plants! Just a question I’m running shrimp tanks is alum safe for my shrimp?

Do I put de-chlorinated water with the Alum or just plain tap water?

Great video, thank you!

Love the video , you should try the same method but only on attack algae

Will the alum method work on driftwood? 😊

Team Snail! I adore them and have 6 bladder snails.

Wonder how a alum dip followed by levamisole/fenbenzedole would work.

Wow! How do I get those tweezers?!?

very great experiment. like it :)

Tried the NaCl and H2O2 method after watching King of DIY video, completely killed the Pogostemon Helferi, the Rotala, Alternanthera and Higrophila seemed to survive.