Help!!! Snails in my cycling tank?

[skippydoda]

you will have a tank bottom littlered with snail shells, ask me how i know. no way to get rid of them other than doing a complete cleaning and using new bio media and substrate

Haha go on then tell me

eat thing is got home tonight and am now seeing free swimming, what can only be described, worms. Tiny little shiney ones! This second hand tank is starting to get on my tits now...or plants...either way my tank seems to be getting taken over by critters

On a good note my ammonia went from off the scale to 2.0 in 24hrs haha so something's going well

 

[DJRansome]

Are the worms hairlike?

I have had luck getting rid of pond and MTS snails by first doing a cleaning. Remove substrate and sift out snails. Only tiny ones the size of a grain of salt will remain. Squirt small amounts of hydrogen peroxide on 3D background. Soak rocks in hydrogen peroxide solution. Hand pick all visible snails from filters and media.

When reassembled you need to be scrupulous about not overfeeding and vacuuming. Over the next month or two the sand-grain sized remaining snails will die off for lack of food. Mission accomplished.

 

[duanes]

I like MTS snails, they constantly work the substrate eliminating dead spots and prevent compacting, they convert/break down detritus into byproducts usable by beneficial bacteria, and stay out of sight when lights are on.
I admit I sometimes need to brush them out of return lines (especially around corners),and may get into impellers, but cleaning that equipment is just normal maintenance.
To me, the pros far outweigh the cons.
They also provide my fish food, when I'm out of town for days, or a week.
My Madagascan Paretroplines can clear a severely infested tank of them, in 24 hours.
Their teeth have perfectly evolved for extracting snail flesh from the shell, their main food source in nature.