snail and odd fish death problem

[motoman]

I have a major snail problem that I need to fix but here's some background on what has occured this week to bring about this question.
I bought a clown loach hoping that would help get rid of the snails based on the advise of lfs but it died from something. I'm trying to find out what happened because my tank was fine till the loach and a siamese algea eater were introduced. Temp: 79, PH 7.2, Nitrates = 0. Soft Water. I brought them in on a Monday and from day 1 the loach acted really wierd. It was butting up against the back of the aquarium as if it was trying to swim into the background and would hide under a rock all day. Went away on Friday and Sat (have an auto feeder and light timer) and when I got back my 4 neon's were dead and the loach was covered in white blotches. Not specs like ich but large patches. All my other fish appeared to be fine so I'm treating for ich now. The loach died yesterday morning. Any ideas what this could be?
Getting back to my original question though. I was thinking of redoing my tank anyways and this mishap really has me wanting to change things around and clean things up really good. When I clean out my tank what is the best way to get rid of all the snails on the plants, in the roots and gravel etc. Can I wash them in a special solution of something while I keep my fish in another tank or bucket? I'm trying to avoid using snail rid but there are so many snails around it's not funny! Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.


Motoman

[BigDaddy]

First off, sorry about your loss.

Secondly... maybe you brought a pathogen home with you with the loach or the SAE.  Quarantining the fish could have saved the rest of your livestock.

For killing snails... alum works (I believe someone correct me if I am wrong).  Or you could do a 20:1 mix of water to bleach and do a 2 minute bleach dip... less for more fragile plants.  Dip everything except wood (since it will absorb in) and then rinse thoroughly in fresh water.

[motoman]

Ok, thanks. I found out that the loach and algae eater both were sold to me with ich. Unfortunately the symptoms were not obvious until it was too late. I was given a credit for the fish and the store's entire stock are under quarantine right now. I 'm treating for ich even though my remaining fish appear perfectly healthy. Better safe than sorry. I got a 10 gal tank on friday and I'm going to set it up with a sand bottom and transfer my plants to that sometime this week so I can clean out the other tank. I'll try the bleach dip with the plants. Thanks for the tip.


Motoman