Snails in HOB to help keep cleaner?

I saw a topic on another site that a person put snails in their HOB to keep it cleaner and thus less maintenance on their filters and such. What does anyone think of this other than population control any ideas of pros and cons for it?

Wouldn't they feast on the biomedia and slow the whole filtration process down? I guess if it was a mechanical or chemical only filter that would work. But for biofilters it sounds... fishy.

I wondered. It didn't seem to make sense to me either. I get if they ate the junk off the carbon filter that collects but then they are going to release poop and combat that process. And if they crawled their way into the impeller couldn't they screw that up too??

Mine avoided the impeller altogether and managed to make their way into my canister filter... So it all depends on the snail

Wow that's pretty impressive lol.

In canisters (unlike HOBs), the impeller is located behind everything else and is the last thing the water flows through before it's returned to the tank. It's pretty easy for snails to get sucked in and then hang out in the filter, same with shrimp.

That said, I wouldn't add snails on purpose. You'd end up crushing them when removing and replacing media, I'd think.

That makes so much sense as to why my guppies would get sucked in and be fine and hanging out in my HOB lol.

I was considering putting some floating plants in my HOB's to try and help with biological filtration. I have planted tanks currently but more couldn't hurt right? lol

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:I was considering putting some floating plants in my HOB's to try and help with biological filtration. I have planted tanks currently but more couldn't hurt right? lol

Lots of folks put plants in HOBs; the larger Aquaclear filters are popular for use as freshwater refugiums. Floating plants would work fine, if you can keep them from spilling out of the filter and if you have a decent light-source over them.

Lots of folks put plants in HOBs; the larger Aquaclear filters are popular for use as freshwater refugiums.  Floating plants would work fine, if you can keep them from spilling out of the filter and if you have a decent light-source over them.[/quote]

I guess that's where I would run into a problem at is figuring out how to set up a light source above the HOB

You could use a clip-on-style LED lamp - that should do the trick.

That's true! Good idear!

Like it or not, unless you run a prefilter you're gonna find snails in the filter

You might have to get creative about how you mount the LED clip light, but if all else fails, use this stuff:

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I use it for all sorts of stuff - sticks to any smooth surface and generally (mostly) pulls off without residue.

I haven't found any snails in my HOB yet. Have I just gotten lucky? lol

That's a great idea pbmax!

ShortyKiloGyrl....if you have snails in your tank you will eventually have snail in your HOBs and canisters. Its a fact of life. You don't want them to get out of hand though so just let them do what they do. Snails can actually mess things up if they get where they would impede flow.

As for plants in HOB's...

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ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:I saw a topic on another site that a person put snails in their HOB to keep it cleaner and thus less maintenance on their filters and such. What does anyone think of this other than population control any ideas of pros and cons for it?

Ive noticed more than a few ideas out there that people suggest to do so you dont have to do as much maintenance. None of them are for me. No matter what - I maintain the same maintenance regimen. There are even over the counter additives out there that claim to clean filter systems. No thank you, the tried and true weekly water change, and occasional filter rinse is concrete. The other little tricks of the trade only make water quality better. Like extra filtration - doubling up on media, perhaps a resin to absorb nitrates, even snails... These help keep things cleaner when in balance but never to take the place of good old fashioned maintenance

In my opinion the best maintenance is balance. When everything is balanced then, it seems I have to do less maintenance. This seems to go with snails as well. When the eco system is balanced then snail population seems to stabilize at a certain population in my tank, in my filters, ect...

I agree, I do fin level waters changes on all tanks every Saturday, filter maintenance every month on Hob and 3 months or so on canisters, but never done anything but larger SA cichlids, have read of folks having snails but always seems to be a smaller fish/tank thing. pretty sure i would freek, pull the fish and nuke the tank and filter I ever found any.