Backwash your canister periodically. The snails which can get in, are
very small, and would live between the first coarse media and the bottom
of the canister. Put a T section in the supply hose leading to the
canister. Install shut-off valves in the supply side going to the T, and
again in the T leading to a short bleeder hose. Weekly, turn off the
filter, close the supply side valve and open the valve to your bleeder
hose to a pail. The water will run through the filter in reverse (from
the return hose, backwards through the media and to the bleeder hose into
the pail), cleaning any coarse bits clogging the filter, and dumping out
most of the snails collected. Periodic backwashing will also greatly
extend the time between breaking down the canister, to the point where
you may forget exactly how to do it ;o) hth

NetMax

"Mentaloid" wrote in message
...
Well - all this info is great - although I have in rather... odd
situation.
I have a tank in which I have some large snails I would like to keep -
I
don't want to kill them. However, there is also an infestation of small
(really small - hundreds of babies that never grow up) snails. I
wouldn't
mind this so much as my loaches get the ones in the tank. The problem
is
these suckers keep getting into my canister filter and breeding like
crazy
in there - I can't find a way to eliminate this problem. I don't want
to use
chemicals cause 1, they will hurt my plants, 2 they will kill my good
snails
(3"). And of course I can't put a loach in the canister filter. Any
Idea's?


"Marvin Hlavac" wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...

"FishyFred" wrote in message
om...
There is some useful information about getting rid of small snails
on
AquariumFish.net at

http://www.aquariumfish.net/informat...all_snails.htm

There is a discussion about the same problem on PetFishTalk.com at

http://media1.select.net/wsradioarch...ium1080702.wma

I hope this information helps you.

FishFred




Thanks FishFred...

...just what I need these days ;-)

--
Marvin
hlavac (at) rogers (dot) com