Ferric Phosphate for Vermetid Snails

[DanTheReefer]

I’ve seen the prospect of using ferric phosphate for vermetid snails in our reefs, but I haven’t been able to find a post where someone actually pulled the trigger. The thought came to me when reading Slug killer ingredients at the big box store.

From what I gather it does not dissolve in water. The big box products were baits designed to get the snail to ingest it.

I was thinking of:
1. Removing all desirable mollusks
2. Blasting reef roids to get vermetids to spray webs
3. Blasting ferric phosphate
4. Doing a bunch of water changes for a few weeks.

Thoughts?

@Randy Holmes-Farley is there a reason to be concerned about ferric phosphate?

I was going to experiment with a QT tank - unfortunately it’s in storage while we are building a new house, otherwise I’d just be posting results

 

[MnFish1]

I would manually remove them. - Or remove your other inverts and use fembendazole

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ferric phosphate is quite insoluble. Are you talking about dosing a solution or particulates?

 

[DanTheReefer]

Ferric phosphate is quite insoluble. Are you talking about dosing a solution or particulates?

I found an over the counter supplement I may try. Was planning on making a powder of it and putting by a power head. From what I can gather it sounds like the slug pesticide has EDTA, which doesn’t seem like something we want in our tank. So guess I’ll just see how getting them to cast webs and blowing the iron phosphate does. It honestly seems pretty low risk …

I have some vermetid snails growing on montipora frags so I may just do the experiment on those.

Edit: Assuming it works, would have to experiment with whether tridacnas need to be removed or can ever be re-introduced

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have no idea if it is safe and effective to dose particulate ferric phosphate, so I'd look carefully at the expertise of whoever is recommending it.

 

[rockyb]

Bumblebee snails eradicated mine

 

[DanTheReefer]

Bumblebee snails eradicated mine

Great to hear I’ve heard really mixed results on them. They were the other option I was considering

 

[rockyb]

Great to hear I’ve heard really mixed results on them. They were the other option I was considering

They just move slow so people get impatient. They won’t take away the shell but they eat the snails inside. I was infested in a 125 gallon 6ft. Every inch of my tank was covered. Got about 15 snails and in about 6 months they were completely gone. Just had to go and crush the shells with a screwdriver after