Snail Stuck in Pipe - Help? Thoughts?

TISLE · Jul 30, 2023

Ysterday I had a snail crawl into my overflow and started clogging my main drain right at the gate valve. I've gotten plenty out before with my usual methods of pushing tubing through the piping and opening the gate valve all the way.

This snail seems completely stuck. No matter what I do I cannot push the snail out. I spent 2 hours today trying to get it out to no avail.

Does anyone have a solution before I end up having to cut my PVC? I circled the areas of need. The black circle is where the snail is - right above the gate valve. Could I maybe suck the snail out with a shop vac thru near the red circle at the union? Or maybe compressed air thru the bottom pipe near the union at the orange circle?

Can I undo the Gate Valve at the yellow circle? I don't know if that's going to help or not.... also do you think torquing that off could crack the acrylic sump since it's all attached?

If I had to cut it I was going to cut it at the blue circle but I don't want to go that route...I think a union at that blue circle should of been there....

I'm running a herbie so it's not worst case scenario but I don't want to cause a flood of somehow my emergency got clogged. Just bought some PVC strainers so this doesn't happen again.

Torch Town Reefer · Jul 30, 2023

ohhhh, man. that's a hell of an issue, right there. wow...

honestly, i would exhaust every single option you have before being forced to cut ANYTHING. if you're able to disassemble the pvc from any other connecting points, go ahead and do that and if you're able to maybe take needlenose pliers or a long pair of tweezers to push or pull at the snail, it should dislodge. im assuming the snail is dead, though?

another thing you could try is a "snake". they probably sell them at your local walmart— it's a long bendable wire with a large patch of velcro at the end, designed to go down into drains and unclog them, removing hair. but it's possible that it would be long enough to be able to get down into that area from the gate valve opening. just a thought!

fishguy242 · Jul 30, 2023

Get it out yet ?

TISLE · Jul 31, 2023

No avail. I'm going to try the air compressor tomorrow and try and shoot it back up and out. It's too big to push out thru the plumbing... at least I'm pretty sure.

Also pretty sure the snail is toast. I got the gate valve completely open and I'm praying the emergency pipe holds up for a couple days.

Has anyone taken apart the actual gate valve? Like can I unscrew that yellow part to get clearance to either break the shell or push it out from that point? I've never done that but I'm also worried about torquing that and putting pressure on the acrylic since the PVC is glued into the reverse bulkhead to feed into the sump....

I really don't wanna cut anything if possible, thats gonna be quite the job I think and I'm going to have to have some type of temporary drain until the PVC hardens.

I bought a snake off Amazon. I'll update tomorrow with how it goes... maybe it'll work better than airline tubing etc...

If anyone else has any ideas please chime in....

His Coral Highness · Jul 31, 2023

You should just be able to take the valve apart at the yellow circle. If you don’t get the shell it’ll at least just fall through. But you can take the whole gate out that way

His Coral Highness · Jul 31, 2023

And worst case scenario if you have to cut you can always just put it back together with a coupling

fishguy242 · Jul 31, 2023

agree just take gate apart, if still caught there ,try to break shell

Torch Town Reefer · Jul 31, 2023

TISLE said:
No avail. I'm going to try the air compressor tomorrow and try and shoot it back up and out. It's too big to push out thru the plumbing... at least I'm pretty sure.

Also pretty sure the snail is toast. I got the gate valve completely open and I'm praying the emergency pipe holds up for a couple days.

Has anyone taken apart the actual gate valve? Like can I unscrew that yellow part to get clearance to either break the shell or push it out from that point? I've never done that but I'm also worried about torquing that and putting pressure on the acrylic since the PVC is glued into the reverse bulkhead to feed into the sump....

I really don't wanna cut anything if possible, thats gonna be quite the job I think and I'm going to have to have some type of temporary drain until the PVC hardens.

I bought a snake off Amazon. I'll update tomorrow with how it goes... maybe it'll work better than airline tubing etc...

If anyone else has any ideas please chime in....

you might need to put something heavy at the end of the snake wire, so you're able to apply pressure onto it. another thought i had was a pipe cleaner? not the little fuzzy sticks, but an actual tube, pipe cleaner that had a large brush at the end of it. they're pretty stiff enough that you can apply a decent amount of pressure to it.

they're on amazon, too and come in different lengths.

TISLE · Jul 31, 2023

Has anyone taken a gate valve apart before from that spot? Ive looked online to try to figure it out but cannot find a video on how the inside of one comes apart. Im assuming just twist the larger threaded part and then the dial and gate portion will just pop out? I was worried I could mess it up or wouldnt have the ability to access the inside of the piping even with the dial and gate portion off.... Im still also worried about twisting that part of the gate valve as it seems quite tight and everytime I twist a bit I can hear the plastic on the top of that bulkhead making noise and thats glued to the top corner of the sump.

Could I possibly crack the sump if I twist too hard? Or do you think thats not possible?

Torch Town Reefer · Jul 31, 2023

TISLE said:
Has anyone taken a gate valve apart before from that spot? Ive looked online to try to figure it out but cannot find a video on how the inside of one comes apart. Im assuming just twist the larger threaded part and then the dial and gate portion will just pop out? I was worried I could mess it up or wouldnt have the ability to access the inside of the piping even with the dial and gate portion off.... Im still also worried about twisting that part of the gate valve as it seems quite tight and everytime I twist a bit I can hear the plastic on the top of that bulkhead making noise and thats glued to the top corner of the sump.

Could I possibly crack the sump if I twist too hard? Or do you think thats not possible?

if the sump is acrylic, yes— there is definitely a possibility to crack it, especially if the glue that was used, is super strong. i honestly wouldnt risk even trying that. i mean, sumps are always replaceable, but not for the reason of a stuck snail. lol.

littlefoxx · Jul 31, 2023

Do you have an extra pump you could feed a tube down to where the snail is and hit it at full volume with water?

TISLE · Jul 31, 2023

littlefoxx said:
Do you have an extra pump you could feed a tube down to where the snail is and hit it at full volume with water?

I could try that but to be honest I think the shell of the snail is just big enough where its not going to get through the gate valve.

I just ordered one of those pipe inspection cameras, was on amazon for cheap. Waterproof camera thats 5 feet long.

Should give me a good understanding of how bad the snail is caught and for $30 I was like why not.

BaliReefBox · Jul 31, 2023

can you use a 5/8" garden hose to push it back up and out.. with twisting and pushing the hose it may work

Torch Town Reefer · Jul 31, 2023

TISLE said:
I could try that but to be honest I think the shell of the snail is just big enough where its not going to get through the gate valve.

I just ordered one of those pipe inspection cameras, was on amazon for cheap. Waterproof camera thats 5 feet long.

Should give me a good understanding of how bad the snail is caught and for $30 I was like why not.

keep us posted on how this goes! im interested to see how this turns out! who knows... it may be more than just a snail lodged in there!

TISLE · Aug 1, 2023

Mission Success Guys. Was able to use that camera to get a good view. I then took off the 8 inch section of PVC after the bulkhead that fed into the sump and was able to get an acrylic rod up there and knock them loose. Also got in on camera.

I'm never selling this thing. Best $30 I've ever spent.

Was expecting 1 snail shell - GOT 3.