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All About Turbo Snail Poop!

Turbo snails are one of the better aquatic snail options for anyone having problems with hair algae in their tank and although they will eat other types of algae and detritus, they really are excellent when it comes to eating hair algae.

Unfortunately though, due to being able to eat huge amounts of hair algae in such a small period of time many people who use them can end up having a new problem in their aquarium due to the amount of turbo snail poop that is produced.

The majority of people who keep aquariums will be able to remove the turbo snail poop build-up in their tank as a part of their regular tank maintenance program.

If you have accidentally overstocked your aquarium with too many turbo snails doe its size then you may have to either clean your tank to remove the poop on a more frequent basis or remove some of the turbo snails from your tank to reduce their poop output.

Unlike the other inhabitants of your aquarium that often have a maximum stocking number per species depending on the size of your aquarium, we would only recommend that you add as many turbo snails to your tank as needed to control the hair algae build up.

Even in larger aquarium tanks, this may be as few as one or two turbo snails as they really do eat huge amounts of hair algae and this will keep the turbo snail poop production to a minimum.

Do Turbo Snails Poop A Lot?

Turbo snails really do poop a lot due to the amount of algae and detritus that they consume and their poop will quickly start to cause problems with your tank’s water parameters if it is not removed quickly.

Thankfully, turbo snail poop does tend to be easy to remove from your tank as a part of your regular tank maintenance so provided you have stocked your tank correctly with turbo snails, this really should not be a problem for most people.

When it comes to turbo snail poop production, you also have to make sure that you are not overfeeding your fish as most turbo snails will also eat any left over fish food that makes its way to the substrate of your tank too.

As you can probably guess, this can further increase the amount of poop that your turbo snails produce too increasing the amount of clean-up required to maintain the water parameters in your tank.

Although it may sound like a delicate balancing act when having turbo snails in your aquarium, it can actually be a good way to tweak some things that would end up causing you problems in your tank anyway.

Overfeeding your fish for example not only causes problems with your water parameters over time due to the rotting fish food at the bottom of your tank but it can also end up causing health problems with your fish too.

Adjusting the amount of food that you give your fish to prevent your turbo snails from eating the left over food and pooping more essentially helps you in the long run.

How Do I Get Rid Of Turbo Snail Poop?

There are a number of different ways that you are able to get rid of turbo snail poop but the quickest, easiest, and cheapest method is a trusty gravel vacuum.

The gravel vacuum allows you to easily remove the turbo snail poop from the substrate of your aquarium as a part of your regular tank maintenance with minimal time and effort being required.

If you do have a bad hair algae outbreak and have decided to add a large number of turbo snails to your aquarium to try and get them to eat all of the hair algae then a cheap gravel vacuum is an excellent tank accessory to pick up.

Depending on the amount of turbo snail poop produced, you may have to run your gravel vacuum over your substrate a couple of times a week but for the most part, this should not be an issue.

We know that there are some more expensive filter options available but in all honesty, they are usually not worth their prices for things like turbo snail poop due to the power of the filter not being able to suck the poop into their processor.

The majority of these filters are designed to remove impurities floating in your aquarium water rather than solids that are settled on your substrate so keep that in mind if you are considering purchasing an actual filter for your tank.

What Will Eat Turbo Snail Poop?

Some people do claim that nassarious snails will eat turbo snails but this is a controversial topic within the fish keeping community.

There does tend to be more people saying that nassarious snails will not eat turbo snail poop than there is saying that they will though and in our opinion, nassarious snails will not eat turbo snail poop.

Just keep in mind, if you do look for something to actually eat the poop of your turbo snails rather than simply removing it with a cheap gravel vacuum then you have the problem of the poop from the animal eating your turbo snail poop.

So even if you do add nassarious snails to your aquarium and they do eat the poop then you have the poop of your nassarious snails to clean up anyway.

We have seen some people claim that bottom dwelling fish will eat turbo snail poop or that shrimp will eat poop but this is not correct and they will focus on algae, detritus, and fish food that makes its way to the bottom of your tank.

Don’t add one of these animals to your tank in the hope that it will be an automated poop cleaner as it won’t and then you will just have to remove the poop of these animals from your tank too.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over dealing with turbo snail poop in your aquarium to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand that turbo snail poop is a common problem but you can often reduce how much poop ends up in your tank by correctly stocking your turbo snail population and not overfeeding your fish. Once you nail these two factors, the amount of poop produced by the turbo snails in your tank should reduce to a level where you are able to remove it in your regular tank maintenance without issue.