Nerite snail bio-load

Snails normally decrease the bio load, due to their consumption of algae and lack of a need for manual feeding

FishkeeperBlake said:

Just asking, how much do Nerite Snails poop? I have 3 of them in a 29 gallon tank. Will they up the bio-load a lot, or not that much? Just wondering if I can still stock the tank normally, or if I should get a few less fish because of the snails…

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As long as you have a fully cycled tank and do your regular water changes, you should be fine. I believe that overfeeding is generally a bigger contributor to the bioload than the snails themselves.

Death_by_Dinosaurs said:

Snails normally decrease the bio load, due to their consumption of algae and lack of a need for manual feeding

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Yeah but what the snails do is break down the algae into part of the nitrogen cycle. What happens after that depends on the tank. Whether it's plants consuming the bio waste or the water changes taking care of it. If you control the algae, that will be less of a bio load overall. And don't worry about the snails. They always find something to eat. Snails don't starve in aquariums.