Odd Water Test Reading

Hi.  I have scrubbed out and sanitized the tank after the demise of Donny the Bettafish. I bought some nice polished pebbles for a substrate for the next Betta.  The tank is just now in the first stage of cycling.  I have put in a new plant and a nerite snail, Gary.

Out of curiosity, I took a water sample in to the pet store to have them test in the "pristine new" state. It was showing a trace of ammonia. This is fresh water, two days in the tank, treated with Prime. No plants or animals were in the tank yet.  I'm curious how it could have ammonia at this point?

We won't be putting fish in for at least another week, and I did dig out my old water testing kit and will run the test myself, but I also did see the color when the fish store guy did it and he was not telling a mis-truth - there was definitely a tinge of color that shouldn't have been there.  Any ideas?

Also, the old plants have entirely more "pest" snails that I know what to do with. The plants are currently living in a bucket.  Any ideas on how to get rid of all those snails so that I can put the plants back in the aquarium?

As for the snails, I don't know as I've never bothered removing snails. I just don't over feed the tank so they've never been a problem.

A salt bath will kill snails.

Great. We've had the nerite for 24 hours and he's made a break for it. I left a gap in the lid for a couple of hours, accidentally.  We cannot find him anywhere. Literally emptied the tank - no snail. Completely emptied the shelves he was on top of. No snail. Scanned the entire room rug at eye level with a flashlight. No snail.  Not in the filter. Not stuck to the underside of the lid. Checked all the cables running down from the tank. Checked the outside of the tank. Checked under and the undersides of all the furniture. Gary has vanished.

WAH!!!!!!

Sorry to read about G's escape.

If I were you, if you have any of the following, I'd leave them out at floor and tank-surface level (or indeed any surface level eg on furniture), just in case he appears:
* filter foam or an unused sponge soaked in tank water on a plate - this might help him survive if he crawls along to it;
* some courgette, lettuce or other leafy green veg soaked in tank water - it might entice him to it.

This might improve the possibility of his survival and re-appearance in due course, rather than relying on fingers crossed only. Ideally, he'll be found on these.


[Edited to add: if he turns up, and you were thinking of additional food for him as per your previous comment, then two foods which my nerite snails have besides naturally-grown algae include Dennerle Shrimp King Snail Stixx and Glasgarten Snail Dinner.  They also seem to like chewing on wood and on catappa/jackfruit/banana leaves.]

NO clue how he did that! I had even taken the filter out and apart. But he's back. And we got a photo. And we can't find him again.

He's good at what he does, and he's really fast. And the opening by the filter is now heavily screened so he's not getting out!

Thanks for the tips on food. I'll see if I can find those brands for him tomorrow. In the meantime, he has some plants with algae on their leaves. And I'll throw in a catappa leaf.

Done that many times, searched “literally everything” only to later discover that I didn’t. My overriding thought was “no you haven’t, it’ll turn up.”