A couple concerns (Newbie snail owner)

[RekosGuest]

Hello there! To give some background on my situation:
I have a tank to house some marimo (also frequently called moss blow, algae balls, etc). The tank I have is separated into three sections with a waterfall connecting them all. Due to a design flaw, the last tank in the row wasn't getting filtered nearly as much compared to the other two tanks, and grew an impressive layer of green over almost everything. However, since it wasn't marimo, I wasn't exactly fond of the algae growth, and evacuated my precious marimo children into the safer tanks, away from the hostile algae.
Since the tanks are too small to house a placo or something similar, I decided a snail would be the best solution for my algae issue. So I ran to a pet store and bought myself a snail. They called it a golden mystery snail, although I saw the name Gold Inca around online which looked pretty similar to what I have. His name is Scoots, and over the course of only 5 days or so he has reduced the algae significantly. Bravo, Scoots. 

However, this is where my concerns come in. 

First of all, are snails in danger of overeating? I didn't think it would be too much of a concern, but this little guy has managed to put away so much algae growth I'm starting to get a little concerned. He was sitting still on the bottom of his tank an hour or so ago, so I poked him and he closed himself up, but I don't think he's moved since (although he has come back out of his shell). Is there a way to tell the difference between dying and sleeping with snails? I don't want to disturb him if he's asleep, but I also want to know if I need to take immediate action to save the little guy's life, y'know?

Also, I've realized this may be a flaw in my design, but the flooring I used for the tanks is marbles. Worked great for the marimo! But, with all the algae consumption, I've remembered one of the harsh truths of life very quickly: Living creatures poop. And boy, has he had a field day with that algae. Any ideas on how I should go about cleaning out the tank? I hesitate to scrape stuff off because there's still a good bit of algae that could be Scoots' meal, but I guess I don't really have a choice. Should I scoop out all the marbles and wash them all off individually? Rinse them in a strainer? Also, if I do decide to switch substrates for something more practical, any suggestions for something cheap and easy to get a small amount of out there?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read through my little escapade. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[HazelSnail]

A snail should know when to stop eating, aquatic snails definitely eat a lot. My old mystery snail would clean the entire tank everyday, in addition to an algae wafer. Aquatic snails will sometimes float, so it can be hard to tell if they're alive or not. When I got my first mystery snail, I panicked when it started floating. Floating or resting on the bottom is fine, however, if their body is limp, or their operculum is loosely hanging open, then there's most likely a problem.

For cleaning gravel, or marbles in this case, I use a thing called a gravel vacuum, it works very well, and they are sold in most pet stores. For smaller tanks, I have improvised with a turkey baster, which works about the same but takes too long to use with large tanks.

[rekos]

Alright, that's reassuring, thank you! He's moved around and climbed a little structure in his tank now, so I guess that means Scoots is still kicking.


A turkey baster, genius. The tank is pretty small, so I'll definitely be giving that a try. Thanks so much for your help!

[HazelSnail]

No problem, glad I could help!