snails wont stay ailve

[68ss396]

I have another post explaining how I have an algea and coral problem. What i forgot is that I also put a dozel snails in a mont ago. They all died within a week so I removed them all. I cant figure what is happening. all of the fish are great.

[divecj5]

I saw your other thread as well and from what it sounds like, all of your params seem to be in order. The only thing that I've heard and read is that any major dips or spikes in pH and NH3 can have a detrimental effect on snails and hermits. I'd be interested to hear what others have to say though as I'm still new to this myself.

Adam

[68ss396]

My ph was low at 7.8 and raised to 8.3 while trate dropped from 20 to 8-9. I realize that sudden jumps are not the best thing in the world but was necessary at the time. The big thing concearning me is the dying corals. there has to be a connection I cannot find that would attack corals, snails and allow algea groth that I simply cant find in a water test.

[clutch]

any fish? snails just don't die they pretty hardy. What kind of snails. Shot in the dark do you have grounding probe to tank never know my friend went through the same thing. He had 32 volts running the water once probed it it was all fine after his spikes settled down also. The main problem is that he had a cheap heater which was leaking stray voltage in the tank.

[68ss396]

I do have a grounding probe in the sump below. fish include 2 oscelaris clowns, a sand goby, coral beauty, and 7 damsels. all of them are great. I didi lose my yellow tang to stress though when I did an all out attack on the algea two weeks ago and finished with a 20% change. unfortunatley she got very stressed I assume from how cloudy the tank got during cleaning.

[clutch]

i would put it in the main tank (probe), I get snails ship from the states dry (3 / 4 days shipping and np ) strange. Maybe try different snail from a different shop and see what happens. Are they dying or is something eating them. I would get some red legged hermits the eat algea all up fast. Sounds like you have a nutrient problem (too much).

[68ss396]

still have at least a dozen hermits, some blue, some red. I know that some of the snails were attacked and eaten by hermits. mainly the smaller snails(cant remember their name but looked like cones) the larger variety were larger than mexican turbos and just died!!! lived for 3-4 days, than pooped out. I know it sounds like a nutrien problem but all parameters show nothing. this is where the mind boggle is coming from.

[brownsugar]

you tested for any copper ?

[clutch]

hmm strange, Do you run carbon, phosphate sponge, canister filter????

[68ss396]

no carbon in use. using a phosphate media in bag. no canister filter just the ex bio tower being used as a tr4ickle filter. clean filter e/o day and replace weekly. have phosphate and nitrate media in bags under the tower. clean skimmer twice a week. have not tested for copper but believe if it was off that there would be a fish problem would there not??

[chip721]

Since you had them almost a week, I'm not saying this is the casue, but how were they acclimated to your tank? I bought some Astrea and Turbo snails at a LFS once and asked the clerk about acclimation. The response was, "Just toss 'em in." I knew better. Snails are pretty sensitive to changes in temp, SG, pH, etc. A slow acclimation is always best for them.

[4MB]

I have a similar issue but only with my snails. I have a couple small areas of hair algae (in the process of switching over to ro/di, been about a month worth of water changes) Which has gotten rid of cyano, and most of the hair algae. Fish are happier than can be. All of my corals are doing awesome (xenia, candy cane, frogspawn, zoanthids, ricordea, and my new toadstool about 1 hour in the tank is looking really good) but I cant keep the snails alive. I only clean the glass to keep the coralline algae off othe front and sides. Very little other algae grows could it be that they aren't getting enough food. I know I dont over feed and not much gets left behind.

I know in my 10 gal I over feed and my snails are doing great.

[68ss396]

They were acclimated the same way I do all fish and corals. I start by allowing them to float about .5 hour, start slowly adding 1/2 cup of my tank water every 15 minutes until bag is full and 1.5-2 hrs has elapsed. after I dump the water they came in into the porcelain godess and dump the new found friends into the tank. never had any problems before this way.

[Paintbug]

the best way i have found to acclimate snails is to take them out of the bag, put them in a dish and let them dry out for 5-10 min. then place them on the glass above the waterline, this will allow the snail to acclimate themselves.

have you ever used copper in the tank by the way? did you buy the tank new?

[68ss396]

no there has never been copper in the tank and I set all up from new.