dead snail ?

[J_Geisinger000]

I recently had a large astria die in my tank
about 3 days ago

I checked my nitrates last night and they were up to 10 ppm

my question is would a dead decaying snail cause a rise in nitrates?

[Travis L. Stevens]

Yes it would

[Shiandy]

Indeed, wait till you get out, they sure do stink !

[jamal-188]

In a 90g tank...I don't see that it would do anything... how large of a snail was it?

[J_Geisinger000]

it was very large

my astreas are all about 2 yrs old so they are pretty large

the reason im asking my trates were at zero before this happend then when I found the snail decaying I checked them again and they were up to 10ppm

my tank is a bb

[imtheonlylp]

i had a couple of snails die too, but my hermit crabs made quick work of them

[ReefArtist]

Are you sure it was an astrea because they only get around 1 inch - just asking. I had 5 die right after I put them in and nothing happened to my readings. I had acclimated them for 2 hours before putting them in, they never moved and I know they were in the shell. The next morning they still didn't move so in the afternoon I started picking up any that wasn't moving, they had already been cleaned out. I guess my cleanup crew did a good job. Not sure what happened but all the others did just fine and my reading never changed. I even purchased another test kit just to be sure - nothing. It looks like your tank is going through it cycle so things should get back to normal. You might want to really watch your other snails because I don't think they tolerate high nitrates at all. Good luck.

[frederickk]

Did anything else died in the tank recently?

[finnley10]

let the hermits eat them up

[jasob]

I have a hard time believing one snail is the cause of nitrates shooting up that high. I'd be suspicious of something bigger going on. I'd say turn up you skimmer output a little bit for the next few days and possible a water change and siphon out as much crap as you can and retest.. Hopefully it will clear up.