snails keep falling off....

[Nigma]

man this is kinda crazy... i keep getting snails and they keep deing, there is quite a bit of algae for them to eat in my tank, so they aint starving to death... but every other day i would find one flipped over... so i try and rescue them but turning it over, but 3 snails now r dead because i got to them to late or something?

my water parameters are good.. ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0... salt a lil low 1.022 trying to slowly build it back up... can that be it?

any of u guys recommend other CUC that i don't have watch over for flipege? i don't like putting my hand in the tank twice a day, to save stinkin snails!


oh btw, i have a cleaner/skunk shrimp, one emerald crab, and one hermit crab as other CUC, should i get more of those guys?

[BigAl07]

Nigma how big is your tank?

What are your Nitrates at? Invert are VERY sensitive to NO3 so this could be the cause of there demise.

As for what to get I'd suggest going to ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Home and filling out the Custom Clean Up Crew worhsheet and see what they have to suggest.

Good luck

[molsen187]

are you acclimating the snails slowly. snails need to be acclimated carefully or they can die. they have a real sensitive nervous system i believe so they can look fine then not be a couple days later. the rest of your cuc sounds ok. you can have more hermits if you want i've been told one per gallon is good. i don't like hermits, they are too opurtunistic. so rather than get mad at something for being what nature made it i just don't have any in my tank.

[molsen187]

dam al you type too fast.

[Frankie]

Sounds like you have the Stupid Snails.
I agree that most likely your problem is less then perfect water conditions. What type of snails are we talking about here anyhow?

[Cloudburst2000]

I agree. Sounds like a problem with water parameters. Also, there are snails that don't need to be turned back over if the topple over. Some species are perfectly capable of righting themselves. Perhaps, you might want to get some that don't need help turning over.

[Nigma]

they are astraea snails, my nitrate is alil high around 20,
i guess i will do another water change this week...
the way i acclimate them is a 30min temperature acclimate then i pure some of my tank water in the the bag, then 10mins later i drop them in... that's what the LFS dude told me to do, seem to work fine with most of my other live stock.

yeah it looks like i might get more hermits, my tank is being invaded by algae now.... crap.... freaking stuff grows fast

[reef dummy]

It sounds like the cuc is not the problem but high nitrates are. Lower your trates which will then lead to less algae which leads to less cuc to clean algae.

[swissgaurd]

i used to have problems with snails dieng even though i had 0 nitrates.
once i started adding magnesium snails did alot better

vic

[BLAKEJOHN]

if you get your snails from the lfs then you should temp acclimate as you do and the drip acclimate for atleast an hour or so. this procedure should be followed for any invert as they are very sensitive to water parameters. If you order them online and have them shipped the all you need to do is temp acclimate them and the just toss them in. if you try to drip or water acclimate the the PH will increase and also will the level of toxic ammonia (during shipping the PH is depressed and this also depresses the toxic amonia levels) in the water in the shipping bag and this will kill them.

To me it sounds like improper acclimation and poor water quality.

[Nigma]

cool, i will try and drip the next batch i get (3/4 more snails) working on getting my nitrates down... less feeding again.. and more water changes... is 20 nitrate really that bad? it says its "okay" on the back of quick dip bottle thingy

is magnesium safe for coral? i have a torch and a frog spawn in there.

[BLAKEJOHN]

Originally Posted by Nigma

and more water changesYes yes yes
is 20 nitrate really that bad? Dip strips are very inaccurate, chances are that you nitrates are much higher than you think. Other than what your strip is reading you also have to take into consideration the amount of nitrates that the algae is using that you are not getting a reading from. Get liquid tests kits, NH, NO2, NO3, CA, MG amd ALK. And to asnwer your question, yes 20ppm is very high for a reef system.

is magnesium safe for coral? i have a torch and a frog spawn in there For you to ask this question you need to read up on you water chemistry. But to give it to you in short, You need to have X amount of Magnesium to hold a saturated X amount of calcium. You need to have X amount of calium to buffer the Alkalinity. All three must be in balance with each other. To know this you need the test kits. Do not add them if you cant test them. And yes, magnesium, calcium and alkaline are all used to build the skeleton of any stony coral (LPS, SPS) Even soft corals still need to maintain this balance.

[Nigma]

yeah, i am still new to all this, thanks for the heads up blakejhon
but i did know that my calcium and alk need to be checked before adding coral, i just didn't know about the mag... i do have tests for all of them but the mag... i guess i will go out and get the liquid test kits, after that... i guess its okay to add mag with fish in the tank right?

[BLAKEJOHN]

yes you can