Need Help..Snails dying

[mike911]

Hello everyone,

I have a 90gal tank set up been running for about 7 to 8 weeks, have 3 or 4 reef friendly fish that have been in the tank for about 5 weeks. My nitrates and nitrites are 0 Ph is good salinity is around 1.024. Tank temp runs around 78degrees Over the last couple weeks i have added 5 turbo snails they seem to crawl around for about 1hr then they seem to fall from the tank walls and never leave their shells again and they die. I did a second batch off snails 4 days later where i gradually added some of my tank water to the snails before adding them to the tank and again they were dead with in 1hr. I am not sure what else to do even the owners of the fish store are not sure. I could use some advise on what to check now please help...

Thank you.

[Mark_Winn]

Did you acclimate the snails before adding to your tank ? Snails can react badly with large fluctuations in water parameters (salinity, PH, Temp etc.). I drip acclimate snails or shrimp for a least an hour before adding to the tank depending on the difference of the water from the LFS or wherever they came from.

[mike911]

The second batch of snails i did and they were still dead with in one hr.

[Mark_Winn]

Are there any other inverts in the tank that are doing well ? Are you using RO water or tap ? I wonder if you may some contamination that would be harmful to inverts (i.e Copper) which is killing the snails.

Can you provide your setup ? ( Skimmer, sump, lighting) and any dosing you may be doing would be helpful.

[mike911]

I am fairly new to reef tanks, what i have is a 90g main tank with a 20g sump, in the tank i have around 80lbs of rock 3" bed of sand, living in the tank are 4 fish 1 clown fish, and 3 just blue fish (sorry dont know name) added them in to do there thing when i set up the tank. I also have 3 reg leg hermit crabs that i added during the innital batch of snails that are still living. The innitial batch was 5 turbo snails 3 reg leg hermit and 1 emerald crab. The snails and the emerald all died the first day. It has been set up for about 8weeks now, do a 1g water change per week right now. have a light on my sump that stays on 24hrs a day, and my main tank lighting comes on for about 5 or 6hrs a day. Both lights are made by Glo and have 2 bulbs in them. I run a protein skimmer in the sump. Only thing i have been recenly adding to my water is Mg. Apparently the salt i bought was a bad batch and when i mix up the salt it only has 350 in it, so ever day i have been adding Mg to the water. When i set up the tank i used bottled water from those dispencing systems at the store, and i have checked it directly and there is no phosphate in the water.

[Mark_Winn]

It might be a good idea to check the bottled water and the tank for copper traces. I would also reccomend a bit more the a 1G water change. I currently do about 10 Gallons a week on my 90G. Did you mean a 350 reading for Calcium or Mg ? You could also bring a sample of your water to a LFS for testing also to confirm your readings.

[Elegance Coral]

What species of snail are you buying? Go with Mexican turbos. Astrea snails are just to sensitive. They fall over and can't get up.

[Mark_Winn]

+! Mexican Turbos will right themselves it just looks really disgusting when they do :-),

[Loverotties]

You never said you check for ammonia or copper.

[mike911]

Ammonia is good, only thing i have not checked for yet is the copper. I had planned on moving up to 5g water change per week now. And i have been taking water samples into my LFS and every thing has been looking good. They are the ones who recommended add the snails and crabs to the tank. The 350 reading was on the Mg. yes i know its about 1000 below what it should be. Apparently the Seachem Reef Salt i used did not have much Mg in it. I mixed a g. of it and tested it the other day and it only registered 400 and the fish store said that Seachem had a bad batch a while back. So they gave me some Mg to add to the tank daily till it reaches 1300.

I am not sure of the species of turbo snails, i will find out and post what ones.

I think the next thing to do would be to check for copper and if there are any i guess add some carbon to the tank?

[Loverotties]

Not much you can do if you have it!It won't come out of the rock or caulking etc.

[biowheel]

How are you testing your salinity ?

[mike911]

so if there are traces of copper in the tank what do you do throw it away and get a new tank?

[Hop]

Originally Posted by mike911

so if there are traces of copper in the tank what do you do throw it away and get a new tank?

There are things you can do... But as quick as they are dying I would look at the water. Are you using RO/DI water? From there I would ask what where you got the rock from? Any metal in the tank?