Mystery multiple snail death, I have no idea

[brettinteriors]

I have a 55g fowlr. My water paramaters are 0,0,10. This was confirmed by Southwest. My ph8.4 temp 78, alk is good confirmed by southwest. I have healthy starfish, crabs, shrimp ect. The crabs are not hurting the snails. I do not dose for a reef. I do regular weekly water changes.

The snails(TURBO,ASTREA,MARGARITA) die within a day or two. I have had over 30 die. 20 initially and onesis after. I acclimate them over an hour. I have a grounding probe.
I am at a loss.

 

[aquaph8]

Check your salinity. Snails are sensitive to salinity changes.

 

[brettinteriors]

Check your salinity. Snails are sensitive to salinity changes.

It is 1.021

 

[fishaholic911]

Why do you need snails ? I have not purchased a snail in over 8 years and see no point in having them. Just my 2 cents.

 

[brettinteriors]

Why do you need snails ? I have not purchased a snail in over 8 years and see no point in having them. Just my 2 cents.

More I am trying to figure why. Could make my other critters less comfortable. I don't need snails.

 

[fishaholic911]

I started out in this hobby 8-10 years ago and did the same thing ( wasted $ on buying snails and crabs ) just to watch the die. Now the only clean up crew I have is what hitchikes. I have had my 125 up and going for one year with no investment in a clean-up crew and have no negetive results. Others may swear by them but like I said in my opinion they are not nessasary.

 

[sillygoose]

Your salinity sounds a little low to me. My critters all seemed happier when I bumped it to around 1.025.

 

[bamse]

check your Mg, I've read that above 1500 it is dangerous to snails.

 

[aquaph8]

Its not so much what its at, but more of a fluctuation that ive had a problem with. I used to lose snail when I slacked off on top off water.

 

[brettinteriors]

check your Mg, I've read that above 1500 it is dangerous to snails.

I will check, thank you.

 

[brettinteriors]

Your salinity sounds a little low to me. My critters all seemed happier when I bumped it to around 1.025.

Ok, I thought about raising it. Will try it slowly, will not top off as much and do more frequent water change.

 

[EllieSuz]

Add saltwater instead of top-off water daily and measure salinity frequently until you reach the desired measurement. You should be somewhere around 1.026, although many of us aim for 1.025 in order to have a little wiggle room.

 

[sillygoose]

Yeah - we do a combo top-off. Every other day we use RODI, but at least once a week, we add diluted salt water to replenish minerals, etc. Of course you get new stuff when you do a water change too, but i like to boost the good stuff in between changes.

 

[brettinteriors]

I hope my low salinity was the issue. I will try another victim, as my wife calls it, in a few days.

 

[Bifferwine]

I've found that snails in particular do a lot better if acclimated over a 4 hour period or so. Also, check for stray voltage even though you have a grounding probe. I had a grounding probe go bad after it had been in use for several years and I found ~40 volts of electricity going through my tank. It took me forever to figure out what was going wrong, since I had a grounding probe, stray voltage couldn't have been the culprit, right?