Questions about death in tank

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tkdwoody

New member
Ok a couple more questions...I'm trying to get my reef tank going

1. My turbo snails died. They were only in there for like three days. Everything is testing normal. Salinity is 1.025, temp 74-78 night/day

2. I have a brown algae bloom in my tank the brown powdery algae. It's coating everything. How should I get rid of it. Snails, shrimp, etc?

3. I have two fish in there and they seem to be doing great. Should I add shrimp anytime...which ones...cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp???

4. I have a sand sifting snail in the tank somewhere. I assume he is still doing fine, I haven't seen him in awhile. If he dies...how will I know. Will he kill off my tank?
 
I'll jump in on some of these, but anyone feel free to correct me:

1. Your temp seems a bit low. I may be slightly off on this, but I think inverts prefer something around 80.

2. Any new tank usually goes through a diatom bloom, which is what I'm guessing you're seeing. It'll clear on it's own. You should notice it starting to go away after a week and a half, if not earlier.

3. How long have the fish been in there, and how long has the tank been set up? You probably don't want to add anything else until you're able to determine why the snails died so soon.

4. Trying looking for the snail late at night, when the lights have been off for awhile.

Hopefully this will get you started, I'm sure others will jump in here with additional advice.

Dan
 
Re: Questions about death in tank

Ok a couple more questions...I'm trying to get my reef tank going

1. My turbo snails died. They were only in there for like three days. Everything is testing normal. Salinity is 1.025, temp 74-78 night/day

how old is the tank? how did/are you cycling it? how did you acclimate them? what type of turbo--mexican, margharita, orange turbo, astrea turbo?

2. I have a brown algae bloom in my tank the brown powdery algae. It's coating everything. How should I get rid of it. Snails, shrimp, etc?

diatoms are the aftermath of a newly cycled tank. you have tons of nitrates in there probably. mexican turbos helped me with the diatoms, plus fighting conches will as well.

3. I have two fish in there and they seem to be doing great. Should I add shrimp anytime...which ones...cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp???

what type of fish? what do you want shrimp for (they have uses other than just looking nice :) )--cleaning the tank, killing aiptasia, etc?


4. I have a sand sifting snail in the tank somewhere. I assume he is still doing fine, I haven't seen him in awhile. If he dies...how will I know. Will he kill off my tank?

I'm assuming you mean a nassarious snail. One snail won't kill off your tank, but also most likely won't help your sand all that much either. they are generally nocturnal snails, but if you drop a piece of clam or something in the tank, it should jump out of the sand. look for the snout sticking out of the sand.
 
1. Tank is two months old. Snails were acclimated after 2 hours of dripping. I had my temp at 80 before and was told by the LFS guy that was way to high

2. I'm afraid to add more snails at this point but they were the astria turbo I believe

3. I have a convict goby and a royal gramma. They've been in there for about 5 days and they eat well and are very active.

I want shrimp that will take care of everything. Clean the fish, the tank and kill apstaia
 
The snails not living *MIGHT* not be any cause of concern. It could be the condition of the snails before you got them. It sounds like you did all the right steps. IMO it's best to keep your tank(s) at 78 F. You have room for error if things (heaters) malfunction. The big thing is to keep the temp above 75 F. I'm currently seeing how some livestock does at lower temps, but I can't make any recommendations (comments) yet.

You will need more than one shrimp ...
Scarlet Shunk Cleaner ... cleans fish ... 1 or 2
Peppermint -- Might eat apstaia ... 3 to 5
Coral Banded -- eats worms ... one ... I like the gold banded or blue one over the common red/white one.

The sand sifting snail will not cause your tank any problem if it dies. Unless you see the shell, you may never know how it is doing.

I think I answered all your questions .. if not, post the ones I missed or you need more detail with.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12009802#post12009802 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CulturedAquatic
The snails not living *MIGHT* not be any cause of concern. It could be the condition of the snails before you got them. It sounds like you did all the right steps. IMO it's best to keep your tank(s) at 78 F. You have room for error if things (heaters) malfunction. The big thing is to keep the temp above 75 F. I'm currently seeing how some livestock does at lower temps, but I can't make any recommendations (comments) yet.

You will need more than one shrimp ...
Scarlet Shunk Cleaner ... cleans fish ... 1 or 2
Peppermint -- Might eat apstaia ... 3 to 5
Coral Banded -- eats worms ... one ... I like the gold banded or blue one over the common red/white one.

The sand sifting snail will not cause your tank any problem if it dies. Unless you see the shell, you may never know how it is doing.

I think I answered all your questions .. if not, post the ones I missed or you need more detail with.
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i agree, the snails probably just weren't healthy. another way to acclimate snails is to just attach them to the glass above the water, and they will sorta acclimate themselves by going into the water on their own. my water is constantly at 79, 75 just seems way too low to me.

cleaners==yes, will clean fish, but will NOT (repeat NOT) cure ich if you get it. best way to avoid having to clean your fish is to quarantine them before putting in your tank.

peppermints--yes, will possibly eat aiptasia. good luck though, they are a hit or a miss :( they will also eat some corals if they are sick (specially zoos) but you'll think the peppermints are killing the corals. they probably arent.

coral banded--i've heard so many horror stories about putting them in tanks (eating fish, especially when bigger, eating snails, eating little children...) that i'd never put one in the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12015572#post12015572 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tkdwoody
negative no copper. I think I'll get a cleaner shrimp...where is the best place to get them?
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depends on how far you want to travel, but a week ago i was in the store in manchester and did not see any, but there were quite a few at fintastic.
 
i agree with cultured aquatic, even though right now my set up of my tank is due to low funds/ space, my friends tank has or had a cleaner shrimp and it looked incredibley nice. my other friend on the other hand had a pretty nasty tank, but i think one might be enough, but i think it would matter the size of the tank.
 
i agree with cultured aquatic, even though right now my set up of my tank is due to low funds/ space, my friends tank has or had a cleaner shrimp and it looked incredibley nice. my other friend on the other hand had a pretty nasty tank, but i think one might be enough, but i think it would matter the size of the tank.
Click to expand...

Thanks.....................

In a 75, get a pair of cleaners, to start out. The one thing that could be affecting some stuff, can't be sure though, is if your water goes through copper pipes in your home, that copper could be entering the SW and could be the reason for the invert deaths. I would say try a peppermint shrimp, if he lives for a week (through a w/c maybe, or significant top off) then go and get another 3 and get a pair of cleaners.

My $0.02
 
nope all my water is from the store and i tested it last night for copper and it tested negative. I'll pick up some peppermint shrimp tomorrow.

I put two more snails in yesterday and they don't seem to be moving at all. I'm having a SERIOUS snail issue and I can't seem to figure out what it is. They stay in the same spot for over 24 hours. EVERYTHING IS TESTING NORMAL!!! No copper, no ammonia, no nitrites or nitrates, 1.025 salinity water temp between 74-78degrees night/day. Plenty of algae to eat. What am I missing
 
Are you testing for stray voltage? If not, I wouldn't add anything until you do. Or, just assume you have stray voltage and add a ground probe.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12025412#post12025412 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tkdwoody
water temp between 74-78degrees night/day. Plenty of algae to eat. What am I missing
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constant water temperature..
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12025510#post12025510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by renogaw
constant water temperature..
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I honestly don't believe that this is achievable without a chiller. I don't think that small of a temp spike wouldn't kill snails. Heck, I get spikes like that on a daily basis in the summer time when the halides kick on.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12025518#post12025518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amcarrig
I honestly don't believe that this is achievable without a chiller. I don't think that small of a temp spike wouldn't kill snails. Heck, I get spikes like that on a daily basis in the summer time when the halides kick on.
Click to expand...

it's perfectly doable, maybe not with halides, but my 90 gallon stays between 79.5 and 80.1 24/7, and 4 degrees is not a small temperature spike
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12028631#post12028631 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tkdwoody
I'm using a refractometer. I don't know how to test for voltage but the two fish I have are doing fine
Click to expand...

basically one probe in the water, the other probe to the screw of a grounded outlet. if you see any thing, that's stray voltage.

fish may do ok with voltage, they aren't grounded so they aren't uncomfey with it. may cause HLLE eventually though, and might throw you on your rump...

are your snails moving?
 
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