Snails continue to die within a few hours

[Daurland]

wvned, you are doing some sort of tank water acclimation when you’re adding tank water to the bag

I just did a 5 gallon water change and the numbers above were the numbers from yesterday as well.

My po4 says 1.0 but in fact it was .10 I messed that up in my notes

 

[Daurland]

If something is shipped with a lot of water I dump some until the bag is about 1/4 full and then I add the same amount to the bag from the tank. I clip the bag to the tank and let it float. Then I add some from a cup every 10 minutes or so and after 30-60 minutes I dump the bag in the tank.

The only time I acclimate in a bucket is the rare event that I get something in the green or blue water where some chemical has been added to the bag. I add the water to the bucket but place the animal in the tank at the end and toss the water in the bucket.

The snails that are being out in the tank are the same that go into my main display and have been going strong no problem for about 5 months

 

[Daurland]

I've had exactly the opposite experience. Temperature acclimate only and they sit there like stoned zombies for days and a small portion survive and otherwise have short lives. Drip acclimate and they're happy and moving the same day and survive for years.

That’s what I do with my main display, and the same snails from the same lfs and I’ve had no problems. Running strong for 5 months now

 

[wvned]

The old ones

 

[dadnjesse]

I have had my reef for 15 years all I do is temp acclimate the bag by floating them for an Hour then dump the water out and put in the snails. never had a problem

 

[Daurland]

I have had my reef for 15 years all I do is temp acclimate the bag by floating them for an Hour then dump the water out and put in the snails. never had a problem

Yeah I’ve never had a issue before this but something is up but my numbers are all good is what makes it strange to me

Cause coral, fish, shrimp and hermits are all doing good no problem

 

[shred5]

Do you have coral and how are they doing? Fish?
Sounds like you may have some sort of contamination.
Could be copper?

 

[JTP424]

Silly question, but I don't think I see it... What's your salinity? (Unless it's copper as previously stated, maybe check for some rusted/corrosion somewhere)

 

[Daurland]

Silly question, but I don't think I see it... What's your salinity? (Unless it's copper as previously stated, maybe check for some rusted/corrosion somewhere)

It’s a new tank straight out the box, salinity is 1.024

I have it on the first post picture of all my levels only difference is po4 is .10 not 1.0 like in the picture

 

[Daurland]

Th

Do you have coral and how are they doing? Fish?
Sounds like you may have some sort of contamination.
Could be copper?

The 4 fish are doing perfect no problem at all or sign of anything to be wrong, corals (Duncan, anemone, mushroom, zoa all are out no problem)

Peppermint shrimp and hermits are roaming no problems are just out roaming around

 

[JohnL]

when I add any snails they tend to die within a few hours

Are the snails all from the same source?

 

[BeanAnimal]

I would 100% get a copper test and likely run cuprisorb or another metal absorbing pad.
I do not have a reference, but there is no doubt that different animals have different levels of copper sensitivity.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Per Fauna Marin copper page... may not be your issue, but certainly worth fully ruling out.

 

[Genetics]

I have had a 13.5 gallon running for about two months and coral is doing well and fish as well

But when I add any snails they tend to die within a few hours

Only running,

chemi blue pro
Filterfloss
Media reactor with rowaphos
Bio max

Wondering if anyone has a thoughts on this

The picture are my numbers as of today View attachment 32380387

Test the SG on the bag of snails before adding. You might be way off in salinity in your tank.

 

[shred5]

View attachment 32380460

Per Fauna Marin copper page... may not be your issue, but certainly worth fully ruling out.

Completely Agree...

Copper could have come in with fish. I know several places run low levels of copper in their saltwater fish tanks. If the water got dumped in with the fish, copper could enter that way.

 

[mellotang]

Yes, copper would kill snails

but OP states tank has snails and inverts in already which have been thriving for Months

 

[BeanAnimal]

I think only some soft coral and fish and the shrimp... I have no idea what the relative toxicity level is between them all. May not be copper, but still worth checking I would think.

 

[Breadman03]

There's a chance that you might have low levels of dinoflagellates in the tank, though I don't see any obvious signs in your pics, particularly because your tank is pretty new and will have a few stages of the uglies.

I'm relaying my current situation because it explains why I suggested the possibility of dinos.

I neglected my tank for about a year while helping take care of my Dad and nutrients went crazy. I ended up with a bunch of algae, cyano, and ostreopsis dinos (which produce a toxin) and left me struggling to straighten out my tank. I got the cyano and dinos under control pretty quickly with a bunch of large water changes and regular maintenance, but the hair algae ran rampant since the dinos killed most to all of my snails. New snail additions would die off very quickly. After some time, I could snails but would still lose a bunch.

I've spent a ton of time manually scrubbing the algae and have made great headway. Growth has gradually reduced to almost entirely on my rocks but my snails and urchins just can't seem to keep up. Just the other day, I decided to toss a few algae samples on my microscope to confirm it's just hair algae and not bryopsis. I noticed some ostropsis, maybe 3-8 within view at any point (low magnification setting) on each slide I prepared, so it isn't a huge plague, but I suspect that's what is keeping my critters from keeping the lawn mowed, and I think the likely reason that I am still experiencing notable snail mortality rates.

Given that you don't have an obvious smoking gun at this point, I'd consider sending out an ICP test for like $40 as I think that would be more cost effective than buying several test kits for various elements that you probably won't use again. If that doesn't produce a smoking gun, it's probably worth spending the money on a microscope. I got an Amscope MC 150, currently $84 on Amazon, but any decent high school quality microscope will provide all you need for dinos, and likely anything reef hobby related. Honestly, if you have the extra cash laying around, a microscope is handy to have around and might be worth just grabbing anyway. I found that I enjoy looking at random stuff from my tank and it can help with identifying some of the smaller pests we come across.

 

[shred5]

There's a chance that you might have low levels of dinoflagellates in the tank, though I don't see any obvious signs in your pics, particularly because your tank is pretty new and will have a few stages of the uglies.

I'm relaying my current situation because it explains why I suggested the possibility of dinos.



Given that you don't have an obvious smoking gun at this point, I'd consider sending out an ICP test for like $40 as I think that would be more cost effective than buying several test kits for various elements that you probably won't use again. If that doesn't produce a smoking gun, it's probably worth spending the money on a microscope. I got an Amscope MC 150, currently $84 on Amazon, but any decent high school quality microscope will provide all you need for dinos, and likely anything reef hobby related. Honestly, if you have the extra cash laying around, a microscope is handy to have around and might be worth just grabbing anyway. I found that I enjoy looking at random stuff from my tank and it can help with identifying some of the smaller pests we come across.View attachment 32380575

I didn't see he posted pictures? Maybe not showing up for me?

Yea Certainly Dinos could kill them or minimum stuns them for a while.

 

[Daurland]

Test the SG on the bag of snails before adding. You might be way off in salinity in your tank.

It’s 1.024