Snails dying mysteriously

[builderguy]

I have a 8-gallon nano with a Royal Dottyback a few hermits, and I think an emerald crab is probably still in there somewhere - but that last molt removed could have been the crab.

There is quite a bit of algae on the rocks and side glass - just the regular green film stuff.

I tested the water and the params and got:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 25
ph: 8.23


The snails have been dying over the last few days - they end up upside down with hard flesh....wierd.

I've had a 150g reef for a long time...those snails are doing fine.

Anyway...thought someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

Thanks

 

[GrimReefer82]

high temps and high nitrates like 25 ppm will do it from my experience. What are the rest of your params? Phosphates, Calcium, Nitrite, Mag, Alkalinity, temp, salinity, etc?

 

[builderguy]

temps get as high as 84ish and the nitrates have been high for a while --- been as high as 50ppm, but I've been doing some water changes...I'll keep doing that to get it lower.

 

[GrimReefer82]

What are the rest of your params?

 

[builderguy]

Alk is at 9.0, haven't tested the others since I don't have any corals, etc, in there.

I supppose I should test PO4....but I've done two 2g changes (which brings down the water level 1/2 way in the tank - I suppose the rock and sand displace quite a bit of water) in the last week. I'm going to do another today and I'm thinking of adding a Current USA Fission skimmer (it's a Bio-cube 8, so it's hard to get a skimmer on it due to the lid).

I also just removed a dirty filter pad...that couldn't have been helping the Nitrates...I'm going to leave it out of the system going forward.

 

[Rich D]

get a polyfilter and test for copper, it will kill snails and crabs and worms. do you use RODI?

 

[sedor]

What about possibly converting the center chamber into a fuge (I used to have a BC14, i'm assuming the 8 is the same with the 3 chambers in back). Throw some cheato and LR in there. You might have to get some sort of light to go over it, I don't know if the lighting on the BC will leak back into the fuge area.

 

[builderguy]

no way there's copper. I use RODI for all my top-off and new saltwater - and I have 150g Display tank that isn't having a problem.

I'm going to through a polyfilter in there and some Seachem deNitrate....after another water change.

ryandlf...it does have a center chamber, for now that's where I'm going to put in some carbon and deNitrate. I plan on putting a fusion skimmer in there next month (got stick to my monthly budget LOL).

I really think that long battle with nitrates might be the problem...and now that I've taken things apart, I think it was the filterpad, I was bad about cleaning it. I think I should just leave it out. I don't think you get a good benefit from that type of mechanical filtration anyway....thoughts?

 

[100%hydrophylic]

hard flesh? what do you mean? when my snails fall upside down they cover their shell with a stopper thing(looks kinda like a plug), and if i dont put them back up quick enough my hermits eat them.

 

[builderguy]

hmmmm....maybe I'm assuming their dead...what is the stopper like? This is white and slight rounded....I assumed it was there flesh that just kinda solidified.

 

[luther1200]

If they are upside down on the sand, it probably means they fell off the glass. So the are either dead or to weak to hold themselves on. And from my expirience when they are like that they aren't going to make it. So either theres not enough food or they are dieing from something else. What kind of snails are they. Margaritta snails won't last long at 84 degrees. And some others won't do so well either.