Hey Guys,
thanks for the replies. So here's a little more info. Depending on air temperature, the tank stays between 77 and 80. Unless something crazy happens like an insanely hot day, it normally will not jump higher.
Question - if the temp is lowered, will that affect the fish and corals? There are both LPS and SPS. Soft and hard corals.
As far as the cleanliness of the tank goes... The tank is not too clean because without any motivated snails, a slight layer of algae is growing on the rocks with plenty to go around. The snails are also not starving because right now only two survive so far. And the algae is not out of control at this point because the parameters are in check.
No changes have been made to how I keep the tank. The temp at an average of 78 and water parameters are good except for about 8 months ago where there was a Nitrate spike which took a few weeks to get under control. The snail issue did not happen until months later so that was not the issue.
I also had success with about 12 - 14 snails of mixed species for a long time. Margarita, Astrea, One turbo, conch, and some Nasarius. It's a big tank so there was plenty of food. They were all strong until one day they all became inactive and started dying off all of a sudden.
I've ruled out all of the obvious. Chems, temp, parameters, etc... Just looking for some insight into something odd or uncommon that I may not know of.
Is there a such thing as a disease or virus that affects only snails or Mollusks?
The LFS suggested it may be the chemiclean I used to head some Red Slime off before it got out of control. How long does it take to cycle this stuff out? I've done some big water changes since then thinking it may be it, but no luck so far. Also blow the rocks off every couple weeks and usually the day before a water change.
Hmmmm! baffled.