My clean up crew (2nd batch) consisted of 3 snail species, 5 of each- I know some were astrea and some were the ones that so in the sand and sift. (original batch were 10 astrea- I assumed they died because I added them too soon even though h20 parameters were good, still have original hermits).
OK- I acclimated them for over an hour slowly adding my tank water and ran a heater in the bucket to bring water to same temp as tank. I also tested their water from LFS and SG and pH were an exact match, 1.024 on a refractometer. Ammonia and nitrites zero, nitrates have been under 10 units (lowest read on card)....ummm pH is 8.2, temp 79-81 degrees (higher with daylights on).
I brought in a water sample today and they confirmed the above readings. (At one point I did have a very slight increase in ammonia due to unreachable dead snails, again, well under .025 reading but this has gone back to zero). They suggested it may be metals in my well water, or chemicals leached from farms etc..... they said it is not common to have a problem but that it can happen. So I have a filter to put in the tank to try and trap possible metals and will do a large water change with RO water, give it some time and try adding one or two snails to see how it goes. 30% or more of the well water has already been removed through RO water changes over the last few weeks.
I guess this should be a warning to all those using tap- I was told by another LFS and read in my book that well water should be OK to start with since it hasn't been treated with chlorine etc........I hope I can clear this mistake up with time.
Tizzo any thoughts/suggestions??