Helpp!!!! Wthhhhhhhhh!!!!

jonnywater

Member
I have several of snails dropping like flies in my tank and have no idea why. I take it that coralline algae does not grow unless water conditions are good. Below is a pick of bloom that happened in the last 24 hours alone. This is only a small part of rock, thing is that the rock was completely bare 24 hours ago. Yet my trochus snails are dying???
How do you add a pic?
 

gtiguy

Member
Had the same thing happened to me and witt the bigger turbo snails they smell real bad when the pass on, :scared: i think in my case and maybe in yours if your pH and or alk levels arent stable, they wont last, same for all inverts...if you have a shrimp of any kind they usually go first but snails are a good method of figuring out if your water isnt stable...
 

danedodger

Member
Don't depend on algae growth to check your water suitability. Corraline algae is slow growing and I have to agree, would not just pop up in 24 hrs. So I'd have to say, without pics (sorry, don't know how to get pics on here myself but I'm sure there's a thread somewhere that answers it for you), that the color you're seeing is another kind of algae or something else.
Test your water and post the results.
For something, I'm assuming a nondesirable type of algae, to pop up so quickly and snails dying off so fast I'd hazard to guess that your nitrates are up possibly.
 

revjaxson

Member
/Add a pic at the "manage attachment" button below where you type your text. (scroll down)

You might need to size the image file. If you have a photo editor maybe like the one that comes with you camera, or Adobe Photoshop. You have scale the image no larger than 500x500.
hope this helps jonny
rev
 

fishieness

Active Member
ever use copper?
i used some in like feb cause i listened to the store and i didnt know any better. im still not able to keep snails.
 

jonnywater

Member
Like I said, the rock was BARE!!!! 24 hours before this picture was taken. If that is not coralline algae, I dont know what else it could possibly be. You can even tell based on the shade that it is new. I added the picture above.
No I have never and will never use copper in my tank. Also my salinity is at 1.024 consistently. It has to be there because of my altitude. I am adding something to the water though that seems to be getting rid of green hair algae at an extremely rapid rate and there is even more coralline on that rock today. It has nearly doubled again.
 

jonnywater

Member
Yeah with the inverts thing. I have one or two other inverts that are supposed to be much less hardy and are THRIVING!!! I received a sand sifting sea star the same day that I received these snails. You would figure THAT would go before the snails. Yet it is all over the place and eating everything that I feed it.
 

jonnywater

Member
i thought something else at first too. But after looking at nearly every picture that I could lay my hands on and sending the pic to a few people I know, they all said coralline. They also looked in my tank the day before and could not believe that it grew that quick over an area that big. Maybe I found something that actually works when it comes to stabalizing PH and getting coralline to grow. I have a little mix that I like to use.
 

jonnywater

Member
Yeah i read that about the stars. That they deplete what is in your sand bed and eventually just shrivel and go away or something. However mine is depleting what is on my tank walls. According to everything I have read, sand sifting sea stars are not supposed to climb because they do not have suction cups right? I took a picture of him and sent it to several of different places. All of them verified that it was a sand sifting sea star and that it was indeed "chewing" at the algae on my tank walls (so it is climbing). My tank is like another dimension and has been since day one.
Oh the white things on him/her is sand. BTW
 

jonnywater

Member
Yeah, its climbing as a way to escape an unfavorable environment. And it is eating on it's way out too. Snack for the road, LOL. Actually today is scooting around the sand bed and picking up loose bits of fish pellets on its way.
I dont know what "maybe we are all color blind" is saying" - but yesterday it doubled again and today it only took over about another 3/4 - 1 inch. Slow day I guess. Maybe I am lighting my tank to much?. The actinics come on at 5:00 am, the sunpaqs come on at 6:15-6:30 am and then the supaqs go off at about 7:15 pm and the actinics go off and the lunars come on at 8:15pm. Everything is set on timers and I dont mess with it outside of that.
Other than that I use all the standard equiptment and have pretty decent water parameters. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, nearly 490 in calcium now and staying there, sal 1.024 (high altitude reef tank), temp 81 (bacteria is more abundant at this level). Plus all of my green hair algae, diatoms and that red slime stuff is all dying while the coralline in spreading like nothing I have ever seen in my life. Then again I am using this stuff that you use every day and contains added amounts calcium, iodide, stronium and magneseum. Cool thing about it is that it only targets already dissolved calcium in use then .0001 above that (impossible to overdose a tank and hurt creatures). It's weird stuff, but the coralline outbreak came about 5 days after I started adding it.
I am running an AquaC Remora skimmer
Power Sweep
Something that I rigged that is basically spray bar an inch off the substrate (but it doesnt blow around the sand)
Emperor 400 Bio-Wheel with only filter floss (since activated carbon eats your trace elements) and I am doing a 10-15% water change every 3 days (my own choice)
 

wax32

Active Member
Iodide overdose? What's your alkalinity? If your Ca is rising, your alk is probably dropping. Fast changes in Ca and Alk can for sure hurt inverts.
 

jonnywater

Member
I will just re-write this and explain. My alkalinity levels are NOT dropping because the buffer that I use is primarily a PH buffer yes. However it does raise your stronium, magnes and Iodide as needed. It also targets your calcium substantially while raising your alk in the process. So basically in one nifty little teaspoon dissolved in water, you get everything helping everything else.
 
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