piscesblue
Member
Why do my snails die? I'm on my 2nd batch of astrea snails in a month, the first 10 died in a week, and already 2 have died from the 2nd batch added lastnight.
Heres the tank:
75gal used acrylic SeaClear System II tank with built in overflow wet/dry filled with LR rubble and cheato, built in skimmer. (This tank was used for many things (reef, reptile, Koi) by it's previous owner who took a natural approach at petkeeping. Possible copper poisoning here, but does acrylic absorb copper?
100lbs of 6yr old LR in beautiful condition from a board member (thanks again kpatrick)
1" - 2" CaribSea argonite with 20lbs of CaribSea LS
12 X's water flow thru 4 PHs / pumps
260W PC's
1 Chromis
1 Cherub
1 Yellow Tang (spare me the details)
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Coral Banded
1 Peppermint
1 Emerald
15 Scarlets
6 Blue Legs
13 Astrea
1 Sandsifting Star
History:
Tank is in it's 5th week, I started it with tapwater and am using RO for top-off water. I have lost 8 fish, 5 chromis from a nasty (***** 3/$3) internal parasite that exploded from the inside (the 6th one is doing great for weeks now), 2 curious cleaner gobies to a non-screened powerhead (poor things) and 1 two spot hogfish who jumped to his freedom and found the carpet. In 7yrs at this hobby I've never lost this many fish. 3 remaining fish are fat and happy and protected from the hungry powerheads. All inverts are doing great, multiple molts, so I am doubting copper poisoning, but am waiting for my testkit to arrive. The LR had 2 colonies of green Star Polyps on them which were doing great for 2wks, now should be considered dead after the first addition of RO water / slight salinity adjustment in week 3. I have since dropped the salinity back to the original point after remembering SG changes with temp
. I just finished the diatom phase and are moving into the green peach fuzz on the glass phase, so things are progressing nicely. Right now, the RO water is my #1 suspect since it came from a machine at the water peoples building, but I can't find a LFS who has an TDS meter to test it. Thanks for taking the time to read thru this mess and please don't assume I'm a noob, look at my join date, but if you see something obvious, please post it. I'll leave you with my water specs which have not changed since week 2.
Temp 80 - 82 (this bothers me and is suspect #2)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - never over 5
PH - 7.8 or 8.4 (stupid color-blind testkit)
SG 1.023 at 82deg (waiting for my refracto)
Heres the tank:
75gal used acrylic SeaClear System II tank with built in overflow wet/dry filled with LR rubble and cheato, built in skimmer. (This tank was used for many things (reef, reptile, Koi) by it's previous owner who took a natural approach at petkeeping. Possible copper poisoning here, but does acrylic absorb copper?
100lbs of 6yr old LR in beautiful condition from a board member (thanks again kpatrick)
1" - 2" CaribSea argonite with 20lbs of CaribSea LS
12 X's water flow thru 4 PHs / pumps
260W PC's
1 Chromis
1 Cherub
1 Yellow Tang (spare me the details)
1 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Coral Banded
1 Peppermint
1 Emerald
15 Scarlets
6 Blue Legs
13 Astrea
1 Sandsifting Star
History:
Tank is in it's 5th week, I started it with tapwater and am using RO for top-off water. I have lost 8 fish, 5 chromis from a nasty (***** 3/$3) internal parasite that exploded from the inside (the 6th one is doing great for weeks now), 2 curious cleaner gobies to a non-screened powerhead (poor things) and 1 two spot hogfish who jumped to his freedom and found the carpet. In 7yrs at this hobby I've never lost this many fish. 3 remaining fish are fat and happy and protected from the hungry powerheads. All inverts are doing great, multiple molts, so I am doubting copper poisoning, but am waiting for my testkit to arrive. The LR had 2 colonies of green Star Polyps on them which were doing great for 2wks, now should be considered dead after the first addition of RO water / slight salinity adjustment in week 3. I have since dropped the salinity back to the original point after remembering SG changes with temp
Temp 80 - 82 (this bothers me and is suspect #2)
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - never over 5
PH - 7.8 or 8.4 (stupid color-blind testkit)
SG 1.023 at 82deg (waiting for my refracto)