Snails Still Dying

[jocean]

A couple months ago I posted that the snails in my reef tank are all unproductive and slowly dying. Takes about 3 weeks for them to die though. Everything is thriving in the tank. Corals, Fish, Crabs, Sea Cucumber, Nesarius Snails, Sand Star, everything.

Also, all parameters were and are still perfect. The only exception is that I discovered that my RO/DI system was not purifying the water enough so I obtained a new RO/DI system from a friend who purifies water for hospital dialysis. So the water is clean.

It's been almost two months since I started water changes doing a large water change of 40 Gal. Since then there has been at least 10 smaller water changes of 10-15 gal and another 40 gal change. I was hoping it was the water quality that was killing the snails.

A recap of the issue - had snails for 18 months from set up, then all became unproductive. They slowly died over 4 - 6 weeks. I put new margarita, turbo and astrea snails in and the same thing happened.

The last snail was dead about 4 weeks ago and have done all the water changes listed above in the last 5-6 weeks.

Put a new turbo in and immediately it became unproductive and just sits there. Whenever it tries to move it falls off.

Any new ideas. It is not water quality. All parameters are great. I have used Chemi-clean and Aptasia Solution, but not in over 3 months and all water has been cycled.

Snail diseases that might be caught in rocks? Snaids if you will? Is that a possibility?

Thanks for any and all replies.

 

[silverado61]

How many snails did you have when all this started happening and what size is your tank?
How are you acclimating your snails?

 

[jay0705]

Is there enough food for them? I have issues w turbos myself, but cerith and margaritas thrive

 

[jocean]

How many snails did you have when all this started happening and what size is your tank?
How are you acclimating your snails?

There were approximately 10-12 snails before it all started happening. The smaller snails died quickly and just disappeared. the bigger snails were much slower. There was enough food for them for sure. Especially when it got down to the last few. Then after they were gone, a small amount of algae started covering the rocks. Not out of control. just a regular amount that would normally grow without snails.

But the new ones died well after the algae grew back.

Acclimation is a drip for about 3 hours. But that doesn't explain why all of the originals died after 18 months.

 

[jocean]

How many snails did you have when all this started happening and what size is your tank?
How are you acclimating your snails?

BTW, the tank is 180 gallon with a 40 gallon all natural refugium with mangroves and macros. So 220 all together.

 

[jocean]

Is there enough food for them? I have issues w turbos myself, but cerith and margaritas thrive

It's all snails except the Nassarius snails and sea cucumber.

 

[silverado61]

I'm scratching my head right now.

The only thing I can think of is, since algae started growing after the snails died, is you have ammonia coming from somewhere since most algae consume ammonia and need it to survive. But then again, only the snails are affected.....Hmmm.

What brand of tests are you using and how old are the test kits?

As far as acclimation goes, I was just curious because of the last turbo dying so quickly.

 

[flower]

Hi,

Nassarius snails don't feed on algae, they eat the wasted food that the fish miss. The sea cucumber doesn't feed on algae either, they feed on the fauna from the sand, and keep it stirred. The snails that are dying on you are the algae eaters. A SW tank balances itself out and only the food supply determines what will thrive. Your RO/DI water filter is not to blame, or the corals would suffer long before the inverts.

The constant water changes is pretty much a guarantee that no algae will grow, and the snails will continue to die of starvation. Keeping the tank water pristine is great for SPS corals, but not so much for soft corals and snails...soft corals need some nitrates (under 10 no higher) to be happy. Snails are a CUC (clean up crew) to control algae, if you don't have algae you don't need a big CUC.

Oh almost forgot to mention. You may have algae, but it has to be the RIGHT type that the critters want to eat. Also look in the tank at night, you may have more snails then you realize, since they hide in the day.

 

[silverado61]

Thanks for stepping in Flower.

 

[bang guy]

Have your rocks or tank ever been exposed to straight tap water? Or anything else containing copper?

What is the salinity & temp of your tank water? (and how are you measuring salinity?)

 

[flower]

Have your rocks or tank ever been exposed to straight tap water? Or anything else containing copper?

What is the salinity & temp of your tank water? (and how are you measuring salinity?)

Corals are fine, cucumber and nassarius snails are all happy and healthy. Only algae eating snails are dying off.

 

[bang guy]

Corals are fine, cucumber and nassarius snails are all happy and healthy. Only algae eating snails are dying off.

Most inverts are only affected by copper when it's in the water column. Snails are different. When surfaces are exposed to minute traces of copper in water the copper tends to bond with the surface. Once bonded the only way to get it off is to either scrape the surface off or dissolve the copper with acid. As algae eating snails scrape at the surfaces any accumulated copper will end up in their gut where it is dissolved by digestive acids.

Nassarius do not eat algae nor scrape at tank surfaces so they would not be affected.

 

[flower]

Most inverts are only affected by copper when it's in the water column. Snails are different. When surfaces are exposed to minute traces of copper in water the copper tends to bond with the surface. Once bonded the only way to get it off is to either scrape the surface off or dissolve the copper with acid. As algae eating snails scrape at the surfaces any accumulated copper will end up in their gut where it is dissolved by digestive acids.

Nassarius do not eat algae nor scrape at tank surfaces so they would not be affected.

Wow... I learn something new everyday. I thought that if a coral lived there must not be any copper...Thank you. I personally never buy used tanks or equipment, I live in fear of copper.

 

[bang guy]

There's always some amount of copper. NSW is something like 0.04ppm (memory could be off here) and nearly all of that is chelated and therefore mostly harmless. Some inverts require some amount of copper, Horseshoe Crabs for example that have copper based blood (blue blood vs red blood). When it gets higher NSW levels some inverts begin to have trouble removing copper from their system. In the snails case the issue isn't the copper concentration in the water, it's the issue of ingesting the copper from surfaces and having digestive acids & enzymes acids dissolve the copper compounds into free copper.

 

[flower]

You are so full of information... all we get are tiny glimpses of the stuff in your head. LOL... I miss the little icon that bows to greatness.