Snails wont live.....

[j-cal]

I'm at a loss for explanation so you guys may help. I have a good customer that did a 40% water change about a month ago and since then her corals and snails are receding/found dead. My first thought was copper. The aquarium pharmeceuticals copper test read 0 ppm. Her nitrates were at 10 ppm and nitrites/ammonia were at 0. temp is 82 and salinity is fine. She has done small water changes weekly and sometimes more often to reduce her nitrates, but since wed she lost 6 more snails (all that she had, and her corals have receded further and look very bad. Her fish look great. She originally lost all of her crabs, but the batch she got wed still looks good. Still sounds like copper poisoning to me, but the tests show it to be at 0. Any ideas?

 

[aarone]

any predators in the tank?

 

[thomas712]

What type of salt is she using?
What lighting?
Alkalinity?
calcium?
ph?
Have her check the heater for any condensation inside, all powerheads and heater for any wear or tear on the cords.
Stray voltage?
How is the water change preformed, is it mixed well and aerated at least 24 hours?
Are there any other invert problems? crabs, hermits..etc.?
Thomas

 

[madd catt]

Could she have a very high nitrate problem or what has happened to some who have changed salt mixes and their corals have begun too bleach?

 

[j-cal]

Salt- IO
130 watts PC on a 90 gallon w/ low light corals (mushrooms etc)
pH 8.2
alk and calc im not sure. she hasnt been in since i posted, but i did run a pH test when she was in.
No predators
Not sure yet about stray voltage. Originally she has a problem with her hermits all dieing. She does not let the water aerate for 24 hours.
This was not a new tank by anymeans. Its been up for almost a year, but that one change wiped it all out. She had been doing h2o changes biweekly this entire time without a problem. What concerns me is that her h2O seemed fine several weeks after the waterchange but still everything died. It wasnt a "bad batch" of snails either because I got several at the same time with no problems.
I think that her coral problems may be due to the fact that she moved them. She put them into a small tank with insufficient lighting as soon as she noticed the die off in her main tank. She didnt want the corals to die so she moved em. I've told her to keep em in the main tank cuz i think that its gotta be better than a 10 gallon w/ NO lighting, but she says they dont look any better after 48 hours in the big tank. What advice should i give her?

 

[buzz]

Instant Ocean is designed to not have to sit for 24 hours, even though that is best. It shouldn't kill any tank inhabitants.
However, wasn't there a post recently about a bad batch of salt going around? Perhaps she got a batch of incorrectly manufactured salt mix.

 

[beaslbob]

J you might want to recheck the copper again. Sure sounds like that could be the problem plus I don't trust test kits.
Also, The 40% water change itself could have (directly or indirectly) caused the problems. that changes everything.

 

[reefer44]

I would test copper again and i also agree with the salt thing......increases in just a little salt level can have a bad effect IMO

 

[thomas712]

hmmm. Water change.....dead inverts...IO salt.....sounds familier to me.
Thomas