Snails very unhappy

[PoonTang]

Any chance the new tank was contaminated with copper or something?

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Youngster Dan

Hi scuba, here is an interesting read on snails. I don't have an answer for you, though I supose this article may be more helpful than two people bickering back and forth ruining your thread.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php

Good luck. Oh and +1 on acclimatizing for a while, I figure it definitely doesn't hurt (especially with regards to snails) and it is really easy to do.

technically 3 people now.
lol.

just finished reading that article and it certainly stresses the importance of a 5 to 10 hour drip acclimation but I still reiterate that I haven't lost more than one or two from a fast or no drip at all.

I couldn't find anything in there that would help you come to any kind of conclusion as to what issue has befallen your snails though...

which part were you specifically referencing youngster dan...I must have missed it.?

[Mandosh]

Originally Posted by gobytron

and take that hat off of your poor tang.

he looks ridiculous.

Hahahaha.

What are your nitrate levels?

[ScubaSteve]

Let's play nice kids!

Thanks for the article Dan. Definitely an interesting read. According to the article, even a 4 hour acclimation isn't enough! Crazy!

Copper... now that is something I have been thinking about as well. The tank I am using is a used tank. To the best of my knowledge, it was only ever used for saltwater; but then again... you never know what happened in it before I got it. Before I used it I cleaned the $%^ out of it as I was concerned about what might be left behind. How effective cleaning is against copper? Probably not very good. I've been debating this poly-filter stuff that is supposed to be great at removing copper if there is any.

After the move a few of my acro colonies took a big hit and there was some tissue necrosis. One of my frags I think is going to be toast pretty soon but the colonies I think are recovering (jury is still out on the bird's nest... not sure what's happening there). While I was super careful with the move, I had come to grips with the fact that somethings might not survive and I kind of passed the tissue necrosis off as part of this. But I am wondering if there is copper or something similar in my system that is the root of all this wackiness? Hmmmm....

[gobytron]

and what is your average temperature?

margerita snails are kind of a lfs scam as they are super sensitive to heat...
astraea are somewhat the same though more tolerant.

the rest of your snails would have to have a pretty high temp for it to be the issue though....

it would seem logical that if the issue were copper, you would have had this problem from the get go and not just after a move....

[ScubaSteve]

Nitrates: 0ppm (just tested)
Temp range: 78 to 80F, but is pretty much constant at 79F

My cerith, top and trochus are the ones having the greatest issues. Margarita's are kind as they always are: stupid and getting stuck upsided down.

All of this started after I moved and went into a larger (40G) tank. When I had all of this in a 20G with a high bio-load and no skimmer, it was EXTREMELY stable and had zero issues. I go to a newer, bigger tank (which in theory is supposed to be more stable) and BAM! all this crap starts happening. It's weird man...

[NanoHuman]

What is your pH? It could be depressed and the snails are showing more outward signs of displeasure than the other aquatic life.

[ScubaSteve]

For a while my pH was on the low side (about7.8 to 7.9) but I've been working on bumping it back up. I haven't checked it in the past day or so, but it's probably around 8ish.

[MitchM]

You mentioned that you made a change from a 20g to a 40g.
You could have triggered a mini-cycle.
It sounds like a lot of animals did not immediately like the change.
How frequently did you track your parameters and how did you go about making the change?

Mitch

[ScubaSteve]

There was a very small cycle in the first week or so but all params have been spot on since. I was tracking params every day the gradually to every other day, now I'm doing it every few days (except right now while I'm trying to figure out what the heck is going on).

When I made the change I switched to a new substrate; because of this switch I was careful to feed sparingly for about 4 weeks until the denitrifying bacteria could catch up. Other than that the change was as per any other move I have done (which is a lot) and that is: very slow and methodical. Brought close to 15 of the 20 gollons of water over to the new tank during the move. The new tank had been sitting for about 5 days with saltwater and the new substrate at temperature before I did the move. Everything was acclimated very slowly over about 6 hours. I went to bed at about 5am.

The only thing that I have done different than any other move/tank switch is go to a used 40G square tank.