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why cant i keep snails?

1K views 17 replies 9 participants last post by  feral13 
#1 ·
Ok i have a cycled 10g high tech with 7 ember tetra's and 3 golden barbs, and 2 long fin bristlenose plecos all doing fine.

I have added 5 olive Nerites and 1 mystery snail in the last two weeks. none of the snails have survived.

params:

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrates 10
ph 6.8
gh 1-2
kn 1-2
temp 78

anyone have any ideas? i am getting some shrimp next week and i am afraid to add them to this tank.
 
#6 ·
CO2.

They need to be acclimated like fish. Further, it seems they adapt slower and you might need to drop co2 down and then raise it up slowly over days.

On top of that, co2 does a good job of eating at shells quickly in low ph/kh/gh tanks. So long term will be a prob too.
 
#10 ·
You should add GH booster. Many of the sites that sell ferts have it.

Alternatively, you can use Seachem Reef Complete. This is what I use and I add 1/2 the recommended dosage.

Either will raise Calcium and Carbonate levels to a more snail-friendly environment.

Keep testing your water. I use the same substrate and it will play havoc with your hardness for a while.
 
#11 ·
You should add GH booster. Many of the sites that sell ferts have it.

Alternatively, you can use Seachem Reef Complete. This is what I use and I add 1/2 the recommended dosage.

Either will raise Calcium and Carbonate levels to a more snail-friendly environment.

Keep testing your water. I use the same substrate and it will play havoc with your hardness for a while.

I have the GLA GH booster and i am also adding baking soda for short term KH but i have added crushed lime stone to the filter for log term.
 
#12 ·
Are you using RO water? I would skip the limestone in the filter. The trouble is it offers little control, and could cause more problems with your other livestock... Particularly the roller coaster effect of gh/kh changes. If your source water is low, I'd try to pretreat it. Not ideal, but tis the task we face.

I honestly suspect CO2 is what took them out to start. And many nerites are poorly acclimated from their saltwater native homes(they are ALL wild caught).
 
#15 ·
Are you using RO water? I would skip the limestone in the filter. The trouble is it offers little control, and could cause more problems with your other livestock... Particularly the roller coaster effect of gh/kh changes. If your source water is low, I'd try to pretreat it. Not ideal, but tis the task we face.

I honestly suspect CO2 is what took them out to start. And many nerites are poorly acclimated from their saltwater native homes(they are ALL wild caught).

i have well water and it comes out of the ground at gh/kh 0-1 and a ph of 5.2 [tons of CO2]
 
#18 ·
I would up the GH booster till I got at least 4 GH and KH.

Do you have any of the "pest" snails like pond or MTS?

I added 3 mystery snails and 2 tiger nerite snails last week. I have been waiting to see how the MTS population did before adding the larger snails. Since the MTS population and growth did fine for a couple of months, I decided to risk the larger snails. My biggest concern now is them falling out of the rimless tank.

The nerites seem to always be active. They are not very large, but I can usually spot them easily in my 75g. I might be missing a mystery snail, though. I can only find 2 of them. There has been a couple of times I thought they were dead, but I wake up the next day and see they are fine.
 
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