[Sequoia Exotics]

Hi everyone!

I know that calcium is an important vitamin for snails growth but I am not sure what the best way to add it to the water is. Is there a store bought remedy you all would suggest? Is there a home-made source I can add to the tank?

 

[minorhero]

Seachem equilibrium.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Agreed^. Any of the remineralizers like salty shrimp will work as well. You can also toss in those vacation feeder blocks, or feed veggies high in calcium like spinach.

 

[Zoidburg]

I think it would help to know a couple of things....

Including your current GH and the pH of the tank, and whether or not you are injecting CO2.

 

[Sequoia Exotics]

I am not injecting CO2. Honestly, I am not 100% sure what the pH and GH are, but my tap is about 7.2 and hardness very very low. I do have a lot of Eco-Complete substrate so I don't know if that lowers the pH are anything. Thanks for all the advice guys! I didn't know the vacation feeders and spinach provided calcium.

 

[Savetheplants]

There are so many ways to suppliment Calcium. You can add Calcium Sulfate or Calcium Chloride or a proprietary mix. Some of the mixes have a lot of Potassium in them for GH. You will have to add Magnesium Sulfate or some other Magnesium compound to balance the Calcium that you add. There is also the option of putting a micro mesh bag of crushed coral in you filter. I think a micro mesh bag of an equal amount of crushed oyster shell is more potent than crushed coral. I experimented with putting 376 grams Seiryu stone pebbles in my filter and it added 14 ppm GH in 66 liters of water in one week. Choose you method. There are so many ways to dose this. What I don't know is whether snails get their Calcium from the water or from their diet. I think soft water will leach the Calcium out of their shells though.

 

[minorhero]

I had a lot ramshorn snails in my walstad bowl (7.5 gallon bowl) and was noticing defects in their shells. Normally my water is between 7 and 8.2 ph with a GH of around 3. But with so many snails in one small bowl they exhausted their regular supply. I started dosing 1 tsp of seachem equilibrium every 2 to 4 water changes (basically when I felt like it) and it instantly took care of the problem. Had a similar problem with my 5 gallon breeder tank and started doing the same and it also instantly took care of the problem. /shrug. I've had the same bottle of seachem equilibrium for a year now and at the rate I'm using it, it will last another 7+ years.

 

[Plinkploop]

There are so many ways to suppliment Calcium. You can add Calcium Sulfate or Calcium Chloride or a proprietary mix. Some of the mixes have a lot of Potassium in them for GH. You will have to add Magnesium Sulfate or some other Magnesium compound to balance the Calcium that you add. There is also the option of putting a micro mesh bag of crushed coral in you filter. I think a micro mesh bag of an equal amount of crushed oyster shell is more potent than crushed coral. I experimented with putting 376 grams Seiryu stone pebbles in my filter and it added 14 ppm GH in 66 liters of water in one week. Choose you method. There are so many ways to dose this. What I don't know is whether snails get their Calcium from the water or from their diet. I think soft water will leach the Calcium out of their shells though.

My blackwater tanks required me to supplement with calcium in my snails food as I couldn't add to the water without throwing parameters out of whack. I had no problem keeping snails in acidic water this way. Glad you mentioned the food aspect.

 

[Sequoia Exotics]

Gods thoughts! I honestly had not heard of Seachem Equilibrium until now! I will try dosing this in my snail tank.