Cleaners dieing??????

[BallPy]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to start off with saying thanks for all the great info that I have found on this site.

My problem is I am loosing my snails like crazy. They are just falling asleep and never waking up. I have tested my water and I cant find any thing wrong. My SG is at 1.024-5. What is going on? Any help would be great.

 

[danmhippo]

What's your ammonia, nitrite reading, and what's your alkalinity reading? Do you have skimmer installed (low in O2)? How long has the tank been setup, and what else is in the tank?

 

[BallPy]

Ammonia is less than .2 nitrites are none existant and I am not sure what the alkalinity is. The tank is only 3mos old. There are 2 yellow tail blues damsels, 1 perc, and a condylactis gigantea. There is about 45lbs lr and 4 inch sand bed. It is a 60 hex tank. I am running a skimmer, it is the New Sea Clone 100. They are turbo snails.

 

[brewerbob]

Did you get the snails from a reliable source? I've had one die too (I only had 6) so I'm keeking an eye on the rest.

 

[BallPy]

Well i have been using this guy for a few years know and never had any problems before. It is mainly my turbos that are dieing. I have had them in there few at least 1 month and they are now starting to die off.

 

[Anonymous]

low calcium is a usual suspect as well. Also, bristleworms whack their fare share. Have you noticed a mucous blob arond the dead ones?

 

[hfmann]

You have any kind of algae breakout? I believe some kinds of algae can be toxic. Here's a recent case I had that is now coming under control ->http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27509&highlight=. I'm sure I lost some snails and peppermint shrimp as a result.

Hal
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[BallPy]

low calcium is a usual suspect as well. Also, bristleworms whack their fare share. Have you noticed a mucous blob arond the dead ones?

No there hasnt been any signs of mucus. I really havent been worrying about Calcium because I am not housing anything other than a few button polyps that came on a rock I bought. They seem to be extreamly happy. I do add reef complete and reef calcium once a week.

 

[BallPy]

You have any kind of algae breakout? I believe some kinds of algae can be toxic. Here's a recent case I had that is now coming under control ->http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27509&highlight=. I'm sure I lost some snails and peppermint shrimp as a result.

Hal

No I am not having any algae like that. The only thing I have is the standard red algae (I cant rememeber the name).

 

[Will C1]

the red is cyno and it is not standard. i would suck it out the next time you do a water change. as for the turbos dying some are very sensitive. how did you acclimate them? or did you just drop them in?

 

[BallPy]

I floated them in the tank for about 30 minutes then opened the bags and added my tank water over the next 1hr. They were fine for a few weeks. Know they are just kealing over.

 

[Will C1]

the ammonia is a little high, but htis is common in a new tank and i havent seena snail yet die from a litte trace of it. how many total snails are in the tank? did someting die like mabe a sea cucumber? their not happy about someting try to either buy or borrow a test kit that you can test for everything with. like alkinlinty, ph, check the magnesium levels or iron or iodine. somthing is wrong and it doing them in. what kind of water are you using for top off? is it possible this water is contaminated?

 

[CAT]

When I add any kind of snail to the tank I acclimate them for about an hour then I hold them at the top of the water, against the glass until they attach. They work their way down when they're ready- sometimes it takes them a couple of hours. That way, they pretty much look after themselves.

hth

 

[Telochupoto]

Ammonia is less than .2 nitrites are none existant and I am not sure what the alkalinity is.

If you have Ammonia, then you definetly have Nitrite and Nitrate. They go hand in hand. In order for you not to have low or no Nitrite your Ammonia has to be zero; and in order to have low or no Nitrate your Nitrite has to be zero. Just my 2 Cents.

 

[skipm]

This is a little bit far fetched but I had a bad experience with it a couple of years ago with similar circumstances with my inverts myteriously kicking the bucket, check the tank for copper with a good test kit. It turned out that the source of my copper was some dead LR I added as base rock that I got from a LFS. When I tested the water with a Sera kit, my copper level was the same as if I were treating with a heavy dose of copper, I used poly filter pads to remove it adn kept replacing them for about a year afterwards to make sure that I had removed all of the leached out copper (it was either that or throwing all of my rock away which was not an option due to $$$).