My Poor Snailies!

WeedyDragon

WeedyDragon

New member
My tank started off with about five Astrea and one Turbo snail which were extremely active for the first 7 months. Since September, they have all gotten lethargic and are slowly dying off. Im not sure if its related, but Ive been struggling to keep Ca and KH up with the addition of SPS in August, started having high phosphates in September, and am now battling hair algae. I did add two Orange Turbos a week ago to try them out with the GHA, but now they seem to be lethargic as well. :(

Ive been doing weekly 5 gallon water changes with Red Sea saltwater purchased from my LFS, and dosing 2 part B-Ionic. Temperature and Specific Gravity have been kept stable and I'm not throwing pennies in my tank. Any ideas? All other inverts are doing well.

Todays Parameters

Temp: 78-79 degrees
SG: 1.026
Ammonia: 0 (API)
Nitrite: 0 (API)
Nitrate: 0 (API)
pH: 7.8-8 (API)
Ca: 300
Mg: 1400
KH: 7.0
PO4: 0

I am not sure what my phosphate levels are at. The last few tests I've done (Red Sea) have shown 0. Im assuming its because the algae is taking it up. The last test that actually showed phosphates, was at 0.25ppm.
 
My Ca was actually hovering around 400ppm the last few months. Im suprised its down to 300ppm today. I think the shells look ok, other than the hair algae on them. What should I be looking for on their shells? Thinning? Holes?
 
I dont know much about turbo snails but I thought 1 would be good for a tank your size- Google ~1 per 30-50 gal . I was thinking about getting 1 of these guys when I had a similar problem with algae but lights out followed by sucking up all the dead stuff after worked for me. Any new fish or crab maby messing with your snails? Give it a look over at night time see what there up to.
 
I have about 15 giant zebra turbos in my 180 and that seems like plenty of them to get the job done. Id say 1 for every 15g volume should work.
 
My problem is that after 7 months of my snails being fine, they have all became non-active and then gradually died off. I am not sure why this is. Im down to one astraea, which is alive, but doesnt do anything. I bought two small orange turbos a week ago to work on my GHA since the rest of my snails died. I drip acclimated them, and they are acting the same (barely moving).

Specific Gravity and temp have been stable. I am not sure what else it would be other than the GFO media I added??
 
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