Snail LifeSpan

[MrsHaggis]

Two of my turbo snails have died recently.
How long should they live?? These ones are about 4/5 months old.

The first one died about 3 weeks ago - the shell was empty and I have no crabs so I was a bit confused as to where it went.

The second one has also now passed - but I cannot get to the shell without removing a large portion of rock. Which I am not keen on doing. So I don't know if the shell is empty.

My nitrates are high and rising could the decomposing snail be the problem? What should I do?

I've already changed 20% of water and the nitrates are still high......

I also have a dying Xenia which could be part of the nitrates problem.

[Whys]

At 16g, I'd say yes, the snails could be the problem, but more likely their deaths are a symptom of a larger problem.

Also, those shells might not be as empty as you think. Mollusks can shrink as they die.

Get a hermit. I love the little buggers and at that size of tank a complete cleanup crew is important. Red-scarlets are probably the safest.

Also, you've been here long enough that I shouldn't have to ask this, but... what are your parameters and how often do you do your waterchanges? :]

[MrsHaggis]

10% water change every Sunday (using RO water).

amm 0
nit 0
nitrates 40-60
phos 0
cal 420
mag 1080
alk 10
ph 8
Salinity 1025

I have never been able to keep either crabs nor shrimp in the past - they just die on me!!
And until I reduce my nitrates by a huge amount there is no point in trying!
I still have 2 snails left (not sure if they are turbos or not).
They could have died because of the chemicals given off by the dying Xenia - which has now been removed from the tank. All fish and other corals doing fine.

[Whys]

I see your point. That's a lot of nitrate.

Improve tank flow and increase water-change volume. You could try switching to RO/DI, but I think the real issue is bio-load.

Not sure there's an easier or more elegant solution.

[thegrun]

Inverts have difficulty with nitrates as high as yours are. 3 fish in a 16 gallon tank will make it difficult to keep the nitrates down low. Frequent water changes will help, a refugium would help a lot.

[Flipper62]

Also what is your salinity ??

Snails dont do well with salinity changes. Your salinity should be in the range of 1.023 to 1.026.....BUT, pick one & stick with it. Fish like a lower salinity like 1.022 .1.023 & corals like a higher salinity. I keep my tanks at 1.024. Be sure that your new saltwater that your using for your water changes is the same salinity as your main tank before you add it.

If your salinity keeps jumping around its going to be death for the snails.

[Flipper62]

3 fish in a 16 gallon ??? Thats fine

If your doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks I dont think thats a problem. I have 3 fish in my 14 gallon Biocube in my office. I have even had a 4th fish in there from time to time With my business I own, I travel a lot. I try to do water changes every 2 to 3 weeks but there have been times that I have gone as long as 8 weeks. Nothing has died, every one & everything is just fine.

Hey Whys........

[Whys]

Eureka! Get a Lion Fish... that should solve it.

[Whys]

Flipper, do you also have leathers? Because I'm thinking the combination of the fish with the leathers might be the issue.

Hey........

[MrsHaggis]

As I wrote before my salinity is 1025.
Steady as a die. The only time it fluctuates a little is right before I do my evening/morning top-off. I top-off my water every evening before going to bed and every morning when I get up.

I am hoping that my high nitrates came with the dying Xenia.

There are only two fish in there now - the Blenny didn't make it.

And two of the other snails have survived no problem.
Could it be that those 2 snails were just old?

[Whys]

Anything is possible, it just seems like you've been struggling with this from the beginning and it hasn't been getting better but worse (correct me if I'm wrong). Thus it appears there is a fundamental imbalance of some kind in your biotope.

JM.02

[MrsHaggis]

I done a huge water change not long ago and got my nitrates down to 0 for the first time and they stayed that way for several weeks. Then when I got the Xenia things seemed to go down hill. Nitrates started to rise, one leather refused to open, snails started to die, the blenny died. Since I got rid of the Xenia two days ago the leather is open again so I am hoping that my 50 % water change will bring them down quite considerably and then another 50 % water change in a few days will bring them to 0 again.

I only have two fish and feed every two days so I have no idea where the imbalance is. I even changed the coral base to sand to help with the problem.

[Whys]

Well, with any luck, you've identified the problem and have the cure in hand. I wish you luck!

[MrsHaggis]

Fingers Crossed Whys!!
I'm on my second bucket of RO water right now so I will have done a 25% water change today.....I'll let you know how the nitrates look after that!

[MrsHaggis]

I've done two large water changes now - a bit more than 50% of the tank and I've gotten the nitrates down to 20. So I'm going to do another 20-25% on Tuesday and take it from there.....after I have them down to 0 or close to I am not going to add anything else to my tank for a few months to see what happens with them! (whilst doing my weekly water changes that is!!)

[Whys]

Sounds like a good plan. Personally, after 6 months, I still really enjoy my hermits, star, and frogspawn. Buying new additions seems the smaller part of the hobby.

[Korrine]

Interesting. Please keep us posted Mrs Haggis.

[MrsHaggis]

Well I've done another 25% water change and the nitrates have came down to about 10......the test I use is really difficult to read correctly!! But the intense yellow colour it much less intense than before so I know that it is better but still not solved. I will be doing another 25% water change tomorrow.

I hope that I'm not doing too many water changes - 25% every two days (I've done three already!!).

I am hoping that with the next water change I'm going to have little or NO nitrates at all.

I have been thinking about what could cause them to be high all the time and the only thing I can think of is that I don't wash my frozen food before putting it in the tank, would that have a huge impact?

[Freed]

Originally posted by MrsHaggis
Two of my turbo snails have died recently.
How long should they live??

Years. I have snails in my tank that have been in there for at least 6-10 years already. Haven't added any new ones and they have never spawned or reproduced as far as I know.

[Korrine]

I've read of frozen food having an impact on the water quality. With the tank being as small as it is, I wouldn't doubt that could be a decent part of the problem.

[MrsHaggis]

OK, so if I was to wash the food how would i go about it exactly?

I have a little bucket thing with gauze on it - apparently for washing food. I cannot wash it in tap water I guess - tank water??

My intelligent guess is that I put the food into the bucket thing and wash it with tank water and then stick it in the tank.....sound good?

[Toddrtrex]

While the nitrates aren't helping, IMO a 16 gallon most likely have enough algae for 1 turbo, let alone 3.

Once in a while I will move one of mine from my 75 to my 33, after being in there for about 2 weeks it starts to slow down -- all visible algae is gone --- I move it back to my 75, with plenty of algae, and it perks right back up. The water in both the tanks test the same, and have no issues with inverts.

Edit; and my turbos (( have 3 of them )) are over 2 years old.

[Korrine]

I would imagine that sounds about right. Some sort of strainer with small enough holes that the food won't rinse right through. I would use tank water or r/o water.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Korrine
I would imagine that sounds about right. Some sort of strainer with small enough holes that the food won't rinse right through. I would use tank water or r/o water.

use a small brine shrimp net---there about 4 bucks here.

[Aquarist007]

using water changes to reduce nitrates is only a temporary fix---it you don't locate the source of importing them then the level of them returns very quickly

overfeeding and not rinsing foods are a big source of nitrates

How much live rock do you have in your tank and do you know where you purchased it.
You should have at least a pound per gallon in there of quality live rock that is very porous.
This is the most effective way of nitrate reduction

Nitrates can also be reduced by chaeto macro---you could easily use the soap dish on the right in this picture and fit it in your tank




Carbon bacteria also reduce nitrates as one of the reason for vodka dosing but you don't want to do that in such a small tank
Rather I would cut out the frequency of water changes as you might be stripping the water of these useful bacteria.