I have a massive snail and he just keeps getting bigger!

[glb]

I have a 40g breeder and bought a few small snails when I set it up a few years ago. There’s nassarius, some turbos, and a trocchus (I think). One of them has become massive (I’d say 2” tall) and is continuing to grow. The shell is brown with black dots on it. I know the pics aren’t great but hopefully you can see its size. Does anyone know what snails grow this big and if I need to take it out of the tank? It eats algae off the rocks. It’s also covered with algae, lol. Any help is appreciated with this beast!

 

[Reefiness]

That is a Mexican turbo. Best known for there unmatched ability to plow through frags pushing them all out of the way and into the sand bed as they move.

 

[jrill]

Hate those. They get too big and mess stuff up.

 

[Peach02]

Well according to others it may screw with coral but it’s certainly unique

 

[tautog83]

Ya big turbo , I have a couple getting too big too along g with like 3 mega trochus . Theres nothing wrong with them it's just as previously stated they are bulldozers .

 

[glb]

Thanks everyone! Do they get any bigger than this? So far he’s not bothering my coral. But if he does, I’ll have to find someone with a bigger tank!

 

[Peach02]

Thanks everyone! Do they get any bigger than this? So far he’s not bothering my coral. But if he does, I’ll have to find someone with a bigger tank!

I’m unsure and there are always variations between the individuals just keep a eye on it and we’d love to see some more photos

 

[glb]

Here’s the brute hiding in the rocks

His top is covered in algae and you can see the semicircle arc of his shell above that.

 

[jccaclimber]

That's a very gunky looking tank, I'll bet that guy is thrilled.
The issue with turbo snails isn't that they eat coral, its that they knock frags over, much like urchins, although to a lesser degree. Gluing things down tends to resolve the issues.
5+ years ago when I still lived in Indiana The LFS had two turbo snails at least double the size of the usual golf ball sized ones that had been in their tank forever. I don't know what the max size is, but I do know that it's much bigger than the size they are often seen for sale at.

 

[glb]

That's a very gunky looking tank, I'll bet that guy is thrilled.
The issue with turbo snails isn't that they eat coral, its that they knock frags over, much like urchins, although to a lesser degree. Gluing things down tends to resolve the issues.
5+ years ago when I still lived in Indiana The LFS had two turbo snails at least double the size of the usual golf ball sized ones that had been in their tank forever. I don't know what the max size is, but I do know that it's much bigger than the size they are often seen for sale at.

Oh he has plenty to feed on. The gunk on the rocks is driving me to insanity. My no3 is 2.5 and po4 was 0. It’s been a long battle and I don’t know what to do. More snails??

 

[jccaclimber]

Oh he has plenty to feed on. The gunk on the rocks is driving me to insanity. My no3 is 2.5 and po4 was 0. It’s been a long battle and I don’t know what to do. More snails??

In short you want to have a nice cleaning/export session. Nutrients in the system and nutrients floating in the water are related, but don't have 1:1 correlation.

In your case the first thing I would do is do a heavy siphoning of the sand during a WC. Sure you could go the rip clean method (there's a thread on this), but I've found good improvements by just a heavy siphoning of the accessible sand a couple weeks in a row, and then you don't need to tear your tank apart. This is really easy if you regularly change water as you can just do it during your WC. If you don't change water regularly then plan out 20% of the tank volume and just do as much as is needed to get all the sand. If you lift up a handful of sand going all the way to the bottom glass and drop it from mid tank you want your water to be clear like that never happened in ~5 seconds.
With too short a siphon you need to pinch off the tube for the sand to settle out before it goes down the hose (lighter gunk will stay suspended), but with a taller siphon or coarser sand you can suck out a lot of gunk without the sand ever getting sucked out accidentally. Running the siphon at a 30 to 45 degree or so angle instead of vertically helps with this too.

Once you've done that take the siphon off and use just the narrow hose to suck out any gunk that comes off of the rocks. Getting just the grooves and crevices will get you 90% of the way there, but the sand is the big one. If you have decent throughput from your return pump you can also use a powerhead to blow everything off the rocks and then let a temporary filter sock catch it in the drain. Whatever doesn't go down the drain lands in the sand and goes out with then next sand cleaning. Hint: Do this first and you can get it with the initial sand cleaning. If you don't have a spare powerhead for this then the $20-30 Aqueon/Hydor/whatever pumps actually work pretty well. A Vortec pump in Nutrient Transport Mode tends to pulse enough to get everything off of the rocks rather nicely if it's never been done, but I've found that even that isn't a set it and forget it solution. Do that monthly (or weekly, or whatever) and after 2-3 sessions I expect you'll have a very notable decrease in gunk on the rocks. The snails will keep things cleared off, but you still need to get that snail poop out somehow, and that's what cleaning the sand/rock crevices does.

Just to make it be clear that the pot is calling the kettle black, one of my tanks has an algae issue that so far I've only been able to beat back by trying to cover 100% of the rock surface with encrusting corals.

 

[Katrina71]

My son has a beast like yours. Yes, he knocks over frags. It's ok. There is something cool about the big old guys like them!

 

[glb]

Thank you! Actually the sand isn’t as bad as the rocks. I have some snails down in it and a sand-cleaning goby. They do a pretty great job! I do daily water changes of about 2 quarts that totals about 2.5g/week. I do have a sand vacuumer I can try out on the rocks. The filter sock catches a lot of it after I use a turkey baster on the rocks, but it seems to come back every day. I really appreciate your help!!

 

[glb]

My son has a beast like yours. Yes, he knocks over frags. It's ok. There is something cool about the big old guys like them!

So far he’s leaving the coral alone. But we shall see...

 

[jccaclimber]

Thank you! Actually the sand isn’t as bad as the rocks. I have some snails down in it and a sand-cleaning goby. They do a pretty great job! I do daily water changes of about 2 quarts that totals about 2.5g/week. I do have a sand vacuumer I can try out on the rocks. The filter sock catches a lot of it after I use a turkey baster on the rocks, but it seems to come back every day. I really appreciate your help!!

The sand seldom looks bad at the surface, but it’s often a huge reservoir of gunk down inside. Try a good siphoning of the sand all the way down to the bottom glass and tell me what color the water you suck out is.

With the sand harboring less gunk the rocks will naturally become cleaner.

 

[Peach02]

Here’s the brute hiding in the rocks

His top is covered in algae and you can see the semicircle arc of his shell above that.

how long did it take for the algae to grow on him?

 

[glb]

how long did it take for the algae to grow on him?

About a month. Here’s a good shot of him on the overflow

 

[norfolkgarden]

After you siphon the sand do a clump test.

Grab a clump in your hand and drop it 6 or 7 inches above the sand surface.
If it creates a cloud you know the sand is still dirty. If it is nothing but falling grains of sand and clear water then your sand is clean.
[emoji846]