Snails arevnot moving around my parameters check out good

[Reefer50]

I recently purchased a few turbo snails the first few days they really went to work and did a great job. Now they mostly sit in one spot for days. Some have died. I used copper in the tank before, but I now steadily use cuprisorb on the tank in a reactor and it dosent change color anymore. I also have shrimp and an
nome in the tank doing fine.. My copper reads zero on the seachem test kit and I used the seachem copper. It has been about eight month since the copper treatment. I know magnesium will cause the snails not to move but my magnesium level tests ok. Every few days they will be running around, the they sit for days. I am at a loss for what's going on.

 

[DSC reef]

It's not unusual for them to stop now and then but dying is an issue. I would have your parameters double checked by another source to make sure no copper is present and magnesium isn't super high. Also, try putting an algae clip with nori nearby. I noticed when we had large turbos and not much food around they would get sluggish, I'd hang nori and they would devour it.

 

[Reefer50]

I will have my lfs re test my water. My one anemone split and the others are doing fine.
I did test the water again and my alkalinity was at 5dkh, so I added some alkalinity and buffer combo to raise the kh and stabilize my ph. I was adding kalkwasser and noticed no new coraline alge, that's why I started testing the alkalinity. I also test for magnesium wich was a little high so I did a water change to get the mag levels down.

 

[MERKEY]

Turbos are weird sometimes lol

I might have missed it but How old is your tank?

 

[GatorGuys]

Do you have dinoflagellates in the tank? I know when I had an outbreak of dinos, the toxin kept my snails from moving - and some died from it. The snails do not seem to like crawling over them - or stirring up the toxin!

 

[DSC reef]

I will have my lfs re test my water. My one anemone split and the others are doing fine.
I did test the water again and my alkalinity was at 5dkh, so I added some alkalinity and buffer combo to raise the kh and stabilize my ph. I was adding kalkwasser and noticed no new coraline alge, that's why I started testing the alkalinity. I also test for magnesium wich was a little high so I did a water change to get the mag levels down.

This right here tells me chemistry is all over the place and that will definitely cause your problems. I would not add anymore live stock until you alkalinity is stable.

 

[Reefer50]

This right here tells me chemistry is all over the place and that will definitely cause your problems. I would not add anymore live stock until you alkalinity is stable.

Do you have dinoflagellates in the tank? I know when I had an outbreak of dinos, the toxin kept my snails from moving - and some died from it. The snails do not seem to like crawling over them - or stirring up the toxin!

No I do not.

 

[Reefer50]

No dynos on the tank.

 

[Reefer50]

This right here tells me chemistry is all over the place and that will definitely cause your problems. I would not add anymore live stock until you alkalinity is stable.

My kh was low, I raised that and it will take a while to see a difference. I did start changing out my carbon wekly inn my reactor and they came to life again. So what it's the carbon removing that is a problem? I am not sure but I will keep up with the carbon for now.

 

[Reefer50]

When I raised the alkalinity I must have done it too quickly. My rainbow bta split.

 

[Reefer50]

I am now running Cuprisorb in a reactor and it has not changed colors and my copper reads zero. I assume leaching copper is not the problem, I removed some rusty hose clamps from the sump. I did a 50% Water change and my anenomes went down hill. I have also been tinkering with a bio pellet reactor. My nitrate and phosphate are close to zero. I talked with a guy at my lfs he bought some of the same anenome says he dosent do water changing and his anenome are thriving. I am going to use some of the posted ai hydra lighting schedules and see if this helps. Parameters are spot on. My snails, Cleaner shrimp and Emerald crabs are now doing fine. I really am thinking I have an issue with copper leaching into the water even tho Seachem says Cuprisorb will remove the copper. My other corals are doing fine hammers and some softies.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

What are all of your parameters that you test for? Spot in isn't a number. From read through, you seem to be making alot of changes. You need things stable.
My nem tank has close to zero nitrates and phosphates and the nems were struggling so I have been dosing both to raise them and get them looking a little healthier. How old is your tank?

 

[Reefer50]

The nutrients are probably one of my problems both the nitrate and the phosphate read near zero. I say near zero because I am using standard test kits not a Hannah type test kit.

 

[Reefer50]

Before: The tank was about 15 years old and it was a 220gal. I never ran a properly sized skimmer, and I ran calpura in a rdp lit sump, I would run gfo randomly the last year to help with the undersized skimmer.

Currently I now have the same 220gal tied to a 150gal with two sumps and the same return pump split going to both tanks. I run a properly sized skimmer, I run a bio pellet reactor with 4 cups of pellets, I run carbon in a reactor, I run cuprisorb in a reactor because I ran copper in the 150 on the past.

I really overlooked the nutrient issue! I think you are right. How do you add nitrates and phosphates to your tank? I assumed just feed more and slow down on water changes?

 

[Reefer50]

My next questions are since I had two separate tanks initially(220gal and 150gal) I had two large skimmers they are Eshopps S-300s rated 250gal to 500gal depending on stocking levels, now that the tanks are tied together should I eliminate one of the skimmers, the flow thru the sumps has been cut in half by tying the two tanks together?

What I have done so far:
I removed 2/3 of the biopellets in my reactor(I was only at half of the recommended biopellets for my tank volume initially).
I removed my gfo reactor.
Started feeding heavier

Should I stop using my pelletized carbon in my reactor as well?

I really stepped up my game on filtration this year and obviously I over did it. I need to also know how much do you recommend my nitrate and phosphate levels to be acceptable to go up per week? Also where should I keep my nitrate and phosphate levels? I have fish, inverts, soft corals, lps and anenome in the system.

I know that sudden changes are not good in a reef tank obviously. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Reefer50]

My next questions are since I had two separate tanks initially(220gal and 150gal) I had two large skimmers they are Eshopps S-300s rated 250gal to 500gal depending on stocking levels, now that the tanks are tied together should I eliminate one of the skimmers, the flow thru the sumps has been cut in half by tying the two tanks together?

What I have done so far:
I removed 2/3 of the biopellets in my reactor(I was only at half of the recommended biopellets for my tank volume initially).
I removed my gfo reactor.
Started feeding heavier

Should I stop using my pelletized carbon in my reactor as well?

I really stepped up my game on filtration this year and obviously I over did it. I need to also know how much do you recommend my nitrate and phosphate levels to be acceptable to go up per week? Also where should I keep my nitrate and phosphate levels? I have fish, inverts, soft corals, lps and anenome in the system.

I know that sudden changes are not good in a reef tank obvio

 

[Reefer50]

You were correct, having prefect water quality in my case didn't work with the anemones. I raised the phosphate and the nitrate levels and it started coming back together. I did this by removing my gfo reactor, carbon reactor and one of the skimmers. I replaced the skimmer section in my sump with cheato and small pieces of live rock. I also added copepods to the sump to get some free food growing and help with breaking down the detritus.

Thank you all for your input.