Snails dying suddenly??

saullman · Sep 22, 2021

I've couldn't keep snails for the longest time and couldn't figure out why? One day someone here on R2R told me to check my voltage in my tank with a multimeter. I did that and It came up something crazy like 30 volts running through my water column. I found out It was a bad heater through the process of elimination. I replaced the heater. Added a grounding probe and wala, problem solved.

maleks.reef · Sep 22, 2021

saullman said:
I've couldn't keep snails for the longest time and couldn't figure out why? One day someone here on R2R told me to check my voltage in my tank with a multimeter. I did that and It came up something crazy like 30 volts running through my water column. I found out It was a bad heater through the process of elimination. I replaced the heater. Added a grounding probe and wala, problem solved.

How long did the snails live for before dying?

maleks.reef · Sep 22, 2021

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/helpful-method-for-identifying-dinoflagellates.216508/

Trying this method of identification right now, will update you in an hour.

MikeTheNewbie · Sep 22, 2021

Around a couple of months ago, some of my snails died and my nems were noticeably upset (closed and not bubbly). I sent an ICP test and my aluminum was very high. Magnesium was a bit high too and I read Mg makes snails letargic.
Over the past couple of months I fixed the high Aluminum and now the snails and nems look great. Maybe its worth doing an ICP although I have also seen how snails get "sick" after eating dinos.
Good luck solving the problem.

Slayyyter · Sep 22, 2021

What

saullman said:
I've couldn't keep snails for the longest time and couldn't figure out why? One day someone here on R2R told me to check my voltage in my tank with a multimeter. I did that and It came up something crazy like 30 volts running through my water column. I found out It was a bad heater through the process of elimination. I replaced the heater. Added a grounding probe and wala, problem solved.

What Grounding probe brand would you suggest. Interested in one just in case something leaks voltage

maleks.reef · Sep 22, 2021

MikeTheNewbie said:
Around a couple of months ago, some of my snails died and my nems were noticeably upset (closed and not bubbly). I sent an ICP test and my aluminum was very high. Magnesium was a bit high too and I read Mg makes snails letargic.
Over the past couple of months I fixed the high Aluminum and now the snails and nems look great. Maybe its worth doing an ICP although I have also seen how snails get "sick" after eating dinos.
Good luck solving the problem.

How did you get aluminium in your tank? And how did you solve the issue?

maleks.reef · Sep 22, 2021

maleks.reef said:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/helpful-method-for-identifying-dinoflagellates.216508/

Trying this method of identification right now, will update you in an hour.

According to this method, i do not have dinos. Even when i extracted the "dinos" and put them in the plastic cup, they were green and algae-like and as far as i know dinos are brown so I think it's not dinos. I don't know if i should be happy or sad about this lol. Back to square one i guess. This hobby can be very frustrating sometimes...

Harold999 · Sep 22, 2021

Buy a $75,- microscope, saves you a lot of guessing and will keep you on the right path how to treat.

MikeTheNewbie · Sep 22, 2021

maleks.reef said:
How did you get aluminium in your tank? And how did you solve the issue?

So far I have narrowed it down to the media brick i asked about before. I removed the block and added Metasorb and a polyfilter. A new ICP showed that those 2 did a good job reducing the aluminum.