Something weird is going on with my tank.

[Kasrift]

Could also be really high magnesium, it causes snails to "act drunk". So your test kit accuracy as pointed out could be showing low. I don't know how that would affect the corals in your original post, but parameters that are off will always affect corals.

 

[Stelioshah]

Could also be really high magnesium, it causes snails to "act drunk". So your test kit accuracy as pointed out could be showing low. I don't know how that would affect the corals in your original post, but parameters that are off will always affect corals.

The coral issue probably was unrelated, it had been a while since I had done a water change. I am already seeing new polyps on the stylophora and the duncan just never worked for me, it was and still is the only coral struggling currently in my tank, slowly fading away. Currently, it is the first time ever that my small chalice frag is so puffed that I can visibly see it wiggling from the flow.

In the past I was not so careful with my salinity when water changing, as a result I had accidentaly raised it to 1.032 for a few days. The magnesium would be higher back then. At the same time I still had the same snails (I haven't bought any new snails since last april) and none of them acted weird.

The astreas act as if they cannot stick on the glass and stay out of their shells with their mouths open gaping all day long. The nassarius on the other hand won't go for food, and at random moments come out of the sand and flip on their shells. After some time they flip back normally and burry themselves again.

The only snail at this moment that has acted totally normal appart from my 3 cowrie snails, is the one that has been in the sump for months. It still could be a coincidence. Even my trochus snail acted a little bit weird (not sticking very well on the glass and staying on its side with its mouth open) but it still manages to climb and eat.

My 2 test kits are measuring magnesium in the range of 1350-1380ppm, which lines up perfectly with aquaforest's parameter chart. Both Ca and Alk fall into the chart as well.

The brown stuff on the nassarius snail seems a bit bacterial. Its flesh looks like wet pellet food. It is weird.

I will do one more water change and look for predators at night. If things get worse I will send an ICP.

 

[Jase4224]

The coral issue probably was unrelated, it had been a while since I had done a water change. I am already seeing new polyps on the stylophora and the duncan just never worked for me, it was and still is the only coral struggling currently in my tank, slowly fading away. Currently, it is the first time ever that my small chalice frag is so puffed that I can visibly see it wiggling from the flow.

In the past I was not so careful with my salinity when water changing, as a result I had accidentaly raised it to 1.032 for a few days. The magnesium would be higher back then. At the same time I still had the same snails (I haven't bought any new snails since last april) and none of them acted weird.

The astreas act as if they cannot stick on the glass and stay out of their shells with their mouths open gaping all day long. The nassarius on the other hand won't go for food, and at random moments come out of the sand and flip on their shells. After some time they flip back normally and burry themselves again.

The only snail at this moment that has acted totally normal appart from my 3 cowrie snails, is the one that has been in the sump for months. It still could be a coincidence. Even my trochus snail acted a little bit weird (not sticking very well on the glass and staying on its side with its mouth open) but it still manages to climb and eat.

My 2 test kits are measuring magnesium in the range of 1350-1380ppm, which lines up perfectly with aquaforest's parameter chart. Both Ca and Alk fall into the chart as well.

The brown stuff on the nassarius snail seems a bit bacterial. Its flesh looks like wet pellet food. It is weird.

I will do one more water change and look for predators at night. If things get worse I will send an ICP.

The snails with the brown flesh, do they stink like rot? Kind of looks like an egg mass but I don’t know enough to confirm that.

If you have witnessed the snails coming out on their own and flipping over voluntarily than it might not be a predator problem.

Could be spawning behaviour or perhaps some unknown snail virus?

 

[Stelioshah]

The snails with the brown flesh, do they stink like rot? Kind of looks like an egg mass but I don’t know enough to confirm that.

If you have witnessed the snails coming out on their own and flipping over voluntarily than it might not be a predator problem.

Could be spawning behaviour or perhaps some unknown snail virus?

I can't find that snail today and I didn't smell it yesterday I will check again tomorrow. It didn't look like eggs though from up close... Most snails might act normally for a day, then strange again. I wonder if they got "sick" from something before and they have not recovered yet or cannot recover.

I will buy one more snail and see how it acts. I have already done enough water changes to lower the concentration of what ever chemical species could be causing this..

 

[Stelioshah]

--Update--

An update for anyone experiencing something similar. I bought new snails about 15 days ago and a new hermit. 15 days in, all of the new snails act as a snail should act. My old snails still occasionally flip on their backs, staying flipped even for hours or days some times, especially when in high flow. So whatever bothered them, it damaged them for good.

 

[Jase4224]

So your old snails are still alive and the new ones acting normal.. will be interesting to see if the new ones go the same way.

 

[Gyarados]

It’s hard with blue lights what algae might be accumulating on your sand. If that algae looks brownish, I’d look into trying to identify if you might possibly have or had dinos that didn’t go away. From my experience there are toxic dino strains that would kill snail or at least poison them if they tried eating it.

 

[Stelioshah]

It’s hard with blue lights what algae might be accumulating on your sand. If that algae looks brownish, I’d look into trying to identify if you might possibly have or had dinos that didn’t go away. From my experience there are toxic dino strains that would kill snail or at least poison them if they tried eating it.

I do not have dinos, algae moslty is gha and the sand from times to times gets covered with some green cyano, that's it.