Turbos keep dying!

[ElementReefer]

I have a 9 month old 20 long soft coral tank on a skimmer that runs within standard range on parameters and is going through a hair algae bloom. I’ve put four sets of turbo snails in there over the last 6 months and they die within days.

Fish: A wrasse and a Royal Gramma

Other inverts: A Tuxedo urchin, nassarius, nerites, dwarf ceriths, all fine

Drip acclimate, quick acclimate, bag float only, no difference.

Zero TDS ON RODI water, same supply as my main tank which has several healthy turbos - some are 2 years old.

I am utterly perplexed.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 9 month old 20 long soft coral tank on a skimmer that runs within standard range on parameters and is going through a hair algae bloom. I’ve put four sets of turbo snails in there over the last 6 months and they die within days.

Fish: A wrasse and a Royal Gramma

Other inverts: A Tuxedo urchin, nassarius, nerites, dwarf ceriths, all fine

Drip acclimate, quick acclimate, bag float only, no difference.

Zero TDS ON RODI water, same supply as my main tank which has several healthy turbos - some are 2 years old.

I am utterly perplexed.

Turbos are often a challenge as when they fall or topple over, they struggle to upright themselves and in time weaken or die. They are affected most by lack of food/algae and also require a good acclimation and equalization of salinity before release.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

What kind of “Turbos.” There are many Snails labeled as Turbos. Mexican Turbos, are Furious Algae eaters, but are a cold water snail, and will be cooked in our reef tanks. Some will make it through the Winter Months, to die in the Summer. African Turbos look the same and eat a ton of algae, and are a warmer water snail.

 

[ElementReefer]

They look like this:

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Those look like Nerite Snails, can you take pictures of an empty shell next to a coin, to compare their size? I can collect them here in Maryland, from Fresh Water, all the way to full Salt. The Fresh and Brackish Water ones won’t survive in my Saltwater Aquarium, the ones collected in Salt Marshes will, but have a tendency to crawl out.

 

[Snoopdog]

I have a 9 month old 20 long soft coral tank on a skimmer that runs within standard range on parameters and is going through a hair algae bloom. I’ve put four sets of turbo snails in there over the last 6 months and they die within days.

Fish: A wrasse and a Royal Gramma

Other inverts: A Tuxedo urchin, nassarius, nerites, dwarf ceriths, all fine

Drip acclimate, quick acclimate, bag float only, no difference.

Zero TDS ON RODI water, same supply as my main tank which has several healthy turbos - some are 2 years old.

I am utterly perplexed.

I have a different take on this. I was losing snails like nobodies business. For months I would pay anywhere from a $1 - $4 a snail, sometimes 10-20 at a time and just end up with shells. Either from a coral or live rock I believe I got polyclad flatworm eggs or babies. I never saw them for a year until they got huge and we finally saw them.

In all I think we captured 10 - 12 of varying size but most were this size.

 

[Patx]

I have a 9 month old 20 long soft coral tank on a skimmer that runs within standard range on parameters and is going through a hair algae bloom. I’ve put four sets of turbo snails in there over the last 6 months and they die within days.

Fish: A wrasse and a Royal Gramma

Other inverts: A Tuxedo urchin, nassarius, nerites, dwarf ceriths, all fine

Drip acclimate, quick acclimate, bag float only, no difference.

Zero TDS ON RODI water, same supply as my main tank which has several healthy turbos - some are 2 years old.

I am utterly perplexed.

Take 1 healthy of yours...
Put it in your other tank...and see

 

[ElementReefer]

Take 1 healthy of yours...
Put it in your other tank...and see

I thought to do this last night! I will check the healthy test snail tomorrow.

 

[ElementReefer]

I have a different take on this. I was losing snails like nobodies business. For months I would pay anywhere from a $1 - $4 a snail, sometimes 10-20 at a time and just end up with shells. Either from a coral or live rock I believe I got polyclad flatworm eggs or babies. I never saw them for a year until they got huge and we finally saw them.

In all I think we captured 10 - 12 of varying size but most were this size.

What the absolute f***.

 

[Snoopdog]

What the absolute f***.

They are actually really cool to watch but they are deadly.

 

[ElementReefer]

Update: I moved a healthy existing turbo to the offending tank, and within 24 hours it stopped moving. I gave it another 24 hours and it didn’t move at all, just like the two new turbos I put in there last week.

Today I took all three turbos out of the offending tank and put them in a dish of water from my main tank. Within *minutes* they were moving around.

Here is the older test turbo (purple) and one of the new turbos revived in the dish:

 

[ElementReefer]

The biologist at the LFS thinks that points to a toxin, but what could possibly have brought it in?

Tank inventory:

Dry Marco rock from BRS
Eheim heater
Tunze skimmer
A mix of “Stoney River” silicate sand and CaribSea AragAlive aragonite sand

Cycled and seeded with AquaBiomics reef rubble which was moved to an invert only tank months ago.

 

[RabidDragon]

Thoughts...

what is your water chemistry? Nitrate and phosphate specifically? I've found that if my Phosphate gets too high my snails stop being active.

What additives have you added? some algaecides are also molluscicides and will kill your snails.

 

[Patx]

The biologist at the LFS thinks that points to a toxin, but what could possibly have brought it in?

Tank inventory:

Dry Marco rock from BRS
Eheim heater
Tunze skimmer
A mix of “Stoney River” silicate sand and CaribSea AragAlive aragonite sand

Cycled and seeded with AquaBiomics reef rubble which was moved to an invert only tank months ago.

Back in the days (10years maybe)
Each time I put a Marco rock in my macro algae tank, caulerpa was dying.
I test it 3 times... I still have the rock in a box I will never used them again.
But now, Marco rock are popular.
I doubt that your trouble come from them... but we never know... (bad batch or something)
Maybe you can find the "problem" with a ICP.
at least now you know...

Maybe run purit, active carbon or polyfilter....

 

[ElementReefer]

I will start polyfilter this week. But first collect an ICP and send it out.

Meanwhile all the turbos I took out of the 20 gallon this afternoon are actively eating back in the main tank.