Why are all my crabs and snails dieing...

[Treenk]

So I have 2 clowns and a duncan that do just fine, but I keep losing snails and crabs. The emerald died yesterday which I thought were one of the hardiest ones there were. 2 of the snails both a certain type pretty well died as soon as they entered never even tried to move. My ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and stays under 10. I have no idea what my ph is when in light it looks like 7.8 but next to card it looks like 8.2... my salinity is super annoying I have 2 hydrometer one says .021 other says .023 and refactor says .026 at normal water level but goes up to .027 as it evaporates (I dont have a ato yet).

 

[SPR1968]

How are you acclimatising the new additions especially the crabs and snails?

They can be very sensitive and it’s better to do it very slowly

You will need to deal with the salinity fluctuations as marine life doesn’t like changes to the water parameters so get your self an ATO when you can

 

[Jon Fishman]

Where did you get the tank? New or used? Rock? Same question

Where do you get your water?


All of this is a round-about way of saying “Test for copper”

 

[Dierks]

Check for stray voltage...


Get a grounding probe and try again.

 

[Treenk]

I have a rodi system for water it's all baserock from amazon which only bad reviews were how clogged it is. Tank was used and then sat in garage a solid 2 years before I was able to actually set up >< I cleaned it so many times just normal water higher pressure then rodi water. When I acclimated I just put in water with bag until temperatures matched up, all I know to do. Sadly only have the api master kit which I have no idea how they call it master with 4 tests lol. Is 1.026 the correct salinity that's not even in the (good zone) on my hydrometer but when I got refractor that's what box said to do it to. Maybe I can take water to lfs and see if they would be willing to test all spectrums not sure what else.

 

[Treenk]

Check for stray voltage...


Get a grounding probe and try again.

Never heard about this one I do have a lot of chords at this point. It all adds up quickly

 

[SPR1968]

When I acclimated I just put in water with bag until temperatures matched up, all I know to do.

You need to acclimatise any new additions to your water by slowly adding tank water to the container/bag from the LFS and with snails and crabs for example the safest way is drip acclimatisation. You can read up on how to do this.

if your just matching the temperature then that may be the cause.

 

[Dr. Suess210]

I would say it’s either copper in the tank or you need to acclimate them better. Good luck man

 

[Treenk]

I'm not sure that acclimation is the problem maybe the 2 that didn't make it at all but the emerald made it 2 to 3 weeks

 

[vetteguy53081]

Even with poor acclimation, some only lives a few hours to a few weeks.
I agree on the importance of acclimation with inverts. Many snails and all shrimp will die off quickly from poor acclimation

 

[Nanoreefer4ever]

Get a refracthometer to check salinity, 1.026 is standard. I would check for coppers, Invertebrates are not that picky when it come to acclimate, they can stress out if they get acclimated by dripping method (just float 10 minutes, take out 1/2 of bag water and out in 1/2 tank water, then float again for 10 minutes)

 

[ihavecrabs]

I’m surprised no one jumped on the salinity measurements with three hydrometers! (Correction, nanoreefkeeper mentioned it).

I would say not knowing an accurate salinity level is big. That and the acclimation may be extra stressed because the salinity is so out of wack.

 

[Dierks]

Never heard about this one I do have a lot of chords at this point. It all adds up quickly

Exact same thing was happening to me....

 

[AZMSGT]

If you get shipped snails and they travel overnight long acclimation can kill. Ammonia poisoning will do them in fast.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Have you used any copper treatment in this tank? Copper might be an option to treat certain parasites/diseases in a QT, but is very toxic to inverts. If so, I would recommend to do some WC and add activated carbon to your filtration.

 

[JoshH]

I’m surprised no one jumped on the salinity measurements with three hydrometers! (Correction, nanoreefkeeper mentioned it).

I would say not knowing an accurate salinity level is big. That and the acclimation may be extra stressed because the salinity is so out of wack.

I would be willing to bet the reason no one had jumped on it is because the OP mentioned his 2 hydrometers were off from his Refractometer which is showing 1.026... I'm willing to bet his Refractometer is actually correct and the two hydrometers are way off (As expected by everyone ). I will say it might be worth calibrating the Refractometer just in case though...

I feel it's some form of copper that is still leaching from the tank itself.

 

[Paul B]

Heavy metals is about the only thing that will kill snails. They are very hardy and it doesn't matter what your parameters are.
If I want to kill one, I run it over with a school bus.
Very low copper, lower than you can read on a test will kill them. Crabs are much more tolerant to copper than snails so I am not saying this is 100% your problem.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I would be willing to bet the reason no one had jumped on it is because the OP mentioned his 2 hydrometers were off from his Refractometer which is showing 1.026... I'm willing to bet his Refractometer is actually correct and the two hydrometers are way off (As expected by everyone ). I will say it might be worth calibrating the Refractometer just in case though...

I feel it's some form of copper that is still leaching from the tank itself.

Good call.. I totally read three hydrometers not a refractometer.

 

[jeffchapok]

Have you checked your alkalinity? I had trouble early on keeping inverts alive and my LFS suggested that my alkalinity might be too low. Since raising it, I've had much better luck keeping things alive.

 

[NanoDJS]

Alot of LFS use copper in all the fish systems some people dont remove the water from the bag and dump it all in the tank this is where most peoples copper comes from , i never put the water from frags fish or anything into my system. Some inverts are just in ****** condition to begin with , if they gonna die they usually go in the first 2 days for me not way into it