Why do they keep dying?

Acros · Jan 10, 2021

My tank is 4 months old. Bare bottom. Started with rinsed live rock and bottled bacteria. I added more live rock at the 1.5 month mark.

This is the second set of snails that I am loosing within 24 hours of adding them to the tank. The first set was added 2 months into the cycle.

I added these turbo snails on Friday (4months into cycle). They even ate some of the algae in my refugium (They were added directly to refugium).

salinity: 1.026
Alk: 10.2 dkh
Mag: 1450
Cal: 450
Nitrate ~ 0
Phosphate ~ 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0

I acclimated the snails for over an hour (floating in the sump + drip while being floated).

I added 2 test frags (acan, blasto). They are not doing well either. All fish have been doing fine since 1 week into the cycle.

Duffer · Jan 10, 2021

Issue I see it your nutrients are zero...you would like to see nitrates at 5-10 and phosphates at .03-.1 plus yoir alk is too high for zero nutrients..

Billdogg · Jan 10, 2021

^^^What he said^^^

Also - any chance of contamination? Especially copper, but some meds can bother the corals and other inverts as well.

Also - what light are you using? It seems way too red. Although the snails wouldn't care, the corals are pretty much dependent on having the correct spectrum and intensity of lighting.

Saltyreef · Jan 10, 2021

Theyre starving to death.
Large mexican turbos need a lot of algae to keep happy.
A lot.
And 1 for every 10 gallons is plenty sufficent.
Theyre big eaters.

Other option is copper contamination from the used live rock.

Acros · Jan 10, 2021

Thank you for the replies. To answer some of the questions.

1. Nitrates and phosphates are untraceable (I use api test kit, so that might not be truest 0).

2. The light is red as I added the snails to the refugium. My tank looks relatively clean.

3. Will they starve to death within in 24hrs of introducing them to the tank? They haven’t even eaten all the algae in the fuge.

I am not sure about contamination. I use an RODI unit and use a tds meter occasionally to check the RODI output.

This is a picture of the display tank.