Things seemed to be too easy......

[docholiday]

Well I setup my tank 1 week ago (34 gallon red sea max) and things have been going great. For the first few days we didn't add anything because we expected a cycle even though we were using live sand and 56 lbs of cured live rock (the rock was from the LFS's tanks) After three days and ammonia and nitrite readings @ 0 we added two Hermits and a four snails, two days later we again added two hermits and four snails. I tested everyday and every day got the same results 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites ph of 8.1 spiking at 8.6 at lights out. I began testing for nitrates on Saturday and recorded 0 Saturday and Sunday.

Things seemed to be going great. Tonight I went down mixed my water for the water change tomorrow and to test and noticed what appears to be green hair algae starting to grow on the glass. I went to grab any snails I could find off the rock to put on the glass and only found two. Now with having eight snails in the tank and only being able to find 2 I am curious if my hermits have been busy @ night - I'll have to keep an eye out tonight for the rest. My problem is tonight I have an ammonia reading of .25 ppm , nitrites @ 0, and nitrates @ .10 ppm. Just wondering if I have some 1/2 eaten snails starting a cycle or if this is the start of a delayed cycle.

Sorry for the long posts any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
-Steve

 

[cthegame]

Well a lot of time its hard to find snails if you have a lot of rocks. In my tank sometimes i see 3 or 4 noticeable and the rest i cant find because they are under rocks, etc.

But hermits do also kill them but not that often.

 

[dustin_P74]

if you start seeing empty shells then i would be thinking about hermits killing snails but otherwise i wouldnt worry

 

[reeffreak]

Look for hermits wearing new fresh gear(shells).I have no idea what snails you have but Mexican Turbos are great hair algae grazers and so are emerald crabs.

 

[Alexander]

putting snails in so soon could be killing them off too. snails are sensitive and you really should hold off on the snails till you know the system is stable. they will flip over and die if the water quality is too bad. hermits will live through the best and the worst usually. and algea is always common in new tanks. very very common

 

[docholiday]

I did another head count with a flashlight/red cover and found a few more, looks like they are probably out of sight at the moment.

Thanks for the info.

-Steve

 

[Bifferwine]

In a small tank like that, which doesn't have any fish in it (so the bacterial population is not very high), it's possible that a snail or two dying could spike your ammonia. It's impractical to dig through our tanks every time we think a hermit crab or snail dies, so as your system matures it will be able to handle the rotting of small animals like this without you seeing any changes in your water parameters. I'm guessing that you saw spikes because your tank is so young, and there really isn't anything you can do to avoid that, unless you add a fish to perpetuate the production of waste and keep the bacterial population high enough to handle any influxes of ammonia.