55 gal with 29 g sump can't keep snails alive.

[felixfish]

I have had my system up now for 6 months now. I have installed an ATS (algae turf scrubber) with 29 g sump now for about 4-5wks. I performed phosphate and nitrate tests and they read like .1, just barely over the clear marks. The past couple weeks I have been manually siphoning out detritus, and green algae and some red cyano bacteria off glass and rocks. I have tried 3 different times to add snails and other invertibrates into the system but they all croke. The first time, I just temperature acclimated and added. Then I acclimated them for about an hour the next, and the last time for 3 hours and there is only one survivor but he even has not moved for days.

I've read the older korilia powerheads give off stray voltage, which could be the issue. A guy I bought LR off craigslist gave me a stray voltage wire (which was copper) I had in the tank for a while, but then took it out. What can be my issue?

We have a 20g est tank and I can throw anything in it with little to no acclimation. I am getting a bit discouraged with adding anything and wasting money. I have also tried with 2 soft corals. One with death, and the second starting to wilt but was able to salvage it. please help!

 

[NanoReefer]

are you sure it was copper? if you put enough copper in your tank, you will need a new tank liverock and sand :( do a copper test and see whats up.

 

[felixfish]

Well it was a normal extension cord with the ground wire exposed. I'm guessing it was copper. The guy I bought live rock, and 3 fish off of had that ground wire in his tank. I'm guessing I need to do a copper test, hoping not the worst. All my life stock and hermit crabs are doing ok.

 

[little_fish]

I would also test for stray voltage

 

[Northstar24]

You don't EVER want copper in your display tank if you're planning on keeping inverts of any kind. I would first test your water for copper, and then look into stray voltage

If you do have stray voltage, I would try to determine where it is coming from. If you want to run a grounding probe that's fine, but get one of the ones made for fish tanks, they're about $15

 

[felixfish]

Ok just tested the water and I was pretty surprised. With my reef octopus skimmer it read .1. With my heater it was .5. I do have 2 heaters the other one I bought for 5$ at the LFS used. It jumped up the voltage to 7.6!! Is it ok to have .6 or .7 reading? I'm guessing this may be the culprit.

 

[BL1]

Those readings are ok, with electrical equipment going into water you're always going to have some stray voltage. IMO as long as the voltage is in the single digits it shouldn't be an issue. The lowest I can get it down in my tank is 5 volts.

 

[felixfish]

Ok good. I was under the impression that anything over 0 was harmful. I thought this could be the demise of my poor snails. I guess it's back to the drawing board.

 

[ponyguy]

you should be able to get the volts to a min, try a grounding probe if you dont have one yet.. must have

 

[felixfish]

Well I saw one snail moving around, and I added a small frag of Anthelia coral, and one is still open. I'm going to get a sample of my water tested at the LFS

 

[felixfish]

So I had a sigh of relief today after testing my water at the LFS today. No sign of Copper in my water, but my phosphates are just above .25. I added some GFO and performed a water change. Now I can focus on lowering my water params to add some coral down the road! Whew!