Help Please!!! Major Snail Problems

So how does one get the right amount of rock? AND healthy corals - cuz it seems to me that once your corrals take off - moving rocks to clean is no longer an option

Powerheads. do you have any?? One in each corner blowing right on the rocks, "bounce it off the back wall to clean out behind the rocks, the rest the cleaner crew will get.

I;ll ask again, do you have any shrimp, or snails, or hermit crabs?? You need them to clean, and a Goby clean the sand for you as well.
 
You don't need to clean behind rocks. You should have a powerhead aimed so that there is enough water movement behind the rocks so that nothing gets trapped back there. In fact, moving rocks is usually very detrimental, since it tends to stir up crap that is trapped in it. I would not recommend moving rocks around in an established tank. That's what you have powerheads, a skimmer and a clean up crew for.
 
The new tank is a 210 from the first post. the old one was 90 I think. That is way too little live rock and perhaps therefore not enough filtration to handle a bioload of what is stocked in the tank. Maybe the tank is going through a mini cycle when new additions are added to the tank. It depends on how much old rock and sand was added since May. Was any of that rock old and is the sand bed new?
 
yeah touching on the LR deal. it is SUPER expensive. I have rough;y 250 lbs of rock that Ive added since the start of summer and every time I come home with a piece or two I ended up paying anywhere from 5 dollars a pund and upwards of 8 dollars a pound for tonga branch pieces that I have come across.
 
You have got to be kidding about polyps being placed in the shade!!!! For the 4 *##*ing years that I've been buying things from this guy and having him move and maintain our tanks - he has never said that or moved them to better locations during a water change! NO wonder they aren't happy!

Pleased to say that my ammonia, nitrate, nitrate and PH levels are all perfect!

I'm off to buy a volt meter and see if the other two (very little) and sadly not my favorite fish stores in town might have a copper test. Can't go back to Sea Dreams, and it's not something that Petco carries - I looked last night.

I'm happy to hear suggestions for great on-line resources for ordering supplies.
 
saltydog said:
You have got to be kidding about polyps being placed in the shade!!!! For the 4 *##*ing years that I've been buying things from this guy and having him move and maintain our tanks - he has never said that or moved them to better locations during a water change! NO wonder they aren't happy!
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Make sure they are sun corals. Most polyps need to be in the light, but sun corals are different and need to be shaded. They are one of the few types of non-photosynthetic corals kept in this hobby. If they are not sun corals, they are better off in the light.
 
saltydog said:
You have got to be kidding about polyps being placed in the shade!!!! For the 4 *##*ing years that I've been buying things from this guy and having him move and maintain our tanks - he has never said that or moved them to better locations during a water change! NO wonder they aren't happy!

Pleased to say that my ammonia, nitrate, nitrate and PH levels are all perfect!

I'm off to buy a volt meter and see if the other two (very little) and sadly not my favorite fish stores in town might have a copper test. Can't go back to Sea Dreams, and it's not something that Petco carries - I looked last night.

I'm happy to hear suggestions for great on-line resources for ordering supplies.
Click to expand...


I seriously doubt you have stray voltage in your tank, unless all your equipment is real old or something.

Fosters and Smith has a large selection of stuff, I posted you links.
 
SeaBee said:
I seriously doubt you have stray voltage in your tank, unless all your equipment is real old or something.

Fosters and Smith has a large selection of stuff, I posted you links.
Click to expand...

would not count on that i have had a heate crack that was only a month old nd many people have had their power heads leak power into the tank right out of the box
 
daugherty said:
would not count on that i have had a heate crack that was only a month old nd many people have had their power heads leak power into the tank right out of the box
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Shouldn't you get a little shock when you put your hand in there?? How about a gfi outlet?

I still like just staring at your Avatar, aaaaahhhhhhh. ROFL!!!! I vote for Daugherty's avatar for potm!!!:^:
 
not always he has a ground prob so he will feel nothing at all. when my heater cracked i felt just a bit of tingling when i stuck my had in the water but it was enough that i knew something was wrong. i am very lucky i did not get fried. salt water is very conductive
 
I had stray voltage in my tank for months, and never knew it. It was a faulty power strip, in my case. I only figured it out when I was doing a water change, bare footed, standing in a puddle of saltwater, and I had a cut on my hand which makes it easier to feel the shock.

Stray voltage is actually a pretty common problem in this hobby, and it doesn't only happen to old equipment.

ONE MORE THING ABOUT THE SUN CORAL THAT I FORGOT TO MENTION.

Since they are non-photosynthetic, they need to get all their feeding from you. Sun corals are very demanding, in that they need to be hand fed once a day or every other day. Each polyp needs to be fed. So if you have not been hand feeding them, they are starving to death.

It's hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like they may also be red/orange zoanthids. Can you get a better pic of them for us?
 
I lost mainly zoanthids, but also snails, shrimp and starfish. It was the only thing I could figure that was causing the problem. My fish were all okay, and some of my corals were, but the non-coral inverts seemed to be affected by it the most.
 
project5k said:
hmm interesting about the zoas... i'll have to watch mine now, cause i dont have a ground rod in my tank....
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Neither do I but I work in a restaurant so I always have burns and cuts so if there is stray voltage I will know it. Did I ever tell you about the time I got electrocuted while standing chest deep in a lake? ah good times nothing like a nice night in the hospital on a morphine drip.
 
I think that if it was bad enough that you would feel it anytime you put your hand into the tank, your animals would all be dead. They are living in that 24/7. Stray voltage problems can be hard to diagnose because the current is usually so weak that it takes time to kill the animals, and you wouldn't feel it unless you had a cut or something.
 
One thing you need to do with that new hydrometer,is take it to a LFS and have them check it against a refractometer.I've seen them read both high and low even right out of the package.So check it so that you know exactly where your at with it.But assuming that its right,a S.G. of 1.027 aint that bad.I keep my tank at 1.026.But if you'll do you water at 1.026,it'll level itself out with no problems.
I also dont think your skimmer is adequate for your tank.The biggest super skimmer they make is the CSS 220,which is good for a 125 gallon tank,but not really powerful enough for anything bigger.But you may be alright with it,as long as you keep the tank lightly stocked fish wise.
 
Copper Test showed negative. And the folks from the other fish store were positive that it was going to be the issue based on where I've been getting my fish. She asked me to bring in a sample today so they can check it.

I don't feel stray voltage when I stick my hands in - but perhaps I need to have a small kitchen knife accident and then go feed the fish! HA

I think SeeBee you've asked if I have a cleaning crew... That's the whole reason I started posting. NO - I can't seem to keep them alive in this tank. Snails and crabs aren't surviving. My one sand-sifting Gobi isn't going to cut it for the size of my tank. Have to get to the bottom of this so I CAN get snails, crabs, shrimp, and replace my starfish.

I'll also try to take some closeups of my corrals - for ID and care recommendations from you guys!

More soon....
 

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