snails die

[charmon09]

i have been having a problem keeping snails alive. the hermits are doing fine and are not killing the snails. i have added 3 batches of a few different kind of snails. one turbo, a few margaritas, and a few cerith. they all did great for a day or two and then slowly started dying. my tank levels are good ammonia 0, NO2 zero, NO3 less than .25,Phos 0. everything else in my tank is doing great including lps corals. here is the link with pictures https://www.livingreefs.com/new-65-gal-tank-t39230.html.
i did have a small hair algae bloom but since adding the macro algae it has stopped spreading. i want some snails to keep the algae mowed. does anybody know why they are dying?

 

[Bifferwine]

What is the temperature of your tank? And if you measure the temp in the morning when the lights turn on, and at night, before the lights go out, how big of a swing is it? Also, how are you acclimating your snails?

 

[FishyReef]

Also, any chance you have a stray voltage problem in your tank? Inverts are particularly sensitive to stray voltage. You might want to pick up a grounding probe to add to your tank just in case - it's pretty inexpensive.

 

[charmon09]

temp stays between 78 and 80
did not detect any stray voltage

 

[AdamC]

Is it a new tank? Depending on the type of snail they may only eat algae and your tank may not have enough.

 

[parrotchute]

I'd check salinity as well. How are you measuring it?

 

[charmon09]

i check it with a refractometer. my salinity is 1.025 and stays constant with an ATO system

 

[charmon09]

it is a fairly new tank only been up for a few months but there should be enough growth to support the snails. it is mainly green hair algae

 

[parrotchute]

I've found a lot of snails are pretty fickle when added to the tank. I've had the most luck with ones I ordered from reefcleaners.org - they are kept intertidal apparently, so are most accustomed to minor salinity changes.

 

[FishyReef]

Out of curiosity, how are you acclimating them?

 

[charmon09]

drip acclimation over about an hour. the ceriths that i added about a week ago are doing fine so maybe whatever the problem was worked itself out after a few water changes. hopefully they will do well and i can add more soon

 

[Bifferwine]

You probably want to avoid margarita snails in the future. Most of them are collected on the Pacific coast and come from cold water. They normally don't live long at all in our warm systems.