Mystery Snail Tank PH down, snails inactive, water cloudy

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january73

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 18, 2014
Messages
1
Hello,
I have had a 10g tank with 5 mystery snails (3 large, 2 small) for about a month. We got gravel and live plants from a friend with an established tank, and it seems like our tank is cycling. The snails have been growing well and very active from day 1, even when our nitrites and ammonia were high. For the past week or so our readings have been:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20.

There's been a cuttlefish bone in there since the beginning, and they get a few fish flakes every other day and a leaf of kale every other day which they love and completely devour each time. We have a heater with the tank at about 78-80, and a filter and bubbler.

As for PH, we didn't test it every time because it seemed like it was always the same- around 7.6.

So all was going well, until... We tested it for PH again yesterday (snails were happy and active) and it was at 6.4. We were alarmed and we put in a cube of snail jello (for the first time) which i made as seen elsewhere on the site:tums, spinach baby food, gelatin, fish flakes. We figured the tums would help raise the calcium level and lower the acidity of the water.

Well, ever since then, the water has turned VERY cloudy, and all 5 snails have all closed up either completely with trapdoors shut, or all crumpled up with their feet and antennae curled up, and have not been moving (it's been almost a day now). I know snails have inactive periods, but it is strange because all 5 were very happy and active until now, and now all five are shut down. Testing the water again, I get all of the same parameters today. We did a 20% water change last night which did not do much for the water cloudiness. The snail jello was about 30% eaten and we removed the remainder this morning. It was a small piece, about 1/2" cube.

Any advice? What is causing the cloudiness in the water? Is it the snail jello? Why have the snails all shut down? With the water parameters looking pretty good (other than low ph), are the snails in danger? Would low PH cause the snails to suddenly shut down? I don't know exactly when the PH started to go down because as I said we didn't test for it every time.

Thanks, any advice appreciated.
 
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