2 questions: "Unsticky" snails? Too much flow?

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salty27

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
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Location
New York
I'm not sure if these two questions are related or if one answers another, but:

(1) Almost every other day or so, I find one of my turbo snails have fallen off the glass and are upside down on the sandbed (not a good position for them, since they can't right themselves). Luckily, I haven't lost any yet due to this, and they go right back to slithering around once I right them. But is this normal? If not, any ideas on the cause?

(2) I have an AquaClear Powerhead 402 in my 45 gallon hex, placed about 1/4 of the way from the top, aimed off the middle of the tank (almost at a 1/3 cut, if you picture the tank from a bird's eye view). The flow is set to a low flow (yellow control knob near the negative, directional flow knob about 60% in the "outflow" direction). Though the force of flow doesn't APPEAR extreme as my fish are swimming happy and the live stuff on my rocks are not all swaying in gail force winds, is this too much flow rate from this unit for a hexagon shaped tank? Could this flow rate be the cause of my snails becoming dislodged?

I can try posting a picture of my tank later tonight, if it helps.
 
1) It is typical that they flip. I believe their shells are heavy and akward, so they can't right themselves. I have never owned one, but I hear this quite a bit.
 
Snails fall off all the time but unless completely upside down have little trouble turning over if they want to. If putting your hands in the tank to turn them over make sure you wash and rinse well before doing so. I'd use an algae scrubber stick or similar tool to flip them to reduce contaminating the tank.

Keep a close eye on any snails that don’t move for 6+ hours and smell the inside of the shell (not to close) to make sure they haven't died. Just because they don't move doesn’t mean they are dead but they can foul a tank quickly if 3+ die at the same time. (Usually a new batch that wasn’t acclimated long enough or sick is the cause)

LONG 2+ hour drip acclimations are highly recommended and if they survive the first 2 weeks you usually are in the clear and they are fairly hardy as long as your water parameters don’t change too drastically.

Your ph does 250 gph max which if your soul source of movement for your 45 is about a 5.5 times turnover per hour. I assume you have either a sump or HOB filter that is adding to the current but overall you want around a 15-20 turnover on your tank or about 700-900 gph total.

45 gal hex tanks make great FW tanks but are harder for SW due to the more limited oxygen exchange in SW versus FW. Good currents and strong rippling surface action is a must for tall tanks with limited surface area.

I'd run your ph on full, snails in the wild deal with much stronger currents and have no trouble "sticking" if they want to. They drop off the glass on purpose so they don’t have to move back down to the bottom.
 
tecwzrd said:
They drop off the glass on purpose so they don’t have to move back down to the bottom.
LOL! I didn't know snails were that lazy!
 
They drop off the glass on purpose so they don’t have to move back down to the bottom.

LOL! I didn't know snails were that lazy!

That is pretty funny! And I guess a heck lot faster than crawling back down!

I'll jack up the force on my ph some more, and aim it more towards the top of the tank to increase the ripples. And I do have an HOB filter to help aid in the water movement (pointed in a different direction than the ph).

Thanks all!
 
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