Snails not moving coral not opening

[Sniperhank]

Ok, my order from saltwaterfish.com came yesterday. I temp acclimated everything. The snails are alive...but aren't moving. The coral aren't opening either. The 2 green rics that went in from the order are in there are doing their thing, open and doing well. Any feedback on this would be great. Tank currently has a diatom bloom going on as it just finished cycling last week. The fish, 1 royal gramma, 1 indigo dottyback, 2 mated black occy clowns. The clowns are swimming around happily, gramma and dottyback hide for most of the day.

20 turbo snails
1 red moon snail
1 giant green star snail
1 duncan
1 scroll coral

Parameters are
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Copper - 0
Temp - 79

 

[Flreefer]

Hey Sniper,
Did you get your salinity under control?
You said you temp acclimated. I'm thinking that if there was too much of a difference in salinity, and you didn't drip acclimate them, maybe they are in shock from the difference in salinity. Just a thought.

 

[Sniperhank]

I doubt it is the salinity...I ran my 36 for a long time at 1.033 and all of the coral did well, even were growing.

It is actually at 1.033. Siphoned off a gallon and a half of water and replaced with 2 gallon RO. Should resolve that.

I have never temp acclimated snails. Ever. Just dropped them in. Even at the 1.033 salinity in my 36 they were up and moving in an hour.

 

[Sniperhank]

Anyone have any ideas here? I keep researching...could low magnesium cause this? I moved the duncan and scroll into my 36 after coming home and seeing the duncan still receeded into its base. An hour later the duncan wasn't receded anymore.

 

[Sniperhank]

Could the diatom bloom be causing issues? I have some hair algae growing on a rock...but that is just leftover form the cycle prior to the equipment being installed. Both nitrates and phosphates are 0 as of yesterday's test. I run GFO from my reactor, not too much currently as it is the first run of it through the tank.

 

[Sniperhank]

I stumbled upon this
Anthony Calfo, a reef guru, wrote this on his site :
Lastly, there are implications that difficulties maintaining calcium and alkalinity may be linked to inappropriate magnesium levels. Magnesium should be maintained at roughly three times the level of calcium. High magnesium levels are encountered by inappropriate supplementation and can be lethal to some reef invertebrates. Aquarists have most often reported sensitivity in mollusks and starfish such as "turbo" snails and brittle/serpent starfish. Low magnesium levels, as in economy brand synthetic sea salts have likewise been implicated in difficulties maintaining free calcium and alkalinity adequately. This is yet another reason for maintaining proper water quality through water exchanges and testing with supplementation.

The snails that are struggling are my 20 turbos, red moon snail, and giant green star snail...

 

[Sniperhank]

No one has any ideas? Had a major cyano outbreak and had to siphon and scrub.

 

[grinder]

Can you get a good close up pic of your diatoms?It sounds like (with your coral and snail problem) it could possibly be dinoflagellates by just the symptoms,but a pic might really help out in a case like this.

 

[Sniperhank]

Can't, was covered with cyano and then siphoned out...I then discover hair algae growing. Now, with everything running in my tank from the fuge, gfo,...there shouldn't be anything. I come to discover water isn't coming through my dual reactor now. Along with that, the problem isn't in the removable tubing, it is in the cemented T in the pvc.

Still doesn't answer why even in my 36, which has been running fine, the corals will not open. There are no dinos, diatoms, cyano nothing in the 36. Before I moved all my coral out of that tank things were fine. Has to be something in the water that isn't being removed by RO/DI or the filter coming into my house.

 

[Sniperhank]

That was a stupid comment on my part. It was def cyano I was battling. Under which I found hair algae. This stems from the before mentioned post. Can fix that with more PWCs...not sure how to solve issue in my plumbing...I may just use my old pump to pump water through the reactor somehow. Since it has a ball valve on it I could slow it down enough.

Still can't be the issue as my duncans wont open up in either tank.

 

[grinder]

Can't, was covered with cyano and then siphoned out...I then discover hair algae growing. Now, with everything running in my tank from the fuge, gfo,...there shouldn't be anything. I come to discover water isn't coming through my dual reactor now. Along with that, the problem isn't in the removable tubing, it is in the cemented T in the pvc.

Still doesn't answer why even in my 36, which has been running fine, the corals will not open. There are no dinos, diatoms, cyano nothing in the 36. Before I moved all my coral out of that tank things were fine. Has to be something in the water that isn't being removed by RO/DI or the filter coming into my house.

Hmmm...my next question would have been copper,but I see you've tested for that.And I wouldn't think the reactor not working would cause the issue either unless it dumped a bunch of fines in the water,then that could be a culprit.

I also wonder with salinity that high,where you calcium,alk and mag are setting.Alk could be an issue causing this as well.

Are the corals thats not opening all new corals? Or no corals are opening (such as estabished ones)?

 

[Sniperhank]

I haven't tested my calc/alk since I began trying to solve this problem. My concern is mag...I dont have a test for it.

As for all corals...when my 55 finished cycling, I switched all of corals form my 36 into my 55 they all died...originally believed to be a current...don't think it can be the problem now it seems.

 

[grinder]

Mag is important,alk is typically used up faster than calcium and mag helps keep these two in balance, can you at least test for cal and alk?I'd really like to see where your alk is.

And what about the corals?All new arrivals or established too?

 

[Sniperhank]

All new arrivals. Moving my coral into the 55 killed every single one of them. Anyway, my alkalinity is 7...low but expected...

 

[grinder]

7dkh is just at the bottom at the ok level of natural seawater,but since your sg is so high,that actually makes your alk pretty darn low because once you get your salinity back in check (around 1.026) all 3 levels are gonna fall accordingly.So i have to wonder if your verts are going through ph or alk shock,seeing that they are new arrivals.Otherwise,ya got me,i'm stumped,lol.

 

[Sniperhank]

Shock would mean they were alive still. Either way, stumped as well.

 

[grinder]

You just temp acclimated,then dumped,right?

When critters get shipped they go to the bathroom and add ammonia to the bag,but because of the dark (in the box) the ph falls (which is ok short term) and the toxicity of ammonia will drop as well,so when drip acclimating,the bag is opened,fresh air/light gets in,temp comes up,ph will climb along with the toxicity of ammonia,so maybe am poisoning?? IDK,just another thought,lol.

 

[Sniperhank]

Never had an issue with it with snails...they aren't shipped in water. You just dump them in. I drip acclimate other inverts.