A couple stupid questions about trace dosing...

[jsoong]

I was pretty sure that the copper in trace mix is low enough to be safe for snails. But now I am having second thoughts with all my snails dying within this last few weeks. For reassurance, anyone dosing EI trace has problems with their snails?

<Note that I am dosing about 1/2 the PMDD amount (0.00016 ppm copper weekly), and the trace mix is chelated.>

On a related thought, would Prime binds to your traces & make them ineffective (since it is suppsoed to bind heavy metals). Should one be dosing trace with a water change, or wait a few days?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

No problems here, and I dose EI. My only problem is shells turning white, and the snail dying off. Probably due to the low calcium levels here.

 

[JDogg]

I was pretty sure that the copper in trace mix is low enough to be safe for snails. But now I am having second thoughts with all my snails dying within this last few weeks. For reassurance, anyone dosing EI trace has problems with their snails?

<Note that I am dosing about 1/2 the PMDD amount (0.00016 ppm copper weekly), and the trace mix is chelated.>

On a related thought, would Prime binds to your traces & make them ineffective (since it is suppsoed to bind heavy metals). Should one be dosing trace with a water change, or wait a few days?

i do not dose my micros on the same day i do pwc w/prime, just not the way i am set up.

i have not had problems with my snails dosing CSM+B mix and Flourish trace.

 

[Purrbox]

I would recommend checking the water report for your area and checking the foods that you feed for copper. It could be that the amount of copper in any one of these individually wouldn't be enough to be a problem, but by having multiple sources of copper the levels are becoming deadly to them.

While reading up on shrimp many people reported having problems with shrimp dying off when feeding foods with copper and/or dosing traces, while others could use the exact same problems without any issues. Once the food or traces were eliminated the die off would stop. So it could be as easy as changing which food you're using.