Trouble with Turbo Snails

[laurandavid]

I have an issue with keeping Turbo snails , I cant get them past the quarantine tank, after my tank cycled , I added a clown fish and a chromis, I also have a chocolate chip star fish, several blue legged hermits , two scarlett hermits. My first fish was the o. clown, at which time I also bought two turbo snails , I used two separate quarantine tanks , one for the clown and one for the snails , the snails lived for three weeks in th q. tank one died. (drip method for acclimation) , after another week, I introduced the snail to my 55 gallon tank, it died a week later, I have since tried 5 other turbos from different stores , all die. My water parameters are fine . There is a great lfs in the DC area , they actually sent someone to my home to take a look and he too was baffled, they tested my water for all sorts of minerals etc. and found nothing. I know freshwater is different , but my freshwater snails in my freshwater tank have been alive and kicking for two years, so what the heck is up with the turbos? Hermits are not eating them , when they die they are either in the quarantine tank or the die a week to two weeks in the big tank, I literally watched one fall of a rock on not move again.

The only thing I possibly come up with is water temperature, we have central air conditioning and we turn it off when we are not home. I noticed (why it took me so long to figure it out is beyond me) that when I get home from work the water temp is around 82 and when I go to bed after the air has been on it drops , I found it at 72 the other day. I have been watching it close for a week now , would water temp kill my snails?

Any information would be great. As I said everything else is doing very well.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

A temperature swing of 10 degrees is pretty drastic, for anything. I'm guessing you don't have a heater in the tank? If so, set it higher so there isn't such a major swing.

The other possibility, which is why I don't quarantine my snails, is that there isn't enough food in the QT for them.

 

[saltybob]

Why QT snails or crabs.??/?


I never have Problems with them

That pet place in LAncaster pa just says throw them in

 

[ccCapt]

I agree with both things Kurt mentioned. 10 degree swing in temp in only a few hrs is unacceptable and very stressful on everything in your tank and unless your qt has live rock with some algae, being in there 3 weeks with no food they can starve to death.

 

[roka64]

I simply drip acclimate my inverts (at least two hours) and then add them to my tank, no QT.

 

[laurandavid]

ok I had no clues I didnt have to quarantine my inverts ! Now I know, however , that does not explain the two that died in my tank however, I am going with the temp. change due to ac , I do have a heater but the airconditioner tends to even mess with that, I took the lid off of my tank when I had the lid on I had no temp issues it stayed really steady, should I put the lid back on? Since I have been following it closely the temp has not changed drastically so I am hoping thats my issue , I am a little freaked going to get another snail tomorrow , I am afraid I am sending it to its death............. we will see :?

 

[ccCapt]

Keep the lid off and get a bigger, better heater. Having a lid on can adversly affect your pH.

 

[saltybob]

Yeah i Dont have a Lid. And i dont have any problems yet.. that is.

 

[melosu58]

would water temp kill my snails?

No but temperature swings will definitely do it. Time to get the heater going.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...I do have a heater but the airconditioner tends to even mess with that, I took the lid off of my tank when I had the lid on I had no temp issues it stayed really steady, should I put the lid back on? ...

I'm a little confused - so with the tank lid off, and the heater plugged in and set to something around 82 degrees (I'm guessing since that seems to be your high temp), when the a/c kicks in the heater can't keep up and the tank drops temp that fast?

Looks like you have a 200W heater? Seems like that should keep up with the room cooling by 10 degrees when the a/c kicks on - it's not like that big heat sink of 82 degree water is going to drop temp as fast as the air temp in the room.

Do you have a a/c duct pointing right at the top of the tank? Seems like that's the only way the a/c could mess things up.

 

[laurandavid]

Yes there is an airconditioning vent about almost directly above the tank, I never even paid attention how close the vent is to the tank, its on the ceiling and the vent was pushing the airflow towards the tank, with the weather being so warm , the air was still running even in October! The heat also comes out of this vent , am I going to have a similar problem when the heat comes on? grrrrrrrr.

My hubby closed off the vent tonight and we are going to put a deflector on it to keep the air flowing away from the tank.

Thank you!!

 

[chase33]

The air may be a blessing in the summer as it will help keep temps down possibly removing the need for a skimmer. In the winter it may help to heat the tank if the temps get too low. The good thing is you can control it as you're doing. I too have a vent directly over my tank. I happily open it in the summer when the air conditioner as it helps keep my tank cool.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The air may be a blessing in the summer as it will help keep temps down possibly removing the need for a skimmer.

Just to avoid any confusion, me thinks he meant "chiller", not "skimmer."

Most likely, your heater is going to be set in the range of 77-80 or so, I'm guessing. So I don't think the heated air is going to be an issue. Unless your air comes screaming out at 100 degrees or something!

I still am struggling to see how your 200W heater couldn't keep up with the air conditioned air, even blowing directly on it. But hey... I'm amazed at how quickly a little fan blowing across the top of a tank can drop the temp by 2 degrees, even with no a/c.

What I'd do next summer, rather than block off the a/c, is actually get a bigger heater that could keep up with the drop in temp. It's way easier to heat water up than it is to cool it down, and having a "built in" chiller would be a pretty cool thing.

 

[DOLPH]

It too think he meant chiller.

 

[Lecithin]

Not agreeing or disagreeing here but in this article (earlier posted by melosu58)
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

the author states to QT anything that is wet. While it is likely that your snails won't carry in anything its not a risk I'm willing to take. I would say your QT is a great idea and to keep going with it, it can't hurt and it can only help in the long run.

Besides that I'd say you've found your problem and solution, hope things are going well.