luxsee
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
[FONT="]Hello everyone. So, I decided to try out some zebra nerite snails in my tank. I bought them at a LFS, acclimated them over a 3hr schedule, and added them to the tank. 36 hours later all 3 were laying upside down on the bottom of my tank. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I retrieved them and quarantined each to its own container floating in my tank. 12 hours later the snails are still upside down, and each container now tests positive for ammonia... Therefore, I suspect each snail has died. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I double checked my tank water parameters (46-gallon bow-front with moderate flow).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Temp = 79.6(f), Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = <20ppm, ph = 8.3, dGH = 3, dKH = 35 (not a typo). I'm using well water, and have always had low GH and very high KH.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Tank residents include 2 "Cuckoo Cats", 2 "Julii Corys", and 4 Guppies (no plants). Residents seem "Happy", and show no signs of stress. A very large male molly did die last week, but I assumed from old age (was around 4yrs old).[/FONT]
[FONT="]My gut says that my high KH killed these snails. Do any of you have any insight, advice, or recommendations? I am now seriously thinking about using distilled water to significantly lower my KH. How would my current residents react to a 50% water change if the new water was all distilled supplemented with Seachem Equilibrium to increase GH to around 6 dGH, and reduce KH to around 17 dKH? After doing so, future water changes would be made using a 2:1 ratio (distilled:tap) and would continue to reduce my KH over time to around 12 dKH... Should my KH goal be lower than 12?[/FONT]
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[FONT="]I retrieved them and quarantined each to its own container floating in my tank. 12 hours later the snails are still upside down, and each container now tests positive for ammonia... Therefore, I suspect each snail has died. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I double checked my tank water parameters (46-gallon bow-front with moderate flow).[/FONT]
[FONT="]Temp = 79.6(f), Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = <20ppm, ph = 8.3, dGH = 3, dKH = 35 (not a typo). I'm using well water, and have always had low GH and very high KH.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Tank residents include 2 "Cuckoo Cats", 2 "Julii Corys", and 4 Guppies (no plants). Residents seem "Happy", and show no signs of stress. A very large male molly did die last week, but I assumed from old age (was around 4yrs old).[/FONT]
[FONT="]My gut says that my high KH killed these snails. Do any of you have any insight, advice, or recommendations? I am now seriously thinking about using distilled water to significantly lower my KH. How would my current residents react to a 50% water change if the new water was all distilled supplemented with Seachem Equilibrium to increase GH to around 6 dGH, and reduce KH to around 17 dKH? After doing so, future water changes would be made using a 2:1 ratio (distilled:tap) and would continue to reduce my KH over time to around 12 dKH... Should my KH goal be lower than 12?[/FONT]
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