How to raise pH, any calcium-rich snail food and any plant ideas for 5 gallon tank?

[issa]

Hi guys! I'm new to the site so I'm sorry if I posted at the wrong place and isn't as clear as I can be. Anyways I have a couple of questions about a couple things and I guess I'll give all the background info now so you guys know what's up. Please bear with me.

I'm currently having trouble with my snails because both of their shells have been deteriorating and after looking into it I saw that I might need to supplement the water more with calcium and/or I need to raise my pH from 7.0. I've tried giving them zucchini and they seem to love it but does that even give them enough calcium in their diet? I wanna know if theres any food that I could give them and how it would affect my water condition if I were to put in certain kinds of food. And I also wanna know what I can do to safely raise the pH. I've heard of using crushed coral and using limestones but I'm not sure how to go about that.

About the plant thing, I currently have 3 little bunches of plants from petsmart which I assume are water wisteria, green mondo grass, and another plant that looks like anubias(but isnt?). I really want to create a grassy kind of environment for all my little critters but I'm not sure how to go about that either especially because I have gravel and I'm not use if that affects anything.

Thank you for the help! Sorry again if I wasn't clear enough.

 

[TMaier]

I have snails. I have read that Spinach is higher in calcium. I blanch it and they gobble it up. I also have a piece of cuttlebone in the tank for them to gnaw on.


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[TMaier]

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[Coursair]

With Wisteria, separate the stems. Plant them with leaves not quite touching or float the plant.

Mondo Grass isn't aquatic, it will die.

Anubias get tied to stuff, if it isn't Anubias can you post a pic ?

Java Fern is easy to grow also. Just tie or glue to rocks or wood. Videos on YouTube for help.


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[TMaier]

Wondering why you want to raise the PH? 7.0 is good for many species. I use coral fragments that I put in the water I am prepping for my next water change. I use RO/DI water that has all the minerals stripped so I have to add good minerals back before I PWC.

At one point my tank was decorated in a marine theme and lots of coral was in the tank. I had no driftwood. My PH was pretty high. But once I started stocking fish that prefer a lower PH and changing the deco to more of a river bottom theme, removing all the coral and adding woods keep my PH around 6.8 to 7.0.

If my PH drops just putting a chunk of coral back in the tank for a few days will help stabilize. Or I use Seachem equilibrium.

I guess to answer your question....I have always found the coral substrates on the market and using coral skeletons as part of deco and not having woods kept my PH high and stable.

But I am no expert. That has just been my personal experience.

In this pic you can see a clump of spinach I had just put in to feed the snails.



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[issa]

TMaier:
I think I'll try spinach next! I have been giving them zucchini and they love it. Do the spinach just sink after you blanche them?

I was trying to raise the pH because I was looking online and apparently too low or too high pH causes shell deterioration for snails so I thought I could try raising the pH a little bit and see how that goes. I used to think it was just my one snail but then I got another one and it was perfect when I got it and then I noticed it's shell got way thinner and he just looked bad. I also have 2 little chunks of cuttle bone in my aquarium and I think that's starting to help but I guess we'll see. I'm pretty concerned about them. I'll try looking for before and after pictures later. But my water has been pretty stable though. I feel like the Calcium levels might have just been too low for the snails. I've noticed that when I stuck the cuttlebone in the GH was raised a little bit so it might have been a little better. I use tap water and then put the API betta water conditioner and the recommended amount of the Top Fin Bacteria Supplement and API aquarium salt. I think thats okay but if theres anything that I should do please feel free to tell me.

Also, your snail is gorgeous!! Actually your whole aquarium is gorgeous! I'm trying to go for a grassy Japanese garden kind of look but I'm not sure how to go about plants since I only have a 5 gallon. Any suggestions?

Coursair:
Okay! I'll spread them out on my next water change. I attached a picture on the post. Also my Wisterias are starting to have black spots?? Should I just kind of leave them be? Also any suggestions for easy grassy plants or maybe carpet-y plants that I can put in a 5 gallon?

 

[TMaier]

How to raise pH, any calcium-rich snail food and any plant ideas for 5 gallon...

I use elastic bands to attach the spinach to a large glass bead that I lower into the tank with fishing line.


There are lots of plants that do fine in small tanks. Java fern and Anubis are easy.



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[issa]

Oh okay! I'll start doing that! Also these are the pictures of my snails. I just took the after pictures but it was kinda hard to get a picture of the smaller one. Do you happen to know what I could do to help them grow their shells back?


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[TMaier]

How to raise pH, any calcium-rich snail food and any plant ideas for 5 gallon...

Kale and dandelion greens are good too. I blanch them as well and very high in calcium.

I have found that while I can feed them well to strengthen their shells, once damage is done it never goes away completely. I had a ramshorn snail problem for a while and the would bore into the mystery snail shells. I had to do some major work to get rid of them.


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[issa]

I'll try those too! I might try kale first. But aw man that's rough. Do you think it would it sort of grow back as they grow? Because I'll happily do what I have to to help them.


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[TMaier]

I have never had luck getting the flaw in the shell to go away completely. Maybe someone else will chime in and we will both learn something new!

Even with the Booboos they seem happy and active and eat live cows.


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[issa]

How to raise pH, any calcium-rich snail food and any plant ideas for 5 gallon...

Haha yeah. They're great. I was never into snails until I got these two and now I love them!

For now though I'll do what I can and research. I'll keep you posted!

Thank you so much for your help though I really appreciate it!!

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[TMaier]

I was cleaning the tank today and found 3 egg clutches. Gonna have babies soon!

I love the little orange freckles and when they float down instead of crawling.


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[issa]

Aw yay!!!! That's so exciting! I've never seen the whole snail egg process before!


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[Delapool]

I had shell damage from trying to keep them in a CO2 injected tank (Oops!). I shifted them out of that tank and added a cuttlebone to their new tank as we have soft water here anyways. Seemed to help.

 

[trennamw]

Trying to change your water pH Can set off a long chain of instabilities that are bad for the fish and snails.

There are two things to consider -- the pH and the buffering capacity.

Crudely put, the pH measures how acidic or basic the water is. The KH measures the buffers that keep the pH from bouncing around.

Coral and such add to the KH which prevents water from growing more acidic. It impacts pH only indirectly.

Then there's GH, which is (again, crudely put) the mineral content.

You might actual need more GH, if anything.

I'd recommend getting a KH/GH test kit, or at least doing a test with the strips (I find the strips to be accurate on this one).

If that shows your water is very soft you might consider supplementing. My water from the tap has a high ph but nonexistent KH and GH, which is really abnormal and one of the rare instances supplementing the water is a good idea. I follow our local fish store (and my favorite fish book)'s recommendations and use either cichlid buffer and cichlid salts, or cichlid buffer plus Seachem equilibrium, to bring up KH and GH to about 4 "drops" on the test.

You use smaller than usual doses of all of these, you can do the math from the info on the bottle. And you'd add it very gradually, over a few days, and ****only if your water tests for low KH or GH****. You can kill fish messing with these parameters.

Using ph adjusters is only for very advanced fish keepers IMO, who understand why they are doing what pretty much every expert says not to do.

The thing with the ph up or ph down is, if the water isn't buffered, the ph just bounces back to where it was. And stable ph is more important than perfect ph.

Are you sure there's a problem with their shells?


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[Coursair]

Looks like Java Fern ?
A lot of plants need to adjust to your tank, but you need to make sure you are adding at least some ferts weekly.


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[issa]

I think my KH and GH are at a decent level. I have strips right now and I have the drop tests coming in the mail today. But I check my water every now and then and two days ago my KH was at 80 and my GH was at 120. I supposed I wont mess with the pH because my water has been pretty stable and I don't want to do anything that'll be harmful to the little critters.

I'm sure that they have problems with their shells though. They were in pretty good shape when I got them and now their shells look more transparent and look like layers have been peeled and I don't know what I could do. I already have 2 little pieces of cuttlebone in the aquarium and I feed them little slices of zucchini.

 

[TMaier]

Zucchini is not as calcium rich as dark greens.

Switch to blanched kale, dandelion or spinach.


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[issa]

Alrighty, I'll go out in a little bit and get some. Thank you!