turbo snails

Question
QUESTION: Hello.  I have an established tank (30 gal) with one big turbo snail who has done very well, a clown fish, a blenny scooter and have been trying to add another turbo snail as there is some green algae on the glass. Last one I bought was a black turbo snail.  It seems to have crawled into the boat I have in the tank and never came out.  I have bought other turbo snails in the past to go along with the one I have but they all just die.  Any thoughts as to why only the one turbo snail will live in my tank?  I am not very experienced (this is my son's tank who is out of state right now) but have had good luck with everything except the snails.  Whenever I test the water they come back in the correct levels...

ANSWER: Hello Lori,

(your are a great mom btw)

And just so we are clear, can you please tell me the test results for the water in your tank?

specifically, pH, ammonia, Nitrate and SG, (salinity)

also, can you let me know how you 'introduced' the new snails?

did you acclimate them and if so, how and for how long?

Snails are usually pretty easy, but depending on how they are acclimated and or handled they could get stressed pretty easily sometiimes.

Can you also let me know what other tank inhabitants are in the tank?

Also, to get rid of some of the algae i would introduce some 'emerald crabs'.  (I actually just put two into my frag tank to munch on the long stringy alage that was starting to develop.  and within two days, no more algae...)

(your results may vary)


anyways, please let me know and I will be glad to discuss this further

thanks

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey thanks! It has not been an easy thing to baby-sit.

PH is in the 8.0 light purple range; ammonia test comes back 0/clear; I have nitrite and nitrate tests - nitrate tests in the level of 10 on the little color match tester and 0.2/clear on the nitrite.  Salinity is in the 1.022 range.

When I brought Scooter & the black turbo snail home I let the bag sit in the tank for about 15 minutes then slowly let the water exchange. I had to take him/her out of the bag and attach to the side of the tank, which it did right away with no problem.  He/she crawled around and had quite a banquet for about three/four days and looked just great, even took a nap next to the big turbo.  Then one day it just disappeared, although I was able to spot him in the boat.  Haven't seen it since.  I have handled the big turbo snail a lot, took him out of the tank for cleaning, at one time had the tank split because of fighting clown fish (bought Nemo a friend, a lemon clown we named Lemo, and he turned out to be a huge bully eventually died not sure why)so had to move the big turbo back and forth from side to side of the tank to keep the algae down and not a problem.  
The tank is not split anymore, took that thing out and threw it away.

As for other tank inhabitants, we had a bristle worm infestation (which I cleaned out as many as I could changed water, filtered the sand & rocks, all that stuff# and I have seen some little tiny clear things crawling around on the glass but I think Scooter is eating those.  

Anyway, had to take all the stuff out and cleaned the protein skimmer of course, got a new Eheim filter, kept out the live rock, put in a new#saltwater safe) boat, plastic plant and a little coral reef statuette.  

That's it, no other inhabitants.  I would like to get some others but am kind of hesitant to introduce anything else.  The algae isn't too bad, the worst of it was on the live rock which I am not putting back in.  At least not right now.

Hope that info helps...oh and temp range is 75-77 not much variance but a little from overnight until morning when I turn on the light.  

Thank you!

Answer
Hello,

Couple of questions and comments...

you say you have taken out the rock?  That is not good.  teh rock is actually your filter...  It is called LIVE rock.  The sand is also LIVE sand.  These contain, live biological organisms that digest/process the nutrient into NITRATEs..  WE can export the nitrates with routine water changes..

If you have no rock, and you routinely clean the sand, then you are constantly removing the organisms and probably dont have enough organisms to properly keep your tank clean and free of toxic materials..

Your salinty is also low.  it should be around 1.026

Bristle worms are harmless, and actually good for your tank.  They will get rid of any corpse or other things that could pollute your tank..

(which could explain where the scooter blenny is?)

And as you might know already is that the snails eat the surface alage... If you keep the tank too clean, then you are removing thier food supply.  I usually dont clean my tank glass unless someone iscoming over... Usually, my tank glass is covered with the light green surface algae, and my snails have been all over it, as witnessed by the snail trails...

Anyways, please contact me at www.thelittleocean.com,and send me somepictures and we can continue this conversation over there in more detail, and get some input from some other experts, as there is a LIVE chatroom, where you can chat/talk with anyone that is online at the same time...

Please be patient as it is a new forum and there maybe times when no one is online when you are... but usually folks long in at different times of the day...

good luck and hope to see you theere


bill