Need your wisdom folks

[Hazenwolf]

Well guys my tank has cycled and has been up now for 2 1/2 months with only 2 dead snails thus far both about 1 week apart. After I have started to stock it. I added a Florida Pinked Tipped anemone a sand and choclate star about a week ago. All appears to be doing well and I have been feeding anemone shrimp which it eats.

 

Now my Astrea snails seem to be having allot of trouble at this time. Now before you kill me I checked my salinity is kinda on the low side 1.21 I noticed two days ago compared to last week and I have mixed a batch of 5 gallon water last night with 1.24 salinity to help bring it back up. At this time they seem to be acting as if they are hitting bars every night now. Lately I have been finding the snails upside down almost every day. I right them up and next day they are upside down again. Now these snails have been in the tank now since begining of Jan. So they have been with me for almost 4 weeks now.

 

First question is could the anemone I added be releasing toxins that may be effecting the snail or could it be the salinity level is to low?

 

My diatome outbreak was getting out of control so I bought the snails to keep the hair algae and diatomes lower. Since their release the tank has improved ten fold. Everything but the snails seems to be just fine with the salinity level. I also added some Phosguard in my power filter to help the diatome problem. Water parameters are all in range. Except I can not vouch for alkalinity at this time. I bought a test kit for that and it should be arriving today. Crabs and 4 damsels are all doing well and none seem to be in distress and crabs also have been shedding shells equally well.

 

Second question could the alkalinity be out of whack even though my ph is around 8.2 in mourning and 8.4 at night with the lights being on almost 10 hours during the day.?

 

I should also point out that I have been dosing with kent vitamin starter pack calcium iodin and another I can't think of right now starting last week due to my algae on my rocks bleaching very badly.

 

My last question is about anemone can you handle the Pink Florida anemones or can they sting you alike. I know some can from what I have read but i have not found any books or sites that have much information on these lovely creatures. He is very close to my power heads and I am afraid his little arms make get sucked into it and hurt himself. My wife loves it to death and the last thing I need is to screw up and it dies.

 

Any advice is welcomed.

 

Tank specs

 

29 gallon

2 maxi power heads

50 lbs LR 50lbs LS

CPR backpack 2 skimmer

2x55 watt PC

Fluval 204 canister filter

[tinyreef]

i don't think the anemone is exuding chemicals but it could have stung the snails to death. very possible imo. i would suspect nutrient and nitrate levels more tho. the salinity is tolerable imo. i'm battling the same issues on my new tank as well. (no anemone yet tho)

 

the alk could be low and pH fine. as long as nothing seriously whacks it off to one side or the other. CO2 will eventually depress it anyway. i'd check your alk level and maybe mg level. with such rampant algae growth the mg may also be depressed (takes longer tho). how's your ca? that'll usually give you a lazy idea where mg is.

 

the anemone your talking about is usually ok unless it's a cold water one (unlikely as it'd be dead by now). tube anemones can be bad, i haven't tried that yet. : "is there electricity in that wire?" X) very pretty tho imo.

 

you can test how 'stingy' the anemone is by brushing a tentacle with a wooden dowel rod or chopstick. that doesn't tell you if it'll hurt but how reactive it is. i'd be more suspicious the longer the tentacle is.

 

btw, beware the powerhead. i haven't had an anemone avoid one yet. they can survive a puree but you gotta act fast and not stress them. or do it the hard way (i.e. work ) and put a prefilter sponge on the PH's. just my $0.02

[Hazenwolf]

Thanks Tiny I will give your ideas a try.