Snails keep dying in tank

[sullimil22]

Hi I have Red Sea max 34 gal aquarium with T5 lighting system and 10 gal refuge with remora skimmer. I am having a problem with keeping snails alive I have only a few hermit crabs, and they are doing fine, but when ever i introduce turbos, coneheads or even a sandsifter, they live for a couple days then die off. I checked salinity, PH level is 8.4, amonia is zero, nitrates are at 20 ppm, nitrites are zero. The water I used is buffered sea water from the pacific. My dad uses the same water in his tank and has no problems keeping snails. In fact when he introduces snails, he doesnt even acclimate them, he just dumps em in and they do fine, ive tried dripping and they still die after introduction. My refuge is a month old, my system is 6 months old. Any help would be appreciatied.

[phoenixhieghts]

Do the snail have something to eat?

[coral reefer]

Food and the fact that some hermits will kill snails for their shells allowing them to grow! Newer tanks and clean up crews are hard to determine as the food/algae, detritus grow at various levels, but that is when most people make the mistake of adding clean up crews too quickly or having too many, thus starvation results!

[Tangster]

I don't think a snail will starve to death with in a few days , I'd doubt lack of food is the cause .. Check for some metal contamination and or stray voltage or simple add a grounding probe to the system and that would be my first though is the voltage . And look for a metal polymer Kent's has one and Sea Chem also has one as do several companies market them.

[Iraf]

I'm with tangster on this one, stray voltage pops to mind first being a RSM I wouldn't think it's been hit with copper hopefully

How old is the fuge? Was it a used tank previous to this setup that may have had a copper medication ran through it?

[jptrson]

What type of sand do you have? We have Caribsea Black Tahiti moon sand in ours and it tears the snails up. Doesn't say anything on the bag, but got to thier website and it says not safe for bottom dwellers or soft bellied fish.

[inwall75]

You said you checked salinity. What is it?

[sullimil22]

Sorry I dont know know the name of the substrate, but its the same as my dad's and he never had any problems. I do have 1 snail that made it, but its not from the LFS, its from my dad's tank, and he's been doing fine for about 6 wks now. Copper med has never been introduced into the tank, this was a tank my dad was going to lease out, but gave it to me instead. He is the original owner and never dosed with copper. my fuge is only about a month old, so its just getting established, but ive had problems with the snails before i had the fuge. I have had plenty of green algae growing, so i dont think not having enough to eat is the problem. I usually have to scrub my live rock once a month. As far as the RSM leeching voltage, I know that all the pumps and lights have grounding plugs and are plugged into one central connection on the RSM, then that connection is plugged into my surge protector. If its voltage how come one snail made it and the 10 others didnt? Also I know the hermit crabs werent getting them until they fell off the glass and died. I guess metal might be suspect as i havent tested for that before, what type should i test for? Also I dont know what the salinity range was, i took it to the LFS and they said it was good. I know my water quality should be good I use DI water that my dad manufactures. We also use the same salt water that gets delivered to the LFS.

[sullimil22]

Ok, I since I dont have a multi meter I went to the the LFS today and bought a ground probe. I figured that even if I dont have voltage in the tank, it would still be a good idea to have it just in case. My RSM has 2 submerged outlet pumps...do most pumps leech out some voltage? Also this may sound like a stupid question, but I have my ground probe plugged into a surge protector power strip...is this ok? or does it need to go straight to a wall jack?

[antonym518]

probably current, Tangster is right, snails are very affected by this.