will snail poop raise nitrates?

My tank is 5 years old. It has been doing great until around Oct. when it had a GHA break out. (Old lights, poor water flow, and me doing nothing about it till Dec.) It took me until Jan to get it mostly under controll.

I was told my CUC could manage the rest. But I had moved them into my 6 gal so I just went out and bought a new crew. My turbo snail finally went to work on the back wall and he is mowing it down. But my nitrates are going up. I noticed this big poop along the back wall and was wondering if this could be why.



I couldnt get a great picture because my rocks shadow it, but if you look in the white sand you will see all the poop.



water parameters:
PH 8.2
Temp 79
salinity 1.25 (taken with a refractometer)
Nitrites 0
nitrates 1-2
amonia 0
phosphates 0

And I'm not feeding anything at the moment

 

Nope, no worries.

 

o.kay, thanks

 

1-2 isn't much to be concerned about either.

 

That poop is pretty nutrient free..... it's being worked on by smaller critters as we "speak".

 

yes it will but not no where as much as a fish.

also having you GHA die will raise nitrates, since GHA eats nitrates or ammonia(forget which maybe both, but ammonia becomes nitrates anyway.).

 

oh, I see.

I have been doing water changes to get the nitrates down. They use to be at 0, which is where I want them. Hoping to get them back to 0 soon.

So should I vacuum the poop up when I do my water change, leave it for the other critters, or it doesn't really matter?

 

I personally would vacuum it up if it can easily be removed. I would be careful about disturbing your sand bed if you have one.

 

IME, snail poop doesn't matter. I wouldn't worry about it at all.


I would try to remove the GHA before it rots and breaks down though if nothing is eating it...

 

whats bad about disturbing the sand bed? isn't it okay to sift through it a bit and get some of the stuff out.