Another calcium supplement question

captmicha

captmicha

Le tired.
Dec 6, 2006
2,052
0
36
40
Maryland, USA
The snails aren't touching the Tums I put in there. Or the coral or much of the cuttle bones. Or much of the snello. They don't look great, their shells keep going white and they keep dying, no matter what I do to raise their calcium (I've got the pH covered). Should I try liquid calcium? They'll end up absorbing it through their skin anyways, right?

I was looking at Seachem's but they had two different kinds... So can you recommend a liquid calcium? The cheaper the better, not necessarily Seachem brand, which was actually the only liquid calcium I saw at Petsmart.

And when I set up my shrimp tank to be a planted tank with actual soil, will the mts burrow in the dirt? I don't have any substrate in my tank now.
 
captmicha said:
The snails aren't touching the Tums I put in there. Or the coral or much of the cuttle bones.
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What species are your snails? If these are apple snails, give them time but they do not need to approach your corals, Tums and cuttlefish bones. Those can simply keep the calcium level in your water in check. And when they pass the Tums even indirectly, their skin can greatly absorb the calcium just fine.

Or much of the snello. They don't look great, their shells keep going white and they keep dying, no matter what I do to raise their calcium (I've got the pH covered). Should I try liquid calcium? They'll end up absorbing it through their skin anyways, right?
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State your hardness levels. It's odd they would keep dying even with shell pitting. Do their shells really erode greatly? You could try liquid calcium. If I were you, test for calcium levels but judging from all the things you've gone through, there should not be indications of calcium deficiency. What test kit do you use? Is it liquid? When was the kit manufactured?

And when I set up my shrimp tank to be a planted tank with actual soil, will the mts burrow in the dirt? I don't have any substrate in my tank now.
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MTS burrow on anything.
 
where did you purchase your snails from and how long has each lasted in your tank? it is very much possible that their diet so far in life has not been adequate to meet their calcium needs and once they came home to your tank they were just too far gone to bounce back?

big box lfs rarely acknowledge the specific dietary needs of the the creatures they keep, and snails are no exception. i would suggest buying your snails at a smaller mom & pop lfs or even better...... from one of the invert junkies on here! (me excluded, i'm way up in Canuckville and shipping/customs is a PITA!)
 
BettaFishMommy said:
where did you purchase your snails from and how long has each lasted in your tank? it is very much possible that their diet so far in life has not been adequate to meet their calcium needs and once they came home to your tank they were just too far gone to bounce back?

big box lfs rarely acknowledge the specific dietary needs of the the creatures they keep, and snails are no exception. i would suggest buying your snails at a smaller mom & pop lfs or even better...... from one of the invert junkies on here! (me excluded, i'm way up in Canuckville and shipping/customs is a PITA!)
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:iagree: Very good points, BFM.:)
 
why thank you Luppy. i guess i got the ol' noggin in the 'on' position tonight, lol!
 
Okay, I did water testing from the tap tonight. I have well water with nothing added so it's in the purest form, basically as good as rain water. Never had a problem with any of my pets. Unamended, the pH is 6.2 and the GH is 80ppm, which my test tells me is soft water. I use the API master test kit, the results are always consistent so I'm pretty confident the test kit is good.

I've gotten mts from three places. One was from my fav lfs before it went out of business which was a few months ago and I'm fairly certain all have passed since then. The same day, I got some from Petsmart, which probably went the same way as the other snails. Like a month ago, I got some more from another lfs and some survive. I thought things might be improving when I saw some tiny babies but I'm pretty sure they died as well since I haven't seen them recently. There's what looks like air in their shells and the tips of the trumpets are white. When I got them, they were nice and brown. Not anymore. I've also had a couple of mystery snails in the past, they all died. I also have bunches of those little ramshorn snails but they never live long enough to get more than tiny. This is all in my ammended shrimp tank which I raise the pH in and recently have been trying to get the calcium up in. I have used cuttle bones in the past though and they haven't made much difference.

Tums don't seem to be attracting the snails but it has been making the water a pretty pink with a fruity smell!
 
Your water is certainly soft and acidic. That explains why the shells seem to erode severely. The Tums is reacting violently to your acidic water. If your water was hard and alkaline, the smell is not really noticeable at all as it dissolves rather slowly with no reaction to water chemistry. Unless you can correct both the pH and hardness levels, you cannot really keep any snails in there at all.
 
I just took a picture of a snail for an example of what I'm seeing. They are actually starting to look a little better (a little less white) since I've been putting in the tums. I put baking soda in to correct the pH but what am I supposed to put in to harden water? Just liquid calcium?? Or do they make an aquarium product that will both buffer the pH to the correct reading and will also fix the hardness?

Those are bubbles from the filter on my java moss by the way. The snails were right under it.

mts.jpg
 
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