I wanted to start keeping some mystery snails and I know snails like hard water, but I also have lots of wood in my aquariums, from old stumps or driftwood which I read softens water... Is this true and if so what causes that?
Hard water & Driftwood
- Thread starter mox
- Start date
I guess depending on what wood you have and how old it is the wood leeches tannins into the water - which make it more acidic - meaning it lowers the pH.
Do you know what your pH is ?
Do you know what your pH is ?
The wood I am using some old pine (fat lighter) from a swampy area... I'm not sure what the PH is now because the wood was recently added and I'm not at home currently to check things out.
I just recently got some snails so went through the whole water parameters/ calcium etc spiel.
Even if you have fairly soft water or low pH you can help the snails out by providing calcium.
Some people use other snail shells for that, add crushed coral to their tank/ filter (but that also changes pH - something you need to know about) or add a calcium supplement or feed calcium rich foods.
There is "heet(sp) driveway salt" thats mainly calcium chloride - and which you can find at home depot etc.
You can also get cuttlebone from the pet store and put a piece in the tank for the snails to graze on and obtain calcium for their shells.
I assume there is a limit to all this though - i am sure if you have extremely low pH their shells would dissolve so fast that even helping with calcium doesnt work. So knowing your current pH would probably be important.
I also hope others will chime in as i am in no way a snail expert.
Even if you have fairly soft water or low pH you can help the snails out by providing calcium.
Some people use other snail shells for that, add crushed coral to their tank/ filter (but that also changes pH - something you need to know about) or add a calcium supplement or feed calcium rich foods.
There is "heet(sp) driveway salt" thats mainly calcium chloride - and which you can find at home depot etc.
You can also get cuttlebone from the pet store and put a piece in the tank for the snails to graze on and obtain calcium for their shells.
I assume there is a limit to all this though - i am sure if you have extremely low pH their shells would dissolve so fast that even helping with calcium doesnt work. So knowing your current pH would probably be important.
I also hope others will chime in as i am in no way a snail expert.
Actually, Hannys Papa covered it all pretty well, excepting that long-term the older parts of the shell (which the snail cannot renew) will erode in soft acid water. I have had MTS with white shell tips (rather than dark brown) in softer acid water as they reach full size, due to erosion.
But driftwood, unless massive quantities, does not soften water that much. In water which is moderately soft to soft you may be able to detech some decreases. In harder water, especially if you do good routine water changes, you may see some brown tinting of the water, but are unlikely to see much softening.
But driftwood, unless massive quantities, does not soften water that much. In water which is moderately soft to soft you may be able to detech some decreases. In harder water, especially if you do good routine water changes, you may see some brown tinting of the water, but are unlikely to see much softening.
Serendipity
See the tannins leach from the wood and lower the pH. You put shells in to help the snails and inverts grow their shells. Then the snails & inverts have a population boom and lower you pH by consuming calcium to support their growth. You add "filter media" which is basically crushed coral (think of coral as an endangered natural resource like baby seals except hard and bony and stonelike with millions of stinging poison cells) to your filter to add calcium. Meanwhile you have stalawtites (well stala"g"tites are on the "G"round and stala"c"tites are on the "C"eiling) growing off of your aquarium wall to the heater from repeated calcium bombings.
A. Is that a snail?
B. Yes. Yes it is.
A. But it's the size of a small dog!
B. Here, throw it a potato.
:help:
See the tannins leach from the wood and lower the pH. You put shells in to help the snails and inverts grow their shells. Then the snails & inverts have a population boom and lower you pH by consuming calcium to support their growth. You add "filter media" which is basically crushed coral (think of coral as an endangered natural resource like baby seals except hard and bony and stonelike with millions of stinging poison cells) to your filter to add calcium. Meanwhile you have stalawtites (well stala"g"tites are on the "G"round and stala"c"tites are on the "C"eiling) growing off of your aquarium wall to the heater from repeated calcium bombings.
A. Is that a snail?
B. Yes. Yes it is.
A. But it's the size of a small dog!
B. Here, throw it a potato.
:help:
Tannin. It's is an acid that all wood has. If you boil it enough most of the tannin will come out however it will always leak a little bit. If you want to raise the PH it would be touhg but to keep it steady you should be fine.