Snail Troubles

trevorlay

I have a 1 gallon tank you can see here:


full of some brine shrimp, the water i used was distilled water with the following salt mix: 1 gallon water , 19 teaspoons Sea Salt, 4 teaspoons Epsom salt and 2 teaspoons baking soda.

I have bought 2 margarita snails, and they just sat in their shells and ended up dieing the next day. So i tried some Astrea turbo snails.. same thing.. Why can't I get any snails to live in my tank??
I acclimated them buy adding a small amount of the tank water to a bag then floating the bag for about an hour.

Thanks for any help!

onefish2fish

what exactly is "sea salt" like brand name wise
and what are your water parameters ( amonia,nitrite,nitrate,SG[specific gravity/salt content] pH, temperature )

trevorlay

Sea salt as in the food grade sea salt us humans eat(kirklands sea salt), I don't have a test kit so I don't know the levels.. (the only test kits i have seen the measure all in one thing are over 30$!) :(

I keep the temp around 82 F.

wake49

I would dump the water and start over. Used Distilled Water, and buy "Marine Grade" Sea Salt, which can be found at your Local Pet Store. I use "Instant Ocean" myself, but Red Sea and others make very similiar products.

Not to be a wiseguy, but "1 gallon water , 19 teaspoons Sea Salt, 4 teaspoons Epsom salt and 2 teaspoons baking soda" sounds like a recipe for snail soup, not a snail tank...

The salt mixes we buy at our Local Pet stores are made for this application, running a marine tank. Read the "Starting and Maintaning a Saltwater Aquarium" forum on this site, that will be a great help for you...

trevorlay

It is a tank For Brine Shrimp, I was just hoping Some snails could co-exsist with my little brine shrimp.

wake49

I think it is possible, just a few adjustments need to be made.

trevorlay

I just got a color test strip pack of 25 today, here are the results:

Nitrate: 40
Nitrite: 3.0
GH: 300
KH: 300
pH: 8.5

wake49

Nitrites are a problem, you want those down to 0. It might be a good idea to get those nitrates down, too. A partial water change would be like 1/2 a gallon, and that's 50%! That might help.

trevorlay

i did a 50% water change and retested a day later here are the results:

Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0.5
GH: 300
KH: 300
pH: 8.5

iamntbatman

Do you have a hydrometer? I think that the recommended amounts of salt used for brine shrimp are far above the specific gravity you'd have in a regular marine setup. It could be that the water is too salty for the snails to survive.