My year established snail tank crashed hard, no idea why.

I have a 20 gallon long aquarium dedicated to snails of different species. I have it filled with a mixture of nirite, mystery, chopstick, pagoda, black devil, assassin, ramshorn, bladder, pond and trapdoor snails. This last week, I had a bunch of babies hatch out and that's when all the issues started. I lost about 7 adult mystery snails and an orange footed rabbit snail. When the babies hatched out it caused the ph to drop a bit, so I fixed it with a buffer. However, most of my adults have passed away and the others in there are sick. The japanese trapdoor snails seem to be a bit sick as well. I have done large water changes, triple checked all water parameters and everything is perfect! Could the ph drop for just one week do this much damage?

 

I have a 20 gallon long aquarium dedicated to snails of different species. I have it filled with a mixture of nirite, mystery, chopstick, pagoda, black devil, assassin, ramshorn, bladder, pond and trapdoor snails. This last week, I had a bunch of babies hatch out and that's when all the issues started. I lost about 7 adult mystery snails and an orange footed rabbit snail. When the babies hatched out it caused the ph to drop a bit, so I fixed it with a buffer. However, most of my adults have passed away and the others in there are sick. The japanese trapdoor snails seem to be a bit sick as well. I have done large water changes, triple checked all water parameters and everything is perfect! Could the ph drop for just one week do this much damage?

A large ph swing can certainly cause a lot of trouble. I’m guessing your KH got too low and caused your PH to bottom out.

 

How much was the change? Remember that pH is a logarithmic scale and unit changes are huge.

 

I've not kept these snails, so it may well be something completely different, but what I know of shell growing critters is that they can potentially be very sensitive to low pH.

Most native snails die around pH 6. They're some of the most sensative aquatic creatures to low pH.

 

How much was the change? Remember that pH is a logarithmic scale and unit changes are huge.

Correct a change of 1 either way is 10 times more acidic or basic.

 

I believe it went from about 7.6 to about 6.5.... I can't believe I didn't see this coming. I always knew snails were tanks when it came to water conditions but forgot just how sensitive they were to pH. I cannot believe I messed up like this.

 

I wouldn't have seen that coming either :-/

Doesn't seem like a snail tank would need extra attention but the right pH buffer might be an easy way to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

I wouldn't have seen that coming either :-/

Doesn't seem like a snail tank would need extra attention but the right pH buffer might be an easy way to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Monitoring KH is important with a large population of snails since they use the calcium in the water for their shells. I wonder if a saltwater substrate would be better for them. I did that in my turtle tank and he seems to be good without capsicum supplements.