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shaggydoo 
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 Topic: Snail shells turning white
Posted: April 30 2005 at 3:12pm |
A few weeks ago a few of my turbo snail shells turned bright white. They seem fine and go about their business cleaning and eating away but I am wondering what caused this? I have some ceriths, black shelled mexican turbos, and astreas but all their shells have remained the same color. Also a couple of shells that my hermits are using turned white as well.
As far as tank maintenance and params go they have all remained the same. At least from what I can test with my junky testing kit. I am still doing my weekly water changes and all my corals and fish are thriving and nothing is looking sick or anything. Anyways if anyone has any thoughts on this I would like to hear them. Thanks
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dnellans
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Posted: April 30 2005 at 4:41pm |
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Is it the actual shell or the coraline algae on it? a sudden
temperature change (degrees in minutes) via cold water change water
being poured in can cause coraline to turn almost instantly turn white
and die i've found...
-dwn
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shaggydoo
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Posted: April 30 2005 at 4:44pm |
That could be it. My snails are constantly going from my HOB fuge to my main tank and in doing so their shells are out of the water. So the temp change from my H20 (82) to the air in my apartment (72) could definitely be what caused it.
Now that you mention it I believe that the only shells that turned white did used to be completely covered in purple coraline so that makes perfect sense. Thanks.
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bugzme
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Joined: May 22 2004
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Posted: April 30 2005 at 5:07pm |
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How is your calcium and alkalinity? They can cause problems with all sorts of things.
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Jeff
125 tank
50 gallon sump
T-5 lighting
Rum drinker, Carbon User
I KNOW ROCKS THAT ARE YOUNGER THEN ME!! I AM A Realist! I write what I think!!
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shaggydoo
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Posted: April 30 2005 at 5:32pm |
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I'm afraid I don't know with the CA and ALK yet. I still haven't taken the plunge and gotten some tests for those yet. I know I need to soon but haven't yet since I do large frequent water changes and don't have any SPS corals. I think I should be fine since all my tank inhabitants look good, but again I need to get some tests especially for alk. Anyone recommend a reliable test specifically for alk?
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60g LPS Cube
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bugzme
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Posted: April 30 2005 at 5:54pm |
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Sailfert test kits work very well!
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Jeff
125 tank
50 gallon sump
T-5 lighting
Rum drinker, Carbon User
I KNOW ROCKS THAT ARE YOUNGER THEN ME!! I AM A Realist! I write what I think!!
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 02 2005 at 9:26am |
I have a couple questions/suggestions:
 What do you mean by large weekly water changes? Did you know that in normal conditions a healthy tank does very well with only a 10%/monthly water change?
What are you testing? Did you know that Alkalinity is the most important test?
What salt mix are you using? Did you know that Oceanic has low Alkalinity, because it has high Calcium? Frequent water changes with Oceanic would seriously deplete Alk, especially in a small tank. The question here is, are there other areas of Coralline Algae turning white in this tank?
Some snails like to spend their off hours out of the water, perched just under the top frame of the tank. This could also cause Coralline algae to turn white.
Funny thing about Coralline algae, it can recover quickly. I once brought a small rock back in from 2 months of sitting outside on the ground during freezing winter weather. The color had not totally disappeared and all of it's color returned within a few weeks in the tank!
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shaggydoo
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Posted: May 02 2005 at 4:21pm |
Well I don't skim and feed fairly heavily so I do about a 30% water change every week and a half. I only have an 18G so doing a 5 gallon water change is really easy. I use IO salt and so far everything is growing and looking very happy.
My coraline has been spreading like wildfire It started on only one of my dozen or so rocks and now it is all over everything. I hopefully should be getting an alk test soon but have monitored my pH closely and since it stays so stable at around 8.2 I haven't felt that I need to test alk yet.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 05 2005 at 10:51am |
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Sounds like you have a good handle on the situation.
Have you chosen to do those big water changes because nitrates go too high weekly? If you don't mind me asking, what does your filtration consist of?
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shaggydoo
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Posted: May 05 2005 at 4:04pm |
I've actually never been able to measure any nitrates. I guess the main reason I do such a large water change is just because it is easy. In fact I think its actually easier for me to mix 5 gallons in a bucket with my extra PH and heater than it would be to try and mix a smaller amount.
Right now my filtration consists of a aquaclear 500 that I have put a couple small pieces of LR and have a clump of chaeto growing in it. Occasionally I also run carbon but not all the time. I have about 18# of sand and somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35# LR. I also have a maxijet that provides some extra circulation.
Here are a couple pics of my coraline growth. These pics were taken about 2 months apart.
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60g LPS Cube
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