Snails Dead within 12 hours :S

[babystarz]

I have a newly planted tank, and I know I cannot add fish for a few weeks, but I thought snails would be ok to help with cleaning. I bought 4 yesterday and at least 2 are already dead. The other 2 I haven't been able to find yet, but I won't be surprised if they're dead too. I didn't realize that snails were so sensitive I mean, this was 12 hours.

What do snails need in terms of habitat, temperature, and tank chemistry to survive?

These were your run of the mill pet store snails, about 2 inches in diameter.

[Oldfishlady]

Sorry for your loss...Its hard to say what happened-they could have been in bad shape to start or at the end of their natural life span.

Why can't you add fish yet???/
How many and what species of live plants, type of substrate, type of filter, how long has the tank been running and type of additive used....Also, have you used or has this tank had any copper products used in it recent or in the past and any plant ferts or algae-cide type products used

What are the water prams on both the tank and source water-ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if you have KH/GH too that will help to know.

What is the source water-well water, city supplied tap and does the water go through a water softening unit on the house and if so-what kind is it and can you bypass it for the aquarium...

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by Oldfishlady

Sorry for your loss...Its hard to say what happened-they could have been in bad shape to start or at the end of their natural life span.

Why can't you add fish yet???/
How many and what species of live plants, type of substrate, type of filter, how long has the tank been running and type of additive used....Also, have you used or has this tank had any copper products used in it recent or in the past and any plant ferts or algae-cide type products used

What are the water prams on both the tank and source water-ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if you have KH/GH too that will help to know.

What is the source water-well water, city supplied tap and does the water go through a water softening unit on the house and if so-what kind is it and can you bypass it for the aquarium...

Thank you for responding! I can't add the fish yet because I want to get the tank cycled first.

I have 2 species of live plants, Rotala Indica and Wisteria. There are about 15 Wisteria stems and 5 Rotala so far. The plants did spend time free-floating in water for two days before being added to the tank and they're shedding dead leaves like crazy. The tank looked terrible until I added Clarity (or is it Clarify? I don't have the bottle in front of me). I added the snails about 4 hours after that.

The substrate is CaribSea eco-complete. This is a brand new tank and I don't believe any copper products have been used. I did add 1 dose of Flourish fertilizer.

I don't really know anything about the water params yet, my testing kit is at my apartment (this is my new house). I didn't think I'd need the kit right away, I'll be sure to grab it next time. The water is city tap water, I don't think it's softened but I will check with my landlord about that. What I can tell you is that it's 79 degrees and it was treated with water conditioner (API).

Also, I did find the other snails. Of the four, the only one still currently alive is the brown mystery snail. The other three were white/tan. I don't know if that matters at all.

[Oldfishlady]

Since the one snail is still alive-the other snails may have been at the end of their life span already or weak in someway and the change in chemistry was all it took especially with the added chemical.

I don't know anything about the clearing product you used, however, the best method to clear the water is to make a water only change. The less chemical additives the better IMO/E.
The flourish should be snail safe, but the excel can sometimes cause problems for some more sensitive shrimp-I am not sure about snails-but I wouldn't think it would be problematic.
With that said, you may not need plant ferts just yet anyway.....
Your plant problems are most likely due to them changing over from emersed/submersed leaf growth/habit.

What kind of lights, kelvin, watts and photoperiod

With live plants you will do a silent cycle and once you have active growth and/or the plants are adjusting- the plants will take care of the water and make it fish safe.
When you have a lot of stem plants in active growth they will use the ammonia before it can harm the livestock and before conversion.
Often it will take a long time if ever to see the nitrate reading we look for that tells us cycling stage/completeness. The nitrogen cycle is still happening-just silent....
Also, Prime and API brands neutralizes ammonia-it convert it to ammonium that is fish safe, it can still be used by plants and the beneficial bacteria, however, you can still test positive for ammonia since the test products can't tell the difference between ammonia and ammonium.
The plant ferts can also cause false readings on nitrite and nitrate.

Be sure and make at least 50% water only changes before you add the ferts to remove any unused ferts to prevent bad algae problems as a general rule.