[dinor2]

I believe I recently lost my half black angel to my nassarius snails because he's low in the tank while sleeping and in one of the caves. I have 7 small nassarius snails and my nitrates are between 20 and 30ppm so I try to not overfeed my fish, even knowing that my shrimp and snails will eat the left overs but, is my theory possible? Do nassarius snails go after fish if they're hungry? I'm very bummed about losing my half black and would love to know what happened to him....

Thanks!

[stacef]

Hmm, It doesn't seem to be possible that a snail could take him out, even if the fish is sleeping...I could be wrong though.

[unclejed]

Absolutely no, that type of snail will not kill a fish. Do you have any crabs? Anemones? The other view may be it was old and just died. Fish don't always go by the rule " the bigger the older".

[pogodzib]

No, the nassarius snail wouldn't be able to take out a fish. I'd seriously look at your water quality first as a reason the fish may have died. 20-30ppm nitrates isn't terrible, but definitely not good.

[dinor2]

ok, I'll assume it was the nitrates then, I've tried everything to get them down, maybe I need to try plan Z and leave the tank alone for a week (meaning no water changes!).

Thanks guys, had a feeling those snails couldn't attack a fish but, just wanted to be sure. Oh, I do have a few hermit crabs, but, nothing else that should attack fish I would think. My tanks' only 6 months old so, not a whole lot in there yet.

[Lady G]

Originally Posted by dinor2

ok, I'll assume it was the nitrates then, I've tried everything to get them down, maybe I need to try plan Z and leave the tank alone for a week (meaning no water changes!).

Thanks guys, had a feeling those snails couldn't attack a fish but, just wanted to be sure. Oh, I do have a few hermit crabs, but, nothing else that should attack fish I would think. My tanks' only 6 months old so, not a whole lot in there yet.

Ok, I know I'm new here...but how is not doing a water change going to help bring your NitrAtes down???

[dinor2]

Well, it probably will not, at the time, I was thinking that maybe I needed to leave it alone to let it finish cycling and do it's thing and not mess with it. However, after doing even MORE research (that's whay 90% of this hobby is for me at this point!) I've decided to do a deep sand bed. It's the only other thing I have not attempted to try to get the nitrates down, and with my nassarius snails in my 2-3 inches of sand, I don't think that there was enough room in the sand for those bacteria to thrive since they need anerobic conditions. Soooo, I'm going to post another picture of my tank, before and after the dsb and with my new light fixture, and see what you all think. But I'm looking at 4-5 inches of sand in my dt now and it's going on day 2 so I'm assuming it'll take a few days for those bacteria to colonize in the sand. I'll figure this nitrate thing out eventually! The dsb should help though.

[emccullough1]

You need to wait 6 months to 1 year for a DSB to really start working. Doing a multiple step water change is going to be the best way to get your nitrates down now. Then regular water changes to keep them low.

An Instant Nitrate Reduction Method - A Multiple Step Water Change Procedure

[rlcline76]

Originally Posted by dinor2

Well, it probably will not, at the time, I was thinking that maybe I needed to leave it alone to let it finish cycling and do it's thing and not mess with it. However, after doing even MORE research (that's whay 90% of this hobby is for me at this point!) I've decided to do a deep sand bed. It's the only other thing I have not attempted to try to get the nitrates down, and with my nassarius snails in my 2-3 inches of sand, I don't think that there was enough room in the sand for those bacteria to thrive since they need anerobic conditions. Soooo, I'm going to post another picture of my tank, before and after the dsb and with my new light fixture, and see what you all think. But I'm looking at 4-5 inches of sand in my dt now and it's going on day 2 so I'm assuming it'll take a few days for those bacteria to colonize in the sand. I'll figure this nitrate thing out eventually! The dsb should help though.

How old is your tank?

[dinor2]

It's almost 7 months old, and all levels are great except for those darn nitrates!

Will it really take months for the dsb to start working on those nitrates though? It seems like it didn't take that long for the other bacteria to colonize and bring ammonia and nitrites to 0.... but I've never had a saltwater tank before let alone a dsb! There is plenty of algae/stuff in the lower half of the sand, now that it's a dsb, that would lead me to think that there are some of those nitrifying bacteria already there, just not very much yet because of those nassarius snails in the 2 inch sand stirring things up.

I've been testing the nitrates daily so I guess I'll keep doing the 10-15% water changes every week still, that's what I've been doing for the last month, and I'll test for the nitrates weekly if it's going to take that long and everything else is good.

I just want it gone before May, my birthday! I'll say one thing, percula clowns are very forgiving! Unfortunately, mine's been in water that reads up to 80ppm, but usually it's around 20-40 but he's hanging in there, still looks healthy, eats well and I still soak his food in garlic once a day, just to keep his immunity strong until these nitrates go away.

Wow, don't know where I went with that but, I'm really interested to see how long this takes for those bacteria to get going. Oh, is 74 degrees too cold at night for a reef? During the winter, since I took out a mj1200, it went from 76 at night to 74.... I'm thinking that's the lowest I want it but is it too low?

Thanks bunches!

[patrick1234]

id say its to low and to much of a timp change

[e_baer]

Originally Posted by dinor2

Well, it probably will not, at the time, I was thinking that maybe I needed to leave it alone to let it finish cycling and do it's thing and not mess with it. However, after doing even MORE research (that's whay 90% of this hobby is for me at this point!) I've decided to do a deep sand bed. It's the only other thing I have not attempted to try to get the nitrates down, and with my nassarius snails in my 2-3 inches of sand, I don't think that there was enough room in the sand for those bacteria to thrive since they need anerobic conditions. Soooo, I'm going to post another picture of my tank, before and after the dsb and with my new light fixture, and see what you all think. But I'm looking at 4-5 inches of sand in my dt now and it's going on day 2 so I'm assuming it'll take a few days for those bacteria to colonize in the sand. I'll figure this nitrate thing out eventually! The dsb should help though.

Just a heads up....dont add all the sand at once to the existing tank. And here is why:

Deep Sand Beds

[dinor2]

Well, already added the whole 20lb bag. Wow, it feels like I just keep messing it up more! So far, I'm sticking to every other two or three day water changes of 5 gallons to try to help eliminate the nitrates....

[emccullough1]

I'm hopeing you have already read this but this is a good article on DSB and what you can expect from one.
DSB article - CALFO

And remember nothing good happens to a saltwater tank quick. The quick thing are almost always bad.