Nerite snails and Co2

[Sb1415]

I have now observed pretty consistently that all 3 of my nerite snails hang out just above the water surface when my co2 is on. I have measured co2 around 50 ppm using Hanna co2 kit and the rest of the inhabitants like tetras and platy are doing well. The Nerites go back down once the co2 is off.

Have any you seen this behavior with Nerite snails?

 

[techman81]

Pretty common in my tanks even with lower CO2. My nerites don't tend to last more than 4 months or so.

 

[Koan]

Calcium carbonate in snail shells just doesn't survive long-term when the pH is persistently acidic.

Acidic conditions, from the H2CO3 carbonic acid we create when we bubble CO2 into water, cause CaCO3 calcium carbonate to disassociate and break down into ions in solution.

The snails know that their shells will melt and they try to get out of the acidic water.

If you want to keep snails without melting them, you need to maintain your dKH high enough that after your CO2 comes on your pH drop stays above about 7.2 - 7.4. You also need to have dGH elevated, to provide calcium for the snails to make more shell.

A dGH and dKH of 5 or above each is a good start, depending on how much CO2 you want to add.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

I've never figured out how people keep Nerites long term in high-energy aquascapes.

In my aquasoil tank with 0KH, CO2 reaches almost 5.2pH at peak injection (40-50ppm)
In my BDBS tanks, it reaches ~5.7pH or so.

The acidity always just eats away at the nerite shells until they're clearly no longer healthy.
Places like Green Aqua swear by them, but while mine are always healthy at first, they really lose their health and shell thickness over time in these low pH tanks with ~5dGH.

Couple that with the habit of trying to get out of the tank with CO2 injection and I realized that they just don't work for me. Wish they did, they're beautiful!

 

[techman81]

I've never figured out how people keep Nerites long term in high-energy aquascapes.

In my aquasoil tank with 0KH, CO2 reaches almost 5.2pH at peak injection (40-50ppm)
In my BDBS tanks, it reaches ~5.7pH or so.

The acidity always just eats away at the nerite shells until they're clearly no longer healthy.
Places like Green Aqua swear by them, but while mine are always healthy at first, they really lose their health and shell thickness over time in these low pH tanks with ~5dGH.

Couple that with the habit of trying to get out of the tank with CO2 injection and I realized that they just don't work for me. Wish they did, they're beautiful!

Yeah, I was replenishing their numbers every few months but I think I'm giving up.

 

[Kwyet]

I don’t keep any snails in high tech, except the pest ones that show up on their own. I have some ramshorn and pond snails in the medium tech cube (9-10 ppm CO2) that have done well. I also have a kH of 3 in that tank though.