General discussion and questions about my tank because I am noob at this

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

My crab loves Coquina clams, after I caught like 20 and put them in there (they are all tiny) I just have to crack one open every few days and my crab loves it, I don't have to look further to find food it likes. I will probably go to the store and feed it a part of a frozen shrimp too to make it eat more than 1 thing, also at the beach there is so much of this 1 species of sea snail and I was wondering if they eat it. Let me describe it then find a picture: it has a wide thin shell, it always is found at about the same size, here is pictures:

this is a snail that died and got eaten by other snails

Clearer pics may help, but - assuming it's tiny - possibly Granulina margaritula?

NOOOO PLS PLS HELP AHH

MY MANS GUNNA GET FILTERED WHY DOES MY FILTER ATTRACT SNAILS THIS IS THE ONLY SNAIL THAT HAS BEEN TRYING TO ESCAPE HOW DID HE GET UP IN THE FILTER?? bruh this is my new filter

edit: I got him out

Glad to hear you got it out, I'd make sure to have the filter inlets covered/blocked off in some way to prevent future incidents like this.

 

[Amethyst]

Clearer pics may help, but - assuming it's tiny - possibly Granulina margaritula?

Glad to hear you got it out, I'd make sure to have the filter inlets covered/blocked off in some way to prevent future incidents like this

Can The Crab eat it?
Also what would happen when it went into filter, Id assume it would mess with the media.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Can The Crab eat it?
Also what would happen when it went into filter, Id assume it would mess with the media.

I would guess it could if it wanted to - the only predators I know of for G. margaritula are sea stars though.

Edit: I doubt it would cause serious problems to the filter, but I'd assume the snail would die shortly after getting stuck in there (and that could potentially cause issues).

 

[Amethyst]

I would guess it could if it wanted to - the only predators I know of for G. margaritula are sea stars though.

ok, also at the beach there are smaller pretty snails in the hundreds that I will find in piles eating dead bigger ugly snails and just about any scraps of food they find. They look like the bigger pretty snails but I doubt they are the same because all the small ones are the same size and I never saw one that was that much of a different size from the rest though, and also that these ones are about 10x bigger. Do you think a handful of these little guys would be good for a cuc? probably like 10-15?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

ok, also at the beach there are smaller pretty snails in the hundreds that I will find in piles eating dead bigger ugly snails and just about any scraps of food they find. They look like the bigger pretty snails but I doubt they are the same because all the small ones are the same size and I never saw one that was that much of a different size from the rest though, and also that these ones are about 10x bigger. Do you think a handful of these little guys would be good for a cuc? probably like 10-15?

Possibly - you'd want to know what the snails are before deciding for certain though.

 

[Amethyst]

Possibly - you'd want to know what the snails are before deciding for certain though.

ok I will snap a pic of them next time I am at beach

 

[Amethyst]

Nevermind I have one in my tank and I think the little ones are just baby versions of the big pretty ones in my tank. The reason I think this is because when they are threatened they go into their shell and have a hard shield shell on the side of their feet they use to block off the hole completely protecting them, and both the little ones I was talking about and the big ones I have have this feature actually. I took a picture of this one I happened to have in my tank

that is why I think the big ones I found at the beach and the Littles ones that eat everything are the same species

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Nevermind I have one in my tank and I think the little ones are just baby versions of the big pretty ones in my tank. The reason I think this is because when they are threatened they go into their shell and have a hard shield shell on the side of their feet they use to block off the hole completely protecting them, and both the little ones I was talking about and the big ones I have have this feature actually. I took a picture of this one I happened to have in my tank

that is why I think the big ones I found at the beach and the Littles ones that eat everything are the same species

The "shield shell" is a known as an operculum, and it's actually a pretty common feature in snails. If the foot of the snail (the body, not the shell) looks the same, and the shell looks the same, then they may be the same species.

 

[Amethyst]

The "shield shell" is a known as an operculum, and it's actually a pretty common feature in snails. If the foot of the snail (the body, not the shell) looks the same, and the shell looks the same, then they may be the same species.

ok great, my water level has gone down about an inch. I need to fill it back up but I dont have an rodi filter is this ro filter good enough? (I have it)

it is like the ro without the di whatever that is

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

ok great, my water level has gone down about an inch. I need to fill it back up but I dont have an rodi filter is this ro filter good enough? (I have it)

it is like the ro without the di whatever that is

RO is Reverse Osmosis, DI is Deionization. RO is a good place to start (much better than just tap water), but RODI is best as the DI part removes contaminants that make it through the RO filters. (According to BRS, some of the contaminants removed by the DI include silicate, nitrate, and phosphate.)

 

[Amethyst]

RO is Reverse Osmosis, DI is Deionization. RO is a good place to start (much better than just tap water), but RODI is best as the DI part removes contaminants that make it through the RO filters. (According to BRS, some of the contaminants removed by the DI include silicate, nitrate, and phosphate.)

is it ok for replacing 1 inch of water in a 10 gallon tank?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

is it ok for replacing 1 inch of water in a 10 gallon tank?

It depends on your water - if you have heavily polluted water that contains stuff like copper in it, then no. If you have good, clean water, then probably.

 

[Amethyst]

It depends on your water - if you have heavily polluted water that contains stuff like copper in it, then no. If you have good, clean water, then probably.

how do I know if my water is good?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

how do I know if my water is good?

Testing. Some people read their water company's water technical info/reports, other people just use a TDS meter on their RODI system and if the meter reads low enough (preferably 0) then they consider the water clean enough.

 

[Amethyst]

Testing. Some people read their water company's water technical info/reports, other people just use a TDS meter on their RODI system and if the meter reads low enough (preferably 0) then they consider the water clean enough.

where do I go to get the tests

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

where do I go to get the tests

You can find TDS meters online for like $15-$25 (a local fish store may or may not carry these) - I'm not sure where to find the technical reports, and I imagine where you would find these would vary from one water company to another.

 

[Amethyst]

You can find TDS meters online for like $15-$25 (a local fish store may or may not carry these) - I'm not sure where to find the technical reports, and I imagine where you would find these would vary from one water company to another.

what am I looking for in the reports?

 

[Amethyst]

I found the water report, on one of the pages it shows the stuff in the water I have no idea what I am looking at though

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

what am I looking for in the reports?

The "Report of Detected Compounds" at the bottom:

https://www.ci.oceanside.ca.us/documents/Water%20Amin/NV5_Ocean_2021CCR_OnlineVersion_v6_6.29.22_Optimized.pdf

- Looking at the copper specifically, they mention the 90th percentile for 50 homes sampled was 0.245 (this means that 90% of the 50 homes tested had copper levels of 0.245 or lower);
- The testing they use for copper is only sensitive to 0.05.
- LC50 for Copper when tested on different inverts* (a mussel species, an oyster species, a copepod species, and two urchin species - one of the urchins was the sand dollar you have; a different test** used a limpet, a crab, and a mussel) ranged from ~0.002 to 0.2 (LC50 being a toxicology term for the dose needed before half of a given population dies from the toxin); the LC50 varies from one species to the other, and it varies dependent on a number of different factors (such as the bioavailability of the form of copper in the water).

Personally, just looking at the odds of getting a damaging to lethal level of copper in your water, I wouldn't use your water without DI.

*Test Report 1

https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/etc.45

**Test Report 2

Differential sensitivity of three marine invertebrates to copper assessed using multiple biomarkers - PubMed

Understanding how biomarkers relate to each other on exposure to particular contaminants in different species is key to their widespread application in environmental management. However, few studies have systematically used multiple biomarkers in more than a single species to determine the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Amethyst]

The "Report of Detected Compounds" at the bottom:

https://www.ci.oceanside.ca.us/documents/Water%20Amin/NV5_Ocean_2021CCR_OnlineVersion_v6_6.29.22_Optimized.pdf

- Looking at the copper specifically, they mention the 90th percentile for 50 homes sampled was 0.245 (this means that 90% of the 50 homes tested had copper levels of 0.245 or lower);
- The testing they use for copper is only sensitive to 0.05.
- LC50 for Copper when tested on different inverts* (a mussel species, an oyster species, a copepod species, and two urchin species - one of the urchins was the sand dollar you have; a different test** used a limpet, a crab, and a mussel) ranged from ~0.002 to 0.2 (LC50 being a toxicology term for the dose needed before half of a given population dies from the toxin); the LC50 varies from one species to the other, and it varies dependent on a number of different factors (such as the bioavailability of the form of copper in the water).

Personally, just looking at the odds of getting a damaging to lethal level of copper in your water, I wouldn't use your water without DI.

*Test Report 1

https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/etc.45

**Test Report 2

Differential sensitivity of three marine invertebrates to copper assessed using multiple biomarkers - PubMed

Understanding how biomarkers relate to each other on exposure to particular contaminants in different species is key to their widespread application in environmental management. However, few studies have systematically used multiple biomarkers in more than a single species to determine the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

oh so I need the di too in order to get out the dangerous copper?