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L# Freshwater Aquaria
 L# Invertebrates
  L# Shell Hardening?
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SubscribeShell Hardening?
Inkling
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female usa
Is there a good way to harden apple snail shells? I noticed mine was getting a little thin.

Inky
Post InfoPosted 07-Mar-2006 17:35Profile Homepage AIM PM Edit Report 
illustrae
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female usa
Add a half dose of marine calcium supplement to the water with each water change (Kent makes a good one, but any LFS that has a section for reef aquariums should have this stuff on hand. Some marine Iodine wouldn't hurt either, but only use 1/4 to 1/2 the dose recommended on the bottle) Feeding foods high in calcium will help, too, such as shrimp pellets, crab cuisine pellets, and leafy greens like broccoli and kale. What kind of fish do you keep your snail with (if any)? If your fish can tolerate it, you might consider buffering your water with limestone or crushed coral to harden the water and raise the Ph. Soft acidic water will actually slowly eat away a snails shell and you may notice eroded spots where this is happening.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...
Post InfoPosted 07-Mar-2006 17:43Profile AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
Inkling
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female usa
I have a betta. Occassionally I breed them in there. They don't really pay attention to the snails though. I used distilled water and that is probubly why. I had no idea! Thanks for the help!

Inky
Post InfoPosted 07-Mar-2006 18:02Profile Homepage AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
Fallout
 
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In addition to what illustrae stated, using a reclaim chemistry (kent R/O right) or similar will also go miles for the betta, too. Use of distilled/reverse osmosis water should be limited to topping off a tank to compensate for evaporation. Otherwise, use the reclaim
Post InfoPosted 07-Mar-2006 18:52Profile Homepage ICQ AIM MSN Yahoo PM Edit Delete Report 
Inkling
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female usa
ah! Will do.

....Snails are harder than they look ....

Inky
Post InfoPosted 08-Mar-2006 01:01Profile Homepage AIM PM Edit Delete Report 
moondog
 
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do you know the hardness and ph of your normal and tank water? normal water will probably be higher hardness than the tank if you have a big snail. my apples drain the tank to nothing and then some if i don't keep the hardness up. i just put crushed coral in the substrate



"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman
Post InfoPosted 08-Mar-2006 02:59Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
sham
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You should not use distilled water by itself in a tank unless you have some really softwater fish to breed and you also really know what your doing. High quality distilled water is nearly pure h2o with no buffers which can not only let the ph drop below 5 but also create an unstable ph that changes frequently and straight distilled water has no minerals to build snail shells out of. It's also not that great for most fish either mostly due to ph issues. You should either mix distilled water with your tapwater or buy reclaim powders. A very simple one is kent's ro right.http://www.kentmarine.com/freshwater/ror.html It contains everything you need to turn pure water back into good aquarium water without all the junk you find in tapwater. For the health of applesnails you want a ph of at least 7 or the water is actually acidic enough it will dissolve their shells. Also having more general hardness minerals(gh) makes sure they have available materials to build a shell. To increase just calcium you can add kent's liquid marine calcium like was mentioned before. There are other ways to add calcium but most are less accurate and will usually raise the ph up near 8.0.
Post InfoPosted 08-Mar-2006 05:33Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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