# Aragonite, crushed coral, or what?



## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

My water: 6.8 pH, 80 ppm GH, and 3° dkh.

I want to set up a tank for snails. What substrate will raise my pH, GH and KH?

Will aragonite do this? Or would I be better off with crushed coral? If I use crushed coral, can the MTS sift through it okay? Or should I use garden lime? Or dolomite? Or something else?

I don't want this to be expensive and I want it to be easy. I know African cichlid specific substrate like Caribsea would be perfect but not at over $20 for breeding snails for puffer food.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

I have Plenty of MTS's in my crushed coral.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Snails get their calcium primarily from their food, or so I have been told repeatedly. You have just about perfect water for any fauna other than, perhaps, African lake cichlids.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Hoppy said:


> Snails get their calcium primarily from their food, or so I have been told repeatedly. You have just about perfect water for any fauna other than, perhaps, African lake cichlids.


While this is true, snails in my high co2 tank never make it. Their shells disolve in no no time, due to the carbonic acid. Even when I KNOW they are snacking on calcium enriched foods. 

In a snail only tank, crushed oyster shells from the feed store work well, if you happen to have one around.... You've gotta wash the crap out of them, but they are about 8 bucks for 50 lbs.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

The acid level in the water dissolves their shells. I tried feeding them calcium rich foods in my un-amended water and their shells slowly deteriorate until they die. So calcium rich foods aren't enough.

I have them in a bucket dosed with baking soda and Kent's liquid calcium and I'm finally finding sizable snails. 

Crushed oyster shells sound great but I tried a substrate of crushed chicken egg shells and it messed up their mucus membranes something bad. I'm worried about the same happening with the crushed oyster shells or coral. Also I read that oyster shells won't dissolve into the water fast enough to have any real buffering ability. I don't know if this is true.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

With a pH of 6.8, the water is almost neutral, not acid. I doubt that snails require a higher pH than that, unless their natural environment is in very hard water lakes.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

Then why are their shells pockmarked and they keep dying before they get any size to them but are thriving in a bucket that I added baking soda and liquid calcium to?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

What is the natural environment for those particular snails? You can probably get better answers on the shrimp etc. forum.

From http://www.snail-world.com/Snail-Anatomy.html "The shell of a snail is made up of calcium carbonate. The shell becomes very strong and remains that way as long as the snail consumes a diet that is full of calcium. Without it the shell will start to crack. Since the rest of the body is very soft and slimy, they must have a hard shell if they are going to survive the elements in the world around them."


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

A random reference on the internet of all places doesn't mean anything. 

I've fed snail a diet high in calcium in my untreated water conditions and they don't survive long due to shell damage. 

I feed snails a diet high in calcium in treated water (raised ph, gh, kh) and they're surviving and getter bigger than ever before and their shells look great.


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