# Apple Snail babies raise pH?



## Justine (Aug 14, 2010)

I have over 40 Apple snail babies which a local aquarist shop has offered to take off me when the are £ sized ( about 1.5/2 cm dm). The pH in my 60l tank seems to have risen to about 6 from 7. Would the snail babies contribute to that? The only other thing that's changed is the plants are growing well. The fish seem fine. My background water is about pH7. I have started doing more frequent water changes & slightly larger ones for the time being & I'm considering setting up another tank for the snail babies until I can pass them on to the shop. Any other ideas?


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

well, if you think about it, the population in your tank has increased a huge number, that's going to effect your ph. The amount of waste produced when you up the population that much will increase, plus baby snails tend to have a high death rate if they're not all getting a lot of food, and undiscovered baby snails that are dead can have this effect as well. Plus baby snails are putting down new shell at a rapid pace, which tends to lower hardness, which tends to destabilize ph. Get yourself a cuttlebone like you give parakeets and weight that and put it in the tank for the babies. Canned chopped spinach is a good baby food, in small amounts. Plus if you have a non-phosphate ph buffer that's good (phosphate buffers tend to hurt apple snails) Think about upping your regularly scheduled partial water changes, so for instance if you've been doing 10% weekly, think about upping it to 20% at least. Let us know if this solves your problems.


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## Justine (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks for that! I have cuttlebone in for the big snails but I'll try weighting it down so more accessible. Also have spinach!


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

You don't need to weigh it down. Boil it for a few minutes and it will sink. ;o)


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

My tap ph is 6.5 and lower. Snails don't like it so I raise the ph (7.5 to 8.2) with a Rift Lake salt mix. Two other easy ways to raise the ph is with Coral Sand or old, clean Sea Shells.


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