Clean up crew is crapping out

Got a pretty decent sized cleanup crew a week from last friday. 60 astrea snails, 25 nassarius, 15 scarlet hermits, 20 cerith, and 10 nerite. They took down almost all the algae in my tank over 3-4 days. But then the die off started. I've been losing almost 2 snails a day since then. So far the death toll is 20 astrea snails, 2 cerith, and 5 scarlet hermits!

My water parameters are:

Temp:79-81
SG: 1.024-1.026
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5
dkh:15
Ca: 400
Mg:1500
Phosphate: 0.5 (can't seem to get this down even though I'm running a phosphate reactor and carbon)

I feed my clowns once every day a fair sized meal. Anyone have any idea why these things are dying off? Have a zoa frag and gsp coral that have been doing great in there for weeks.

 

Is the tank set up with a ground probe ? or have you tested for stray voltage ? It always seems when I see a my snails are dieing off voltage always seems to be the main cause .. And temperatures can cause this also tank set up with a chiller or kept belw 79 to 80F ? I'd keep it under 80F max always .

 

I'm sure other more experienced folks will respond but I had a similar situation and finally by chance saw a large stone crab pulling an astraea snail behind a rock. It was a hitchhiker that I didn't know about until it ate a ton of my CUC and I got lucky and saw it in action one night. I didn't think my CUC was starving that quickly, it was the uber crab's doing!

 

I've got a grounding probe coming in the mail but I dont have any way to test for voltage. The crabs I have in the tank are 4 emeralds. Do you think theyve gone homicidal?

Don't think there is many hitchhikers in the tank that I've seen at least. So far just a few bristle worms.

 

I have seen snails putter out and fall off rocks once the NO3 levels get over 20ppm.

Tangster, you didn't read the grounding probe articles?
We just had a guy on our local club write up a lenghty article about how grounding probes are more detriment than benefit.

Just a thought.

Oh psiclone, did they simple EAT all the algae?

 

My emeralds are small and always picking at LR and nori at most. The stone crab was the size of a silver dollar and had probably come in very small a long while back. It's just a thought because I couldn't have imagined that thing was in my tank. I've been told they make tunnels in sand and can hide very well in LR.

 

All my emeralds are 1-2 inches

 

JMO but that seems like alot for a 55! i have 1 emrald, 10 astrea, 10 margarita snails, and about 10 hermits in my 90 and i worry they are starving. they could be just starving to death. but im no expert!....

 

I would address nutrient export for the algae... What are you battling?

Happy algae removal!!