"carlrs" wrote in message
ups.com...

ChristyLynn wrote:

I have well water and I just did a test for the KH and it is very very
low.
My test kit stated to count how many drops of test solution would make
the
aquarium water in the test tube bright yellow. It was medium yellow at
35.8
and brighter yellow at 53.7. So I am to assume I probably should not
have
snails.

Well water is common here in So. Oregon too.
There are many ways to correct this problem.
My preferred method (which I have used for years on my aquarium service
route) is Wonder shells. They add needed calcium and many necessary
electrolytes too.
Another often misunderstood point is that ALL fish need calcium too,
even soft water fish, which means water totally depleted of calcium is
unhealthy for them. I have kept discus for years, and Always made sure
calcium was bio available to them (there are ways to do this without
drastically altering the pH upwards).

For more information about calcium, please read this URL:
http://kh-aquarium.blogspot.com/

Carl


When making up my fish food I put a scoop of calc carb powder in to simulate
the 'bones' of the fish food.
For snails you can often feed types of chook (chicken) food. Often the layer
pellets have shell grit in them too.
I would probably feed the floater to a puffer/cray or big loach.... after I
tinkered around with it to figure out what it's problem is.
Not exactly what you wanted to hear tho I imagine.
The cheapest substrate you could probably get would be coarse shell grit for
poultry to eat.
A good rinse and a few kg in the tank or a smaller bag in the filter and you
would be set
keep water changes below 50% and the water should stay nicely buffered.
consider putting shellgrit/coral/limestone/marble in the tank, even a small
amount can help slow a dangerous ph crash.
too much as mentioned before can be detrimental to some acid water loving
fish but they are way way in the minority hey
to change the ph really fast you can use epsom salt for GH and bicarb soda
for KH. test, calculate, then mix in aquarium water and add a small amount
over a few days.
try avoid more than .3pH shifts in 24 hours if it can be avoided for
delicate fish.
apple snails are quite hardy creatures when given a varied diet too,
applesnails escaping the tank is usually split between wrong water temp/pH
and them being hungry in my experience.