I am in the process of setting up a snail tank, which makes it all the worse that Sherlock died before he got to be in his new home, but anyway I have a ten gallon with a hood and a 150 gph filter and a bubble curtain. I know I need something to raise the ph to around 8 and I read about crushed coral but will it raise the ph or just keep the exisiting ph stable? And if I can't find coral what else can I use? And since there aren't any snails in there yet I don't have to raise the ph in small increments or do I? I have a decorative rock I'm going to add and a thin layer of gravel cause I don't like the look of barebottom tanks. Do I need any thing else for the tank?

You can raise the pH with 'ph up' they have the 'ph down' stuff too.

If there are no snails in there, no, you do not have to slowly raise the pH. Just put it to where you want it to go before adding the snails. Also, be sure to keep the pH constant.

I myself would advise to NOT use the PH up. I personally would go with the crushed coral.If you cannot find it(Look in your lfs's Saltwater/Marine section) Then my next choice would to be baking soda. There's a thread here somewhere with the correct doses of how to do it,which I shall look for for you. The Ph up works,however I found trhat when I added it to existing snails in the tank after water changes,it bothered my snails enough to kill a few small babies and have bigger ones crawling out of the water.Maybe because there was too much difference in ph after the tank had been going for a while? I personally have had the best luck with crushed coral.It slowly brings your ph up,and keeps it there pretty steadily as long as I do my water changes consistently.What is your tap water ph naturally?.A good ph for snails is about 7.6 or so.

My tap water ph is around 6.8 I manage to keep it at exactly 7 in my goldie tank and in my betta tank where my snails are. The only guys I have are three small ramshorns now that Sherlock passed away and I gave both of my nerites to my brother . I couldn't find any crushed coral at the petstores here My favorite LFS that had a HUGE aquarium supplies section went out of business last month. I'll look for that post on baking soda too and see about using that and maybe once I acquire some more funds next month I can order some coral to keep my ph in shape.

Hey Devs I think I found the post. Was it Data Guru's Kh Ph calculator?

That sounds right to me.

I got the Ph spot on 7.6 today using the baking soda. So yipee! I'm gonna wait for a couple of more days till I add my snails just to make sure I can keep the Ph stable. Don't want Twinkle and the babes' shells to start looking bad!

www.applesnail.net has a lot of good stuff about all sorts of snails