# raising Gh?



## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

So what do you guys use to safely raise gh in your shrimp tank?


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## battmanh (Jan 7, 2014)

I use African cichlid water conditioner. Some people also use SeaChem Equilibrium.


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## Nobody1 (Dec 9, 2014)

I use 5-10g of dolopril once a week or so


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## Bobsidd (Dec 28, 2012)

I use SaltyShrimp Mineral GH+ in my Taiwan Bee and Caridina tanks and equilibrium for my neos.


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## Arcteryx (Nov 23, 2011)

Equilibrium.


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## Chiumanfu (Oct 30, 2014)

SaltyShrimp GH+. It was suggested to me by Pat and works great!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I was also using the africian cichlid water conditioner as it was recommended to me as soon as I started with cherries. I know many people will use equilibrium, and the only complaint I've heard is it doesn't necessarily dissolve into the water immediately.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

^ +1 on african cichlid water conditioner. I have used it for over a year and it works great!!


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

So is there a difference other than not dissolving immediately? (Difference between equilibrium and african cichlid conditioner)


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I think equilibrium is the cheaper route but I could be mistaken. It comes in powered form, where as the A.C. buffer was liquid when I bought mine.


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## Chiumanfu (Oct 30, 2014)

There was a post on this on TPT but I can't seem to find it now. There is half a dozen salts and minerals that are used to raise GH. Equilibrium is heavy on potassium which is great for planted tanks. Shrimp specific conditioners are usually heavy on Calcium which is better for inverts. The cheap stuff is heavy on sodium which is not much good for anything.


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## cowchanplanted (Jun 16, 2014)

Calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

cowchanplanted said:


> Calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate.


That'd probably be the cheapest route. Not that I'd use the calcium chloride I have (snow\ice melting bags) but magesium sulfate is just epsom salts from my understanding. Don't know if calcium\magenesium would be the only elements they'd need though. Never looked into it deeply. I remember Gary, 2wheelsx2 is a geologist and would nail this one on the head again.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ca and Mg are the main elements which GH are measurement by. There are others, but they are not in sufficient abundance to matter. If you want to boost KH a bit also you can use CaCO3 but it doesn't dissolve very well in warm water.


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

Mhmm so technically, the cheapest way to go is to dose calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Yes, as Epsom salts and Calcium Chloride are both available in bulk fairly cheaply.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

You'd obviously need to figure out how much to dose for the volume of water you have, but that does sound like a very cost effective way of doing it. I'd increase the GH sequentially and slowly as I don't fiddling with anything is varying amounts.

I used crushed carbonate to increase my KH to prevent PH swings, as that was a cheap way of doing it as well. For smaller sized tanks it may not be a big deal, as I only had 2 10g's, and I didn't do full water changes, so I just used the african cichlid conditioner for GH.


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

So I found the dosage on TPT, it says: "about one gram of mixed calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate (mixed 6:7 by weight) will raise 10 gallons of water by 1 degree general hardness (1 dGH) and provide an ideal calcium to magnesium ratio (3:1)"
I'll try out the african cichlid conditioner since my tank is 33 gal. If I find myself using quite a bit, I guess I can always move on to the dosage above. I just put it there so people who wants to go cheap won't have to look it up


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## cowchanplanted (Jun 16, 2014)

It is way cheaper. I bought my self a big bucket of calcium chloride (pool hardener) for $30 and change. I have a several year supply for my 13 tanks in my notho setup.


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

I noe u can buy epsom salt at drugstores but wat about calcium chloride? Any store that sells them?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

CaCl is sold anywhere you can buy dehumidifier crystals. Canadian Tire sells them.

But the reality is, these bulk minerals are used so sparingly that you can't save much. As cowchanplanted said, $30 for several years. Even if it's $100 for 3 years, you're saving $3 a month max. You're better off getting more efficient lighting and pumps to save electricity and finding cheaper fish food, which costs me way more per month.


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

Rly? Ive seen drugstores that sell 4kg (or maybe it was 2kg) epsom salts for $10. Total would cost me about 40 and i only need about 3~4g of the mix for each wc since i have a 33 gal. It sounda like its going to last me quite awhile tho...

Yes, i agree with u. It's going to be a divided shrimp tank so i dont need to spend much money on better lighting and pumps, but it's always nice to have that extra money that i can spend to get some edge on shrimp breeding


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If you're keen into breeding the shrimp and getting better livestock it might be better to get some shrimp specific products from Pat or Frank. For just cherry shrimp it's no big deal but for CRS and Tigers and other fancy strains you might want to make that investment.


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## HashAsh (May 13, 2014)

Mhmm i see. So i guess I should buy shrimp specific gh conditioner then...


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Contact MyKiss or check out what Ebi-Ken has to offer, but I used my the cichlid conditioner and ADA amazonian soil II and the shrimp were doing awesome (painted fire red's and cbs\crs [don't mix crs with cbs btw]) and breeding rapidly.

I think I'll start another tank up next year, and locate it where the temperature won't fluctuate so drastically. Loved that shrimp tank.


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## Chiumanfu (Oct 30, 2014)

Agreed. Pat (MyKiss) is in Richmond too so it's a short trip. Ask him to show you how he makes his water. I follow his procedure and it works great for me.


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## PeteAce (Oct 23, 2010)

HashAsh said:


> So I found the dosage on TPT, it says: "about one gram of mixed calcium chloride and magnesium sulfate (mixed 6:7 by weight) will raise 10 gallons of water by 1 degree general hardness (1 dGH) and provide an ideal calcium to magnesium ratio (3:1)"


Interesting... I always wanted to find a more cost effective way of using Seachem Equilibrium or African cichlid conditioner to raise GH. I'm starting a tank of livebearers and need a high GH of 200-300ppm (>15 dGH). So if I bought a bag of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) and Ice Melter (calcium chloride), I can use the same dosage by weight? Is it possible to provide the link to TPT for more detail?


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

I can get you calcium chloride in bulk for cheap. I think it's high purity also at 80%


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## YumiChi (Mar 16, 2015)

Been using Ciclid Conditioner on my RO. I am a beginner so i am not exactly sure if my gH level is good for my CRS CBS while my TDS level is at 160lish.
Since I havent test my gH yet.


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