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Saltyshrimp mineral GH+ backup?


EBC

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Hi all,

I am running perilously low on the Saltyshrimp mineral GH+ that I have and it seems pretty much everyone is out of stock in Australia.

Anyone know of anything good that can be used as a stop gap until I can get my hands on some? I am having water issues (probably from trying to ration my mineral for the past month and a bit) so it is using up what little I have left.

It is for a small 28 litre planted tank with ~50 CRS. I am in Sydney if anyone has seen any at their local fish shop.

Thanks!

EBC

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Make your own.

You can buy Calcium sulphate from here. https://www.keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-caso4-300g.html.html

Magnesium sulphate is a lot easier to find. Bunnings will have a huge bag of it that will last you for years.

I have a DIY post here that will teach you how to make your own.

 

Make some to give to friends, or sell some.

Any remainder can be used in your garden. 

Edited by jayc
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There are other types of GH+, have you looked at the others? I expect you can get what you want online via ebay or Amazon? 

I use the Dennerle Shrimpking mineral fluid, which is actually easier to use as it is a liquid!

Simon

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Thanks both. I have looked around and was keen just to get people's opinions on what has worked for them.

 

28 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

There are other types of GH+, have you looked at the others? I expect you can get what you want online via ebay or Amazon? 

I use the Dennerle Shrimpking mineral fluid, which is actually easier to use as it is a liquid!

Simon

I have definitely looked around online to find some and it seems everywhere is overseas and wants exorbitant amounts for shipping.  Not impossible but not ideal either. I will have a look into Dennerle Shrimpking mineral fluid. I would definitely prefer a liquid as well. Actually my saltyshrimp has turned into a liquid over time just absorbing water from the air so I am actually just using it as a liquid anyways!

1 hour ago, jayc said:

Make your own.

You can buy Calcium sulphate from here. https://www.keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-caso4-300g.html.html

Magnesium sulphate is a lot easier to find. Bunnings will have a huge bag of it that will last you for years.

I have a DIY post here that will teach you how to make your own.

 

Make some to give to friends, or sell some.

Any remainder can be used in your garden. 

Jayc, I would definitely be keen to make my own but since I only have one small tank I feel like it would sort of be overkill. DIY is definitely up my alley though and I may give it a go. I actually came across your post earlier and went down a bit of a rabbit hole before I posted this. The woes of a small apartment is a small tank and no garden to use up the remainder!

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If you get stuck try my supplier, someone in Hong Kong, from this website has bought through them so I don't think the postage is too bad??? Just try adding an item to the basket and doing the delvery address and I assume it will give you the cost? They have the salty shrimp but the fluid one is out  of stock:

https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/58-minerals

Dont know how long it may take  to get to you though?

Simon

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12 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

If you get stuck try my supplier, someone in Hong Kong, from this website has bought through them so I don't think the postage is too bad??? Just try adding an item to the basket and doing the delvery address and I assume it will give you the cost? They have the salty shrimp but the fluid one is out  of stock:

https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/58-minerals

Dont know how long it may take  to get to you though?

Simon

Thanks Simon. When I go through that link, there doesn't seem to be any way to ship somewhere other than the UK so it doesn't look like it will work for me here in Australia. Unless I've missed something?

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Try filling in the delivery details but with the drop down box use the - instead of united kingdom. I have left a contact note on the site just in case they aren't doing foreign orders but I think you just fill in the details changing the drop down from united kingdon to 'dash'.

Simon

edit - I have heard from them and they are not doing international deliveries at present as most countries postal systems are having problems at the moment! 

Edited by sdlTBfanUK
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On 6/9/2020 at 6:05 PM, jayc said:

Make your own.

You can buy Calcium sulphate from here. https://www.keg-king.com.au/calcium-sulphate-caso4-300g.html.html

Magnesium sulphate is a lot easier to find. Bunnings will have a huge bag of it that will last you for years.

I have a DIY post here that will teach you how to make your own.

 

Make some to give to friends, or sell some.

Any remainder can be used in your garden. 

 

Looks like I am going to go the DIY route after all @jayc. I was having a look at Aquagreen for calcium sulphate and the micronutrient mix and I asked via email whether there was any copper in the micronutrient mix and he said there was 3% copper. I have always been told to very much avoid copper, but he made the point that shrimp blood is copper based so they actually do need some. What are your thoughts on this mix?

Also the calcium sulphate is not di or heptahydrate. Will this be a real pain to dissolve?

Know of other micronutrient mixes that might be better and are available?

Thanks!

EBC

Edited by EBC
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1 hour ago, EBC said:

I have always been told to very much avoid copper, but he made the point that shrimp blood is copper based so they actually do need some. What are your thoughts on this mix?

It's such a minor part of my DIY mix, that you can completely leave it out. To be honest, it makes no difference if you are concerned about the copper. 

Copper is toxic to shrimp at about 0.4 ppm. I don't know what that translates to in %.

I know Dave from Aquagreen, he is very knowledgeable when it comes to anything Aquarium. He is probably right. And 3% might not be enough to be harmful in that one product by itself. However, the issue is that chelated copper can be present in other things ... food, other ferts, dechlorinators, tap water, etc... and it all adds up. Avoid it if you can to give you a bigger buffer.

Leave it out. You don't need to add a micronutrient mix if you are not completely happy with it. It can always be added later, when you find a product you are happy with. Besides, it is only needed in micro amounts, hence the name. You want to be more critical about the "Macro" ingredients, the ones that name up the bulk of the DIY mix.

 

1 hour ago, EBC said:

Also the calcium sulphate is not di or heptahydrate. Will this be a real pain to dissolve?

Unfortunately yes. I bought the calcium sulphate off Aquagreen many years ago, and I still can't use it, because its a pain to dissolve.

I gave you a link to CaSO4 above from Keg King. Try that.

You can replace CaSO4 with Calcium Carbonate if you want to make a mix for Neo Caridina. This will give you the equivalent of Salty Shrimp GH/KH+.

 

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1 hour ago, jayc said:

It's such a minor part of my DIY mix, that you can completely leave it out. To be honest, it makes no difference if you are concerned about the copper. 

Copper is toxic to shrimp at about 0.4 ppm. I don't know what that translates to in %.

I know Dave from Aquagreen, he is very knowledgeable when it comes to anything Aquarium. He is probably right. And 3% might not be enough to be harmful in that one product by itself. However, the issue is that chelated copper can be present in other things ... food, other ferts, dechlorinators, tap water, etc... and it all adds up. Avoid it if you can to give you a bigger buffer.

Leave it out. You don't need to add a micronutrient mix if you are not completely happy with it. It can always be added later, when you find a product you are happy with. Besides, it is only needed in micro amounts, hence the name. You want to be more critical about the "Macro" ingredients, the ones that name up the bulk of the DIY mix.

 

Unfortunately yes. I bought the calcium sulphate off Aquagreen many years ago, and I still can't use it, because its a pain to dissolve.

I gave you a link to CaSO4 above from Keg King. Try that.

You can replace CaSO4 with Calcium Carbonate if you want to make a mix for Neo Caridina. This will give you the equivalent of Salty Shrimp GH/KH+.

 

Great, I appreciate the reply. I was actually just thinking the micronutrient mix to bulk up an order if I was buying the calcium from there. Thanks for your experience with that product though. Won't be what I go for.

I would have just bought the Keg King CaSO4 but I am trying to find something locally in Sydney. Have messaged a few brewing shops and found one that has it but they want 3x the price per gram. Guess it doesn't really matter as I won't be buying it very often either way... I should probably just buy the Keg King CaSO4 that way at least it is the one you recommended. Still cheaper per gram than the Sydney local one even with shipping.  

For anyone who stumbles on this looking for calcium sulphate in Sydney, here is the link: https://www.thehopandgrain.com.au/product/calciumsulphate100g/

 

One other question. I came across this Reddit link so I am not too sure how accurate how accurate it is but they mention the breakdown of the SaltyShrimp mineral KH/GH and there is quite a bit of chloride suggesting at least one of CaCl2, MgCl2, or KCl is used. I am planning on sticking with your formula but for interest's sake, is there any reason one of those couldn't be used instead? Are chloride ions harmful?

https://www.reddit.com/r/shrimptank/comments/8z8gma/alternative_to_salty_shrimp_ghkh/

 

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3 hours ago, EBC said:

. Have messaged a few brewing shops and found one that has it but they want 3x the price per gram. Guess it doesn't really matter as I won't be buying it very often either way... I should probably just buy the Keg King CaSO4 that way at least it is the one you recommended. Still cheaper per gram than the Sydney local one even with shipping.  

For anyone who stumbles on this looking for calcium sulphate in Sydney, here is the link: https://www.thehopandgrain.com.au/product/calciumsulphate100g/

I know what you mean. Shipping doesn't seem worth it. You could ask Keg King who has it in stock in Sydney. They have Sydney distributors.

 

3 hours ago, EBC said:

I am planning on sticking with your formula but for interest's sake, is there any reason one of those couldn't be used instead? Are chloride ions harmful?

I mentioned it above.

My DIY formula is for making what you call Salty Shrimp GH+ . This is for Caridina shrimp.

If you replace the Calcium Sulphate with Calcium Carbonate or Calcium Chloride you get something similar to Salty Shrimp GH/KH+, which is more for Neo Caridina shrimp.

So it depends on what shrimp you are going to keep. 

I prefer Calcium Carbonate to give me the KH properties, rather than using chlorides. They use CaCl2 because it is cheaper. CaCl2 is the same stuff you find used in products like Damp Rid.

Edited by jayc
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I am getting my GH+ from a guy in Sydney, my mate is getting his from him too. He is getting it from a shrimp breeder/exporting facility in Taiwan. Got the 800 grams mid March and all is good. Happy to enquire if he has more if anyone is interested.

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@jayc so I got all the components and mixed up a batch but it doesn't seem to be dissolving. The calcium sulphate is dihydrate according to the bottle (from keg king), magnesium sulphate is the one from Bunnings, and the potassium sulphate is the one from Bunnings as well. Is it just that the dihydrate will only dissolve is a larger volume of water? Ie. lower solubility vs heptahydrate?

Will shaking the bottle and taking a syringe full before it settles be fine as it will be in a larger volume of water?

See the attached images. It settles out pretty quickly but is pretty homogeneous immediately after being shaken. That is half the batch (53g) in ~500ml of water. The other half is in the freezer to keep it from clumping.

Thoughts?

MVIMG_20200622_104140.jpg

MVIMG_20200622_104122.jpg

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Hey EBC,

That looks fine to me. 

It's absolutely okay to shake the bottle before use. I do the same, and my mix is just as cloudy as yours. 

It's not noticeable once it goes in the tank. And it does not make your tank cloudy.

Now test it out on 1L of RO water and see how much it takes to raise it to 100TDS. 

 

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Has anyone heard about an issue at salty shrimp.

Here in the states, i was getting really low on my gh/kh i use in my 75g community as well as the shrimp tanks ... almost non existent in america as well.

No one has any at all with all my shrimp and fish sources .... Luckly theshrimptank, had 1 size still available the 750gr which also happens to be the size i buy and they were the cheapest on the net .... 56bucks, the 200 is normally 26 ... near triple the amount for 2x the price.

I am guessing it is covid issues, not able to get ingredients with shutdowns or saltyshrimp is also shutdown at the moment.

Hopefully this will soon change. Got really nervous, that i might runout, when i couldn't find any at my normal supplier.

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I have not seen any official notification from Salty Shrimp.

I make my own remineraliser, so it's never an issue. 

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