# Minerals for shrimp



## DEL 707 (16 Oct 2019)

I'm using RO water on my planted and remineralising it with Seachem equilibrium.

Tanks been running for a month now, no livestock yet, but I would like to add some cherry shrimp. But I've been told that equilibrium doesn't have all the necessary minerals for shrimp, like calcium and magnesium.

Are there any products I can use to add these minerals to my tank?


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## Aqua sobriquet (16 Oct 2019)

I think I’ve seen mineral blocks for shrimp somewhere? Bit worried it may cause limescale though. Anyone know anything about them?


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## Kalum (16 Oct 2019)

use tap water, free minerals


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## david boden (16 Oct 2019)

I use 'Dennerle Nano Crusta ' minerals once a week in all my shrimp tanks ,( just a tiny scoop , not recommended amounts ),-----I'm not recommending it or anything,   just saying.
It might do some good, -- never seemed to have done any harm.


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## tam (16 Oct 2019)

There are shrimp specific remineralisers e.g. shrimp king


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## roadmaster (16 Oct 2019)

Might check with Seachem on Equilibrium I know it has magnesium, not sure bout calcium.
Many minerals in foods designed for shrimp also and some say they get most minerals they need via foods.


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## Aqua sobriquet (16 Oct 2019)

I think these are what I saw. No idea if they work?

https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/shirakura-mironekuton/187-shirakura-mineral-stone.html


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## DEL 707 (16 Oct 2019)

tam said:


> There are shrimp specific remineralisers e.g. shrimp king



I've seen a product by Salty Shrimp for GH + KH.

My main concern is, does it have everything that my plants need?

Would this be a solution?
I use my Seachem products to get my GH and KH up to around 4. Then use a product like Shrimp King Mineral Fluid Double to increase the GH by another 2?

This would at least make sure there's some shrimp minerals in there.


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## Finn (16 Oct 2019)

No need to make things complicated, the shrimp mineralising salts will be fine to use on their own. Shrimps and plants want the same things, the shrimp salts for Neocaridina species will just come with added carbonate salts to increase KH as well.


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## DEL 707 (16 Oct 2019)

Finn said:


> No need to make things complicated, the shrimp mineralising salts will be fine to use on their own. Shrimps and plants want the same things, the shrimp salts for Neocaridina species will just come with added carbonate salts to increase KH as well.



Thanks, could you recommend some ferts I could add to help the plants?
At the moment I'm not dosing anything.


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## Finn (16 Oct 2019)

I'm guessing you're not injecting any CO2 either? If not: Any comprehensive fertiliser dosed once a week, tuned to your light intensity. I think seachem flourish is a good one, though I haven't used it myself. If you are injecting CO2 or intend to in the future, you should probably look into estimative index simply because it's excellent economy versus pre-mixed solutions.


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## DEL 707 (16 Oct 2019)

Thank for all the help.

I am injecting CO2 at the moment, but an all-in-one solution appeals to me, this early on at least.

Flourish seems to come in *quite* a few flavours, would it be wise to pick up "trace" as well?


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## Finn (16 Oct 2019)

I honestly can't say as I mainly use EI/homebrew solutions in one form or another, but I imagine that the standard flourish should be fine, just increase the dosage as required, unless you notice persistent signs of deficiency - then maybe spring for the others. Saying that, one that I might be inclined on getting is the Iron. It can be tricky keeping Iron available sometimes, and many recommend additional Iron dosing for improved reds. But again, I haven't used their products, flourish alone could be perfect for you. In the case of Iron, besides chelated trace I personally just stuff some ADA Iron bottom into the substrate and call it a day, but I don't blast my tanks with too much light.


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## tam (16 Oct 2019)

Salty shrimp would work fine. If you want to keep it simple (but not necessarily the very cheapest option) I would use the salty shrimp GH/KH to remineralise your water to the values you want. Then use an all in one NPK included fertiliser like TNC Complete or Tropica Specialised. With Flourish you need to mix and match fertiliser components - which is great if you want the control of individual nutrients - but is a lot of bottles/extra thought if you don't.


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## roadmaster (17 Oct 2019)

Minerals for shrimp was thread topic,(now we are on to  providing minerals for plants it seems?)  Seachem Equilibrium does indeed contain Calcium,Magnesium,pottasium(Website) For reconstituting/buffering R/O.
As mentioned,,Foods designed for shrimp contain necessary minerals for them.
Easiest way to maintain stable water parameter's, as also previously mentioned by member above,, is to use tap water except maybe for some of the more sensitive shrimps that thrive in softer water.
Kept gobs of cherry shrimps in straight Tap water with 12dgh.Enough to trade for store credit and give to the few friends that were interested.
In my view,when you begin altering values of the environment(water), they pretty much have to be same/same each week which can become tiresome mixing/matching water to same values and maintain those values.(water)
Stupid easy to maintain values that come from water at the tap.Just sayin.
Shrimp can be much more sensitive to fluctuating values than plants which is maybe whole other topic.My two cents


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