# increase GH



## H.. (24 Aug 2015)

I have some crystal red PRL´s, but problems with that there is not comming any babyshrimps.

I have very soft water, with an GH of less than 2.

I have been recommended to increase the GH to an level between 5 and 6.

This is all about calcium and magnesium if i dont remember wrong? or is it about bikarbonate?

Can anyone tell me how i get an GH of 5-6 degrees. I have CaCl2 and MgSO4, and also bikarbonate in the kitchen.

Or should i use the GH+ mineral kits for beeshrimps instead, does it contain anything more than the above salts?

H.


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## xim (25 Aug 2015)

Adding 43.95 mg of Epsom salt (MgSO4.7H2O) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.
Adding 20.15 mg of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.

Bicarbonate in the kitchen... is that Sodium bicarbonate? If so, it will increase KH only.


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## nicpapa (25 Aug 2015)

Dont use those   for shrimps...
Just take a salty shrimp mineral gh+ with  ro water.


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## H.. (25 Aug 2015)

nicpapa said:


> Dont use those   for shrimps...
> Just take a salty shrimp mineral gh+ with  ro water.



Can you explain why i not should use them? ( I have ordered mineral GH+, but not any osmos water.)

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xim said:


> Adding 43.95 mg of Epsom salt (MgSO4.7H2O) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.
> Adding 20.15 mg of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.
> 
> Bicarbonate in the kitchen... is that Sodium bicarbonate? If so, it will increase KH only.




Yes , bicarbonate is what I call baking powder here in SWE.  OK, so it has only to do with KH.

If I add 44mg MgSO4 and also 20mg CaCl to one liter water will it race GH with 1 or 2 dGH ?

H.


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## xim (25 Aug 2015)

H.. said:


> If I add 44mg MgSO4 and also 20mg CaCl to one liter water will it race GH with 1 or 2 dGH ?
> 
> H.



2 dGH.


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## H.. (25 Aug 2015)

Great! thats what i thought. will try this out later on.

Thanks! Really appreciated!

H.


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## H.. (26 Aug 2015)

Hmmm...

I began to calculate on how much to dose and this was very complicated numbers when you talk about grams, not to say milligrams.

Besides, the weight in small numbers. When meassuring MgSO4 in grams it might contain a lot of extra H2O.

can I use a pre mixture of ingredients to use within the waterchanges, of this 54 liter tank?

H.


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## Lindy (27 Aug 2015)

Use salty shrimp. It is cheap, easy to use and used by many shrimp breeders i know including my self.

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## Lindy (27 Aug 2015)

A worse effect of this low gh than not breeding is your shrimp will have difficulty moulting and will eventually die.

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## H.. (7 Sep 2015)

I got an package of GH+ home, and it tasted just lika my Cacl2.

Anyone know what it contains besides Ca and possibly Mg?

H.


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## dw1305 (7 Sep 2015)

Hi all, 





H.. said:


> I got an package of GH+ home, and it tasted just lika my Cacl2.


 I wouldn't recommend eating any of them, but all <"salts"> taste salty.


xim said:


> Adding 43.95 mg of Epsom salt (MgSO4.7H2O) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.
> [*]Adding 20.15 mg of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.


If you already have CaCl.6H2O, you just need to buy MgSO4.7H2O ("Epsom Salts"), which is "_cheap as chips_".


H.. said:


> I began to calculate on how much to dose and this was very complicated numbers when you talk about grams, not to say milligrams. Besides, the weight in small numbers. When meassuring MgSO4 in grams it might contain a lot of extra H2O.


 It will be MgSO4.7H2O, <"which makes it ~10% magnesium">, you should also use CaCl.6H2O in your calculation for the same reasons. I haven't checked but I assume that "xim's" workings are based on ~18%Ca.





H.. said:


> I began to calculate on how much to dose and this was very complicated numbers when you talk about grams, not to say milligrams.


I don't ever weigh out very small amounts of any chemical, it  is much easier to work with larger weights (to make a stock solution), and then dilute it.

If you use grams, rather than milligrams, you make up 44g of MgSO4.7H2O and 20g of CaCl2 to 1litre (1000g) with RO water, and then dilute this (2000 dGH) stock solution in use.

This means that if you have a 100 litre aquarium, if you added the whole litre of stock solution, you would have raised the dGH by 20dGH (2000/100), and if you add a 100cm3 of the stock solution to the 100 litres you've raised it by 2dGH (20/10).

You can use an ordinary kitchen balance for all these weighings.

cheers Darrel


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## xim (7 Sep 2015)

The calculation I made was for CaCl2 (anhydrous calcium chloride) and MgSO4.7H2O (magnesium sulfate heptahydrate or Epsom salt). 
It was based on 1 German degree = 17.848 ppm as CaCO3.

There is a calculator for GH: http://www.lenntech.com/ro/water-hardness.htm
(I just use the same method but with more precise numbers, ie; 100.09 vs 100.1, etc)


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## xim (7 Sep 2015)

xim said:


> Adding 43.95 mg of Epsom salt (MgSO4.7H2O) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.
> Adding 20.15 mg of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.



For the sake of correctness, there was a minor error in calculating CaCl2 
The more precise answer is: adding 19.79 mg of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) per 1 litre of water = 1 dGH.

PS. If the one you're using is calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2.2H2O), adding 26.22 mg of it per 1 litre of water = 1dGH.


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## dw1305 (7 Sep 2015)

Hi all, 





xim said:


> If the one you're using is calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2.2H2O), adding 26.22 mg of it per 1 litre of water = 1dGH.


 I think unless you store them in a desiccator all the salts will end up as the hexahydrate. Because CaCl.6H2O is ~50 % water, you would double the amount of anhydrous CaCl to give you the same amount of calcium.

So ~39.5g of CaCl.6H2O in 1 litre of H2O will give a 1000 dGH stock solution.

Hardness (as dGH) is a really strange measurement because it actually expresses Mg++ and Ca++ as if they were calcium oxide (CaO), rather than calcium carbonate CaCO3.  Fortunately the RMM of CaCO3 is ~100 (100.09), so the conversion is easy:
100/40 * 7.143 = 1dGH = 17.9 mg/litre(ppm)CaCO3

Technically 1dGH is equivalent to 10 mg CaO dissolved in 1 litre of water, and 1 dGH is 0.179 millimolar Ca++ or Mg ++.

The RAM of Ca and Mg differ (Ca = 40, Mg = 24). We've gone into mols. and the RMM of CaO is 56 (40 + 16), therefore 10mg of CaO = 10/56 = 0.179 mMol. The easiest unit is probably ppm (equivalent to mg/L), so

1 dGH is 0.179 x 40 ppm Ca++ = 7.2 ppm Ca++
1 dGH is 0.179 x 24 ppm Mg++ = 4.3 ppm Mg++

If you plug 7.2 ppm Ca++ and 4.3ppm Mg++ into the <"Lenntech calculator">, you get 35.6 ppm CaCO3 and 2dGH (German).

cheers Darrel


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