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Egg shells in shrimp tank?


Toobit67
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I'm here because I throw eggshells in with my neos, but I really don't know. I don't take them out on purpose. They just sort of turn into part of my substrate/tank bottom litter.

As for adding calcium to the water, I suspect that they don't very much, only because my eggshells aren't really breaking down or are doing so very slowly. And I know that when adding them to tomatoes beds, e.g., the calcium, phosphorus, etc., is basically for next year's plants, not this year's. 

Maybe if you were grinding them up, like I've seen other people recommend? I'm too lazy for that.

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I've wondered about this, too. I read an article that said boil the eggs first to decontaminate them, remove the membrane, roast them, and then grind them up. I don't need another hobby. 😁

I get the decontamination part, but the rest seems like overkill.

ETA: The answer is in a KH test, perhaps. Do they make a test for calcium?

Edited by Celly Rasbora
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The roasting crushing and grinding is to increase the surface area and help break down the bonds that seal the calcium in place. The bacteria and critters in soil probably do the same thing in your garden. You probably don't have that same level ecological depth in your tank. Sounds like more effort than it's worth versus buying a prepackaged supplement.

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I have sea shells and egg shell in the HOB and in the tank for the snails.  The egg shell gets no special treatment except for a boiling water dip.  I don't know if they help, but they don't hurt.   The garden eggshells just get ground to dust.

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In my experience keeping cherry shrimp I've come to use Wondershells as they are a great source of calcium for the shrimp and snails i have in the water while also adding other beneficial minerals. The nice thing about them is they are inexpensive and have different sizes for bigger or smaller tanks. Usually i just and one small shell to my 8 gallon  shrimp tank once a month. If you want to try them out the Co-op sells them https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/wonder-shell

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