# when to add a calcium supplement for RCS



## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

Hi I've had a red cherry shrimp tank running now for about 2 months. I started with 8, now I'm down to 4. 

I noticed about two weeks ago that I had hydra in my hornwort plants. I decided to just chuck them out since I was having a hard time keeping up with cleaning out the sheddings. 
Over the last few weeks 3 red cherry shrimp died after I noticed my budding hydra problem (I think the other one died from stress). 
Upon online reccomendations I've decided to order some "no planaria" to deal with the hydra problem thatis getting out of hand. 
When I called Canadian Aquatics to order no planaria, he suggested I supplemented my tank with calcium. I only have 4 adult cherry shrimp in my 5 gallon tank. I have very hard water: 

Nitrate: 5ppm Nitrite: 0ppm GH: 150 ppm KH: 50 PH: 7

I have an Amazonian sword and large mossball too. Wouldn't the shrimp get enough calcium from the algae and hard water? 
TIA


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

KH 50!!! curious what your GH is?

I dont believe you need calcium with such hard water.


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## nilocg (Jul 12, 2010)

bostoneric said:


> KH 50!!! curious what your GH is?
> 
> I dont believe you need calcium with such hard water.


I believe he is saying his kh is 50ppm not degrees


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

nilocg said:


> bostoneric said:
> 
> 
> > KH 50!!! curious what your GH is?
> ...


Yes you are right. Kh is 50ppm


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

bostoneric said:


> KH 50!!! curious what your GH is?
> 
> I dont believe you need calcium with such hard water.


GH is 150


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

which test kit?


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## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

If you have a hydra problem you need to get some dog dewormer with ferbendazole, grind it up and add .1 grams per 10 gallons it will wipe out your hydra problem within 24 hours. Once you confirm the hydra are gone add some carbon to the filter and do a water change. I'd start there. You already know you have a potentially deadly pest in the tank start by getting rid of them. Hydra may not kill an adult shrimp but being stung is stressful. 150ppm is around 8dkh, no one can tell you exactly how much calcium is in the water but I wouldn't worry about that unless the shrimp have cracked shells when you find them.


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

greaser84 said:


> If you have a hydra problem you need to get some dog dewormer with ferbendazole, grind it up and add .1 grams per 10 gallons it will wipe out your hydra problem within 24 hours. Once you confirm the hydra are gone add some carbon to the filter and do a water change. I'd start there. You already know you have a potentially deadly pest in the tank start by getting rid of them. Hydra may not kill an adult shrimp but being stung is stressful. 150ppm is around 8dkh, no one can tell you exactly how much calcium is in the water but I wouldn't worry about that unless the shrimp have cracked shells when you find them.


Thanks. I read about treating with the dog de-worming stuff but I felt nervous about it since it has to be such an exact measurement and I couldn't figure out how to get exactly 005g for my 5 gallon tank. Do you have any suggestions? 

Has anyone used "No planaria"? It's used to kill planaria with herbal ingredients and apparently works on hydra too.


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

bostoneric said:


> which test kit?


It's a dip strip made by "Jungle"


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## BlueMoonFox (Dec 30, 2014)

I used fish bendazole from amazon. 3 packs, 6 bucks. I used a pinch (scientific, I know) and killed off the hydra within 3 days with no effect on shrimp. I know they were being stressed by the hydra. There was a corner of my 10 gal that had the buggers and the shrimp would stay away. Now I am happy to report, 2 months hydra free from one treatment!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009TAQ4OI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

Fathomit said:


> Thanks. I read about treating with the dog de-worming stuff but I felt nervous about it since it has to be such an exact measurement and I couldn't figure out how to get exactly 005g for my 5 gallon tank. Do you have any suggestions?
> 
> Has anyone used "No planaria"? It's used to kill planaria with herbal ingredients and apparently works on hydra too.


It doesn't have to be exact. I used it recently and my digital scale is broken I just eyeballed it. Here's how I did it without a scale: I took a 1 gram packet put it in a plastic ziploc bag and use a credit to grind it up into powder the best I could (I grind it up while its in the bag so it doesn't fly all over the place). After I was done smashing it to dust I Poured it on a piece of paper and use a credit card to make 10 little piles. 10 piles that are the same size will be close to .1 grams each. In your case split one pile in half. Then I take an empty water bottle fill it about half way with tank water then add the dewormer. Shake it till my arms hurt then slowly add it to the tank over the course of a few hours. I've never lost a shrimp doing it, and within a few hours the hydra are shriveled to stumps and the visible planaria are gone. It was definitely nerve racking the first time I did it but the shrimp don't even care. I know that some people will add the dose to an empty tea bag and set it in the filter, that will work as well, I've never tried it simply because I don't have any tea bags. IMO ferbendazole is the most effective treatment against hydra and external shrimp parasites.


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## Adrand (Feb 13, 2012)

BlueMoonFox said:


> I used fish bendazole from amazon. 3 packs, 6 bucks. I used a pinch (scientific, I know) and killed off the hydra within 3 days with no effect on shrimp. I know they were being stressed by the hydra. There was a corner of my 10 gal that had the buggers and the shrimp would stay away. Now I am happy to report, 2 months hydra free from one treatment!
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009TAQ4OI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


+1 on this product. I just used it recently for hydra in my 20 gallon rcs tank. I used 2/3rds of a packet, put it in a water bottle with tank water and shook it up good. I poured it in the tank over a few hours and with 24 hrs the hydra were down to stumps and 48 hrs I couldnt find evidence of them any where. I did a large wc and all was good. Shrimp were not noticeably effected at all by the treatment.


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

Thanks everyone


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

As other poster's mentioned, it does not seem like you should need calcium with your hard water. Further, I would research whether shrimp actually need extra calcium. I thought they would due to their shells, but guess what I discovered when I was researching the other day? Chitin, the shrimp's shell material, has no calcium in it: chitin = C8 H13 O5 N
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin

A side note, I worked with hydra in a lab once. A remarkable thing about them is their ability to "re-aggregate". You can break them up in a test tube into individual cells (we would do by repeated drawing them up into a pipette and squirting them back into the test tube. Give them time and the cells reform into a hydra again. Weird stuff.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

ahem said:


> As other poster's mentioned, it does not seem like you should need calcium with your hard water. Further, I would research whether shrimp actually need extra calcium. I thought they would due to their shells, but guess what I discovered when I was researching the other day? Chitin, the shrimp's shell material, has no calcium in it: chitin = C8 H13 O5 N
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin
> 
> A side note, I worked with hydra in a lab once. A remarkable thing about them is their ability to "re-aggregate". You can break them up in a test tube into individual cells (we would do by repeated drawing them up into a pipette and squirting them back into the test tube. Give them time and the cells reform into a hydra again. Weird stuff.


"In its pure, unmodified form, chitin is translucent, pliable, resilient, and quite tough. In most arthropods, however, it is often modified, occurring largely as a component of composite materials, such as in sclerotin, a tanned proteinaceous matrix, which forms much of the exoskeleton of insects. Combined with calcium carbonate, as in the shells of crustaceans and molluscs, chitin produces a much stronger composite. This composite material is much harder and stiffer than pure chitin, and is tougher and less brittle than pure calcium carbonate.[4]" - Same article

Hate to correct you, but it's that the calcium makes the chitin composite tougher.


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## ahem (Dec 27, 2014)

Yukiharu said:


> "In its pure, unmodified form, chitin is translucent, pliable, resilient, and quite tough. In most arthropods, however, it is often modified, occurring largely as a component of composite materials, such as in sclerotin, a tanned proteinaceous matrix, which forms much of the exoskeleton of insects. Combined with calcium carbonate, as in the shells of crustaceans and molluscs, chitin produces a much stronger composite. This composite material is much harder and stiffer than pure chitin, and is tougher and less brittle than pure calcium carbonate.[4]" - Same article
> 
> Hate to correct you, but it's that the calcium makes the chitin composite tougher.


Stand corrected, it is great to know now since I have RCS also. Thanks!


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

Very interesting. I'm ordering the stuff off Amazon. I hope they don't all die before it gets here. I'm down to 3 now. One of them is a female. Hoping shebdoesnt die next.


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## Fathomit (Feb 10, 2015)

I got it today! Unfortunately I only have one shrimp left. I'm feeling super discouraged but at least I can get rid of the hydra and try again...


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