How to increase GH but not KH for shrimp and nerite snails?

[IgsPoke3]

Hey everyone, I added about 5 shrimp to my betta fish aquarium and even though he chased them at the beginning, he has given up and doesn’t care anymore. I am trying to increase the GH of the tank to meet the ideal GH requirement for the Neocaridinas and the nerite snail in there without increasing the KH.
PH - 7
GH - 30 ppm
KH - 60 ppm
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40 ppm
I would like to increase the GH from 30 to about 100 while keeping the KH or even lowering it a little bit. I have seen the epsom salt option but I don’t know how that will affect the shrimp, betta and nerite snail. What about any other options?

 

[Andy Sager]

Check this product out. https://www.seachem.com/cichlid-lak...ish these minerals, you,as needed to build GH.
In the description it shows 2 other products you DO NOT want to use as they raise Kh as well as GH.
You do want to lower the nitrate level before using any products. As the nitrates rise, the Ph will start to fall and since you are trying to lower the part of hardness that stabilizes the Ph, Ph swings will happen and do more damage to your fish and shrimp than the hardness will.
Hope this helps.

 

[IgsPoke3]

Thank you for the quick response. Are there any other home options apart from this bottle like the Epsom salt method or is the bottle the only known safe option?

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you for the quick response. Are there any other home options apart from this bottle like the Epsom salt method or is the bottle the only known safe option?

You want to increase the calcium and magnesium ions but not the carbonates and bicarbonates. Epsom salt is magnesium not a sodium chloride "salt". So unless you have a chemistry lab in your home, you are probably not going to have anything in the house that will match adding the Cichlid Lake salt which is advertised to be a balanced blend of chemicals that do not add any carbonates or bicarbonates.
I would suggest that you contact Seachem about whether this product is safe for your shrimp, snail and Betta.

 

[Caliban07]

Seachem Equilibrium should do it as the salts are all sulphate based. Calcium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, potassium sulphate, iron sulphate etc