adding crushed egg shell to your Tilapia tank

[Adrena lee]

A friend of mine is telling me if I add egg shell that is crushed to a powder it will be good for my fish. Calcium, he says is missing from the fish with the plants only. What I'm wondering is will this do any damage to my system.? Is it true that if a plant has calcium it will not release it into the system anyway?

[Christopher Brickey]

 It will raise the PH being that eggshells are calcium carbonate. i put them in my gb's however for grit for the worms.

[Carey Ma]

Calcium is indeed important in any garden and/or AP system. Calcium is important for fish to grow strong bones and scales. Calcium is also important in ant veggie grow op esp where fruiting plants are concerned. IMO solid calcium carbonate like gypsum or oyster shells are the way to go in the aqua portion of AP whereas liquid calcium works well in the hydroponics side. I'll defer to my other AP friends to explain the whys and whatnot with more technical detail. 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

If you have "hard" water (and nitrification going on) you probably have more than enough calcium in your system. And over time, it would actually seem possible to build up too much of it (depending on your source water, what you top up with and what you buffer with).

My water is high in carbonate hardness (KH) and general hardness (GH) so there's plenty of calcium in there already, probably enough will build up to mess with potassium uptake given time. 

Your water may be different (soft)...and might benefit from some additional calcium...

[Myles Harston]

All well thought out answers.  Thank you.   If the fish are not getting enough Ca then the problem is in the feed.   If you water is low in Ca then it is good to add.   Vlad explained very well the issue of Carbonate and general hardness.   Adding Ca is not going make a big difference in Ca uptake on the part of the fish.    After checking your hardness and figuring out where that is you may want to take a leaf sample, send it in to a lab and see if you need to add.   Some plants need more Ca than other and may get leaf tip burn if you do not have enough.   As Christopher mentioned, you may want to put in the worm beds,   when you put the Ca in with the worm beds, the worms make the Ca much more available to the plants.  Good luck

[Adrena lee]

Thanks to you all. I never thought about it before and just today my friend told me I needed it. I didn't want to add it just because someone thinks I need it. My plants seem fine, they are all bright and growing well. The fish also are looking good and growing nicely. I am not too happy with what I'm feeding the fish right now. It is some tilapia crumble and worms I find in my gardens, so I probably need to do more. I went to a park near by and was looking for some duck weed. A guy fishing told me they just put herbicide out because it weeds were taking over the lake. You can't even get safe duck weed at your local park. I am going to order some and start growing it to feed them.Thanks again, peace

Myles Harston said:

All well thought out answers.  Thank you.   If the fish are not getting enough Ca then the problem is in the feed.   If you water is low in Ca then it is good to add.   Vlad explained very well the issue of Carbonate and general hardness.   Adding Ca is not going make a big difference in Ca uptake on the part of the fish.    After checking your hardness and figuring out where that is you may want to take a leaf sample, send it in to a lab and see if you need to add.   Some plants need more Ca than other and may get leaf tip burn if you do not have enough.   As Christopher mentioned, you may want to put in the worm beds,   when you put the Ca in with the worm beds, the worms make the Ca much more available to the plants.  Good luck

[Adrena lee]

Thanks Vlad

Vlad Jovanovic said:

If you have "hard" water (and nitrification going on) you probably have more than enough calcium in your system. And over time, it would actually seem possible to build up too much of it (depending on your source water, what you top up with and what you buffer with).

My water is high in carbonate hardness (KH) and general hardness (GH) so there's plenty of calcium in there already, probably enough will build up to mess with potassium uptake given time. 

Your water may be different (soft)...and might benefit from some additional calcium...

[Adrena lee]

I appreciate your time in helping, thanks really, you all are great in doing this.

Carey Ma said:

Calcium is indeed important in any garden and/or AP system. Calcium is important for fish to grow strong bones and scales. Calcium is also important in ant veggie grow op esp where fruiting plants are concerned. IMO solid calcium carbonate like gypsum or oyster shells are the way to go in the aqua portion of AP whereas liquid calcium works well in the hydroponics side. I'll defer to my other AP friends to explain the whys and whatnot with more technical detail. 

[Adrena lee]

Thanks Chris for helping out.

Christopher Brickey said:

 It will raise the PH being that eggshells are calcium carbonate. i put them in my gb's however for grit for the worms.

[RupertofOZ]

A good quality fish feed.. should have all the necessary Calcium for good fish growth...

 

Additional Calcium might be needed for the plants... particularly as the pH drops...

[Adrena lee]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

RupertofOZ said:

A good quality fish feed.. should have all the necessary Calcium for good fish growth...

 

Additional Calcium might be needed for the plants... particularly as the pH drops...