Well I was in need of getting my mystery snails a good source of calcium and I ran across a technique on the applesnail.net forum for this DIY calcium brick / weekend feeder for snails (or fish) that anyone can do in a few minutes. So I played mad scientist tonight and took pics along the way.
Our goal is to create these but for way cheaper:
And all we need is this stuff:
The bag of plaster of paris is from home depot's paint dept for $10
The ice cube trays are brand new from the dollar store $1
The bag of fish food is MINI goldfish pellets by wardley, 100 grams for $4.50 look for low fat pellets high fat inhibits the plaster hardening so no Cichlid pellets or Koi fattening pellets. These pellets are 5% fat. do not use flakes, algae disks or ground fish meal powders apparently these all rot. Pro feeder block all use mini pellets.
The cup is a 320z disposable and a plastic fork from the lunchroom at work
The only other thing I didn't show is the measuring cup for water. You need to do 2 to 1 powder to water ratio.
To start with mix 1.5 cups of water to 1.5 cups of powder and mix until all the lumps are gone, then mix in another 1.5 cups of powder into the cup until all those lumps are gone.
Now I dumped in about 1/3 of the bag of pellets and after mixing it looks like this you can't really see the pellets.
Fill up the cells in your new ice cube trays with the mix - here you can see the pellets.
Now you wait 24-48 hours for them to cure fully, then pop them out and let them air dry for a week or two before they are ready for use. You can put them in a food dehydrator set at 95*F for a faster dry. They must be completely dry or they will cloud your tank. But with a $10 sack of Plaster you have a more than lifetime supply of base for calcium bricks & weekend feeders.
I hope you enjoyed following along with this little project!
---------- Post added at 10:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 PM ----------
I can ship out some gallon bags of this plaster if anyone wants some but postage will run about 1/2 the price of your own huge sack so...
Our goal is to create these but for way cheaper:
And all we need is this stuff:
The bag of plaster of paris is from home depot's paint dept for $10
The ice cube trays are brand new from the dollar store $1
The bag of fish food is MINI goldfish pellets by wardley, 100 grams for $4.50 look for low fat pellets high fat inhibits the plaster hardening so no Cichlid pellets or Koi fattening pellets. These pellets are 5% fat. do not use flakes, algae disks or ground fish meal powders apparently these all rot. Pro feeder block all use mini pellets.
The cup is a 320z disposable and a plastic fork from the lunchroom at work
The only other thing I didn't show is the measuring cup for water. You need to do 2 to 1 powder to water ratio.
To start with mix 1.5 cups of water to 1.5 cups of powder and mix until all the lumps are gone, then mix in another 1.5 cups of powder into the cup until all those lumps are gone.
Now I dumped in about 1/3 of the bag of pellets and after mixing it looks like this you can't really see the pellets.
Fill up the cells in your new ice cube trays with the mix - here you can see the pellets.
Now you wait 24-48 hours for them to cure fully, then pop them out and let them air dry for a week or two before they are ready for use. You can put them in a food dehydrator set at 95*F for a faster dry. They must be completely dry or they will cloud your tank. But with a $10 sack of Plaster you have a more than lifetime supply of base for calcium bricks & weekend feeders.
I hope you enjoyed following along with this little project!
---------- Post added at 10:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 PM ----------
I can ship out some gallon bags of this plaster if anyone wants some but postage will run about 1/2 the price of your own huge sack so...
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