Calcium carbonate

[Kevin1]

Hi I have a question I hope someone can answer.
In reptile and amphibian calcium supplements the main ingredient is calcium carbonate?
I know there are different sources of calcium carbonate but does it have to be a brand made for reptiles to be effective.(rep-cal, repti-cal sticky tougne etc.)
I was browsing the internet looking for powdered limestone which I believe is basically calcium carbonate.(?)
The reason i was searching was for my future worm bin to help keep the PH neutral.
Do you think it would be ok to use that as a calcium supplement?
Sorry if this is an awkward question I don't know how to word it better.
thanks

[John]

Limestone is a little more complicated than just being straight up calcium carbonate. To the best of my knowledge, most of the supplements available for reptiles and amphibians actually have calcium carbonate derived from sea shells (I can't remember what kind - oysters maybe?). You could look into that.

With regard to your worm bin, worms already have a decent calcium content but honestly I've never heard of anyone trying to supplement them using their earth - I don't know how effective that would be.

[Kevin1]

Yeh most are from oyster shells
well its not to supplement the worms its to keep their medium from becoming to acidic so they add limestone to keep the ph of the substrate neutral otherwise it will kill the worms.
Although that's just from what I've read.
About the calcium carbonate though,
Here's the website that has it.

http://secure.sciencecompany.com/Cal...P6641C670.aspx
Was wondering if you think this would be ok to use?

[John]

Ah I see what you mean. Well that would be an effective way of buffering the soil pH but I believe that is only a serious concern if you're culturing large earthworms like Lumbricus (Lobworms, or "Canadian Nightcrawlers" in the US).

[Kevin1]

ah man I'm sorry
I messed it all up bad
I just realized that i didn't mention my frogs
What i was asking is if the stuff advertised on the page would be ok to use as a supplement for my frog?
I was reading the back of this rep-cal calcium supplement and the only ingredients listed are calcium carbonate.
I was thinking if it was ok to use as a calcium supplement instead of the reptile manufactured brands that would save a lot of money for me.
1 pound for 3.94, than pay 8 dollars retail price for 4.1 ounces of rep-cal

[Kerry1968]

If you're looking for a cheap calcium supplement for your frogs (sorry, I got confused on the way through this thread and not exactly sure that's what you're looking for) you can crush cuttlefish, the white stuff you give to birds for calcium. I use this and in fact didn't even pay for it, I picked it up on a local beach, washed it and use my pestle and mortar to grind it to a powder. You can usually buy it cheap at pet stores.

[Kevin1]

Thanks for that Kerry I didn't even think of that I'll have to try it sometime.
And sorry you got confused I worded it very badly. lol