Ya, they're mostly just to add lots of small trace minerals back to the water. If you use RO water and add something back to boost the gH, you're just adding calcium/magnesium basically to boost the gH, and there is nothing else in the water, so the mineral rocks add small amount of probably 100 different minerals in small, time released doses.
I have used japanese mineral rocks. They can be put in as layout and it's kind of like shirakura white powder made into rock. I have them in few tanks and I can't 100% sure of improvement of shrimps but, I guess it did help something...
I'm not sure what the ones on the shrimp lab are made of, but I believe most of the time when you buy a "shrimp mineral rock" it is montmorillonite. The Shirakura white powder is made of pulverized montmorillonite rock. You can buy edible montmorillonite for much cheaper in bulk and just dose it into your water, if you really want to. Montmorillonite may also be called calcium bentonite.
I feel I should interject something here and state that dosing powdered montmorillonite is much different than having a bound and steady source of it inside of the tank. Powdered montmorillonite (or calcium bentonite) is dissolved instantly into the water column, and a mineral rock is a steady source of minerals which dissolves very very slowly. If you dose montmorillonite into the water column, the TDS and GH will rise every time it's dosed. This can be curbed by only dosing at water changes. If you dose willy nilly or between water changes, the GH will climb steadily every time it's dosed.
That said, the mineral rocks not only lend to a nicer, shinier, thicker shell, healthy molts and solid coloration, they also help polish the water.
Probably, however at the amount put into a shrimp tank, it doesn't raise the pH at all.
I sell a montmorillonite product, and the dosage recommendation doesn't raise the pH or GH.
Sure if you add a TON of montmorillonite the pH of the water will change, but by that time you have defeated the purpose of adding these trace minerals.
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