Rain water

[CrabbyJo]

If you are using tap water, using a dechlorinator that neutralizes heavy metals will be okay. if there is fluoride in your water though, you might want to consider using the distilled water instead. Fluoride has been shown to cause harm - I am not remembering the details exactly right now. Just better to avoid it if possible as there is no way to remove it, other than possibly reverse osmosis, as this is one of the claims made when they hype the units for home use.

[ladybug15057]

Jadexox on August 26th, 2010, 4:24 am
so will boiling and a declorinizer that gets rid of metals and stuff be ok

No, please read the link I provided in my previous post. A dechlorinator will not remove all the possible chemicals that maybe in the rain water or other impurities.

[Jadexox]

hermit crabs in the wild drink from puddles of rain water
AND I DID READ THE LINK

[ladybug15057]

Yes they do, but hermies live along the shore of the ocean and inland a bit from the ocean. Majority of their 'rain' comes from the direction of the ocean! Major difference there! Last I heard there were no factories or chemical plants in the middle or out a bit from the shore of the ocean
Edited to add: No reason to yell at the end of your post.

by Jadexox on August 27th, 2010, 7:13 pm
hermit crabs in the wild drink from puddles of rain water
AND I DID READ THE LINK

[Jadexox]

technecly its not yelling lol

[Gizaroo]

Anything you type in all capital letters is taken as yelling whether you mean it to be or not.

[ladybug15057]

technecly its not yelling lol

Gizaroo2 is correct, technically on the internet typing all caps or even a word in caps is considered yelling on the internet.

[jacevy]

Can I use rain water that has been collected in a plastic dish?
I know if rain water touches metal it isn't great but where I live we get so much rain that it seems a perfect supply of fresh water for them.



On a side note I have been collecting sea water for their salt water...... I assume this is ok?

[Wai]

It depends on how polluted your area is. Rainwater and seawater would be fine as long as they didn't contain any pollutants in them. Hermit crabs in the wild might be able to tolerate trace amounts of pollutants since they can drink from a different source if they wanted to, but in captivity, what we give them is all they get. If they drank polluted water long term, then it may cause problems years later. Also, if you use rainwater and seawater, you'll constantly introduce micro-organisms in the tank, some which may be pathogenic to you or your hermit crabs.

I think it would be safer to use something like bottled or distilled water. I use bottled water, with Red Sea Salt added to mix the salt water. I can buy 9 L of bottled water for about $4.15 AUD at Aldi and that's enough to last at least six months, thanks to the filters so I don't have to constantly change out the water.

[ladybug15057]

On page 1 of this thread there is more info too about using rain water. Since the post was created though, there has been radiation noted in the sea/ocean water as well as some area's drinking water. May want to reconsider using rain water with the recent tsunami that struck Japan's coast.

Post was merged with existing topic to help others when using the search engine.
Edited to add: Traces have been noted on U.S. upper east coast as well as the western coast.