Featherscrabs wrote:What is RO?
RO means reverse osmosis. It is a method of filtering your tapwater, well, not really filtering, but processing, that removes just about EVERYTHING but pure H2O. The problem is that natural water is a lot more than pure H2O, so you have to re-add things back in. Any method of trying to artificially reproduce natural things has its issues. With RO, the water is pure, but you have to add chemicals. With tapwater, you have to remove metals, etc etc
Bio-Sea Marinemix (if I can find it) or Red Sea salt mixed with my Bottled Spring water would in your opinion be the best?
Well, like I said, I like Oceanic, too. But yes, either of those is quite good, as is the Catalina Water Company Natural Seawater, which is just that. Jug'o'saltwater from the ocean.
http://www.aquacraft.net/s9910.html
has a list of salt mixes as compared to NSW(natural seawater), explains the point system, and lists the testing agency. *DISCLAIMER*- AquaCraft MAKES sea salt. Bio-Sea Marinemix, Coral Marine, and Marine Environment are MADE by Aquacraft, so, obviously, they are going to use a study that compares them favorably. I will post back after I've looked at some OTHER researchers' work as well, and see what they think.
Considering how well Bio-Sea did in other trials, and that they consider bio-sea to not be their best quality product, I would say, by all means, GO for the Marine Envornment. It has to at least be better than most of the others out there.
Spring water does NOT guarantee that is is chlorine free, I cannot emphasize that enough. They did a study on bottled spring water, and a great many companies just re-package tap water or well water. Even well water can have some really bad impurities.
I don't use Stress Coat for crabs, except to boil shells (it gives them a NICE luster, and then I rinse in dechlor saltwater) All that it has in it is Aloe Vera, which isn't harmful to crabs, but not really necessary either.
Fluoridated water isn't really great for crabbies, either. Fluoride is TOXIC. It is a POISON. That is why baby toothpaste doesn't contain it. It has a very small risk to benefit ratio. Just enough is great, but too much can be very dangerous. In humans, fluorosis causes brown spots on teeth and eats away enamel. Advancec cases eat away at everything ELSE in your body, as well. Toothpaste and floruidated water are great, adding supplements on top of that is bad. Hermit crabs can tolerate MUCH smaller amounts of most toxins than humans can, so they can most likely handle only VERY small amounts of fluoride. In crustaceans, it can cause internal systems to fail, and prevents formation of good exo, and can cause death during molting, from a too-weak exo that they are removing, and inability to form new exo.
I'll add the Marine Environment to my list of salts to test, but it looks pretty good from the manufacturers' studies. We'll see how it holds up
