HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I looked it up but nobody wants to give me a straight answer. It's always 3 million paragraphs and never a yes or no. I bought a 12 pack of Water that was purified through "reverse osmosis." Can someone give me a yes or a no if whether or not it's Chlorine free, and if you want to give me extra information, can you keep it short, like one paragraph? Because I'm really not in the mood for reading today. Normally I am, but today, I just don't want to do too much reading. So, thanks for any short answers you can give me.

I don't have a definitive answer but I would say no. Check out the caresheet on water treatment. Here is a short line from that caresheet.

When it comes to bottled water, it’s safer to assume that it contains chloramines.

This takes some explaining. If you don't want to read, use the dechlorinator.

If the filter is being properly maintained and it has the right add on filters, you do NOT need to dechlorinate it. A properly maintained complete RO system removes pretty much everything.

However, if the carbon prefilter is not changed as required or if it doesn't have a chloramine stage and there are chloramines in the source water, then you can have chlorine and chloramine leak into the 'finished' water.

RO water just means there's a membrane that acts as a filter that removes a lot of impurities in the water, but that membrane does not remove everything in tap water by default. There are additional add-on units that are used to complete the process and it make it pure based on what is in the source water.

Another thing about bottled water is that you shouldn't really use it when it comes to small animals like hermit crabs or fish. Besides the Chlorine and Chloramine still there, most companies have added and removed minerals from the water which may cause issues that involve to much or to little of one thing. Number 2 and 3 say this easier than I can, about the additions and removals. http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/featu ... tled-water

And I had NO IDEA on the fluoride thing, what would that do to a crab?

Due to the amount of unknowns, it's safer to use the dechlorinator in any situation.

Fluoride is present in sea water, so they're more adapted than most pets to it. And that's another bonus - the saltwater mix will add back most of the missing minerals in RO or bottled water. I still think it's better to stick with treated tap water for freshwater since it's more natural than filtered and does have more minerals, but the saltwater can make up for most of it.