HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Well I'm a little confused -- I've been storing my premixed water in gallon jugs in the fridge -- because I thought I read on here somewhere that if you leave that sit out too long something can happen to it(?)

It takes me a while to use the gallons up -- I have pools, but they aren't that big, I think the container stated 3 cups? Even changing those every 3 or so days, it takes a while (a few weeks) before I have to mix up a new batch.

So the problem is the cold water that comes from the fridge -- what I've been doing: pour the water into the pools, then put the pools into a larger container that contains a little bit of really hot water, and letting it slowly heat up the pool water. However, the pool water still seems cool to the touch when I put it in the tank. And since they aren't located against the glass where the Ultratherm is, I'm not sure how warm the water is getting....I wonder if that's why the crabs aren't submerging?

Anyway, my long-winded explanation leads to this simple question: what are some suggestions for heating the pool water from fridge cold?

Leave it sit out for an hour or two and it'll come up to room temperature. Or leave it overnight if you don't want to have to wait around.

Any kind of stagnant water that has no chlorination in it will start to grow bacteria when kept at room temperature. That's the only problem with mixing up jugs that take a while to get through - you can get some unsavory stuff growing in the bottles by the time they're completely empty. It's debatable on if those things are harmful to hermit crabs (probably not at all), but they would certainly be unsafe for humans. Keeping the jugs in the fridge is a preventative measure.

I just use the water cold. If i do a water change early in the day, the crabs wont come out and use them for a couple hours. My tank coasts uninsulated at 82F, so i just let it even out by itself
If your pools aren't that large they will warm up sooner. But if your temps are 75F or so to begin with, you will want to bump it up a tad to counteract the initial cooling effect.


Crabbers unite!!!