HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So i just got my package from the hermitcrab patch with my new food. Seriously am way to excited about it. Lol but i have a question. My local petsmart is no longer stocking salt water conditioner. Someone there said soaking salt mix is the same thing. Im not too trusting of their information. So can i use that or should i use instant ocean and make large quanties? Ive not been making the large batches because i live in a small condo so space is really tight with me and my family. And i really dont mind making small jar fulls when needed. It only takes a few minutes.

Tl:dr- Is soaking salt mix usable for the salt water in my tank?

Their saltwater mix needs to be marine grade salt, so something like Instant Ocean. You don't need to mix up huge quantities at once - use 1/2 cup of Instant Ocean for a gallon of water. A lot of us buy a gallon of spring water at the grocery store, dechlorinate it, then add the Instant Ocean. You can re-use the jug afterwards with regular dechlorinated tap water.

Thanks! Is there any use for soaking salt in the tank? Its a marine grade product but my not sure of the usefulliness of it.

Is it something marketed specifically for hermit crabs? If so, it's fairly useless, unfortunately, and if you can I would just return it.

I too just got some food from the Hermit Crab Patch, and I love it (and so do my crabs)! Just to emphasize making salt water, make sure you do dechlorinate the water before you add the salt, such as Instant Ocean. I hate to admit this, and I feel so awful about it, but for a while I totally didn't realize that I should dechlorinate the water before adding the salt. I made fresh water, but I realized I need to make the fresh water, and then add the salt to make it safe. I have felt so bad about not realizing it, and I'm hoping my crabs will be okay. But I just wanted to let you know, in case you or anyone else makes the same mistake as I made. Sorry, that may have been confusing, I gave my crabs both salt and freshwater, the freshwater was safe, but I thought the Instant Ocean would dechlorinate the water, but I was very wrong. I now add the fresh water conditioner to the tap water, and then add the Instant Ocean, I let the conditioner sit for a while before adding the salt.

I totally did that, too! Thanks for putting it out there!


Crabbers unite!!!