HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have been using bottled drinking water that I add dechlorinator to for my crabby friends' salt and fresh water. By mistake, I picked up distilled water. I am iced in my house and cant quite get out to the store due to icy roads ect. Can I use it, and do I still dechlorinate it? The tap water here is extremely hard/poor quality so we use a water softening and filtration system, so I am afraid to use it for the crabs even if I decholrinate it because I don't know what is in the salt pellets in the softener. Thanks for your help!!

Distilled water isnt going to hurt them it just doesn't offer much for them.. It will be fine with your declorinator until you thaw out. On the other hand if your tap water is human safe it too with a good water declorinator would be ok most water conditioners are fine. Hope all warms up soon! Blessings, Suebee.

suebee wrote:Distilled water isnt going to hurt them it just doesn't offer much for them.. It will be fine with your declorinator until you thaw out.

Does distilled water need to have a dechlorinator used? I've been using distilled water and not a dechlorinator because I thought it didn't have chlorine.

Distilled water won't contain chlorine, its removed during the distillation process. Actually distilled has nothing in it or at least it shouldn't. Never hurts to be safe though.

Distilled water is, in essence, pure water. It has nothing else in it except the hydrogen and oxygen molecules that its composed of. No minerals, no chemicals ( like chlorine ), nothing but H2O. Because of this, it has a slightly acidic value.

Some people argue that, because its slightly acidic and has no mineral content, that its not suitable for animal consumption. It won't outright kill them, it just lacks the minerals and such that animals would not otherwise get and cause, over a period of time, deficiencies that may cause health problems down the road. Using it temporarily won't do any harm.

Because the regulations on bottled watter are very different from tap water sometimes there are no regulations in some places so i always say be safe and use the conditioner. I wouldnt suggest distilled water on a regular basis, it has all the minerals of the water taken out.

I sure hope I haven't done any harm. I thought that distilled was OK from the things I've read so that's what I've been using and just made sure they had mineral supplement at all times. I guess I'll be making a trip to the pet store tomorrow night.

crabbymom if you have had the mineral supplement your crabs have already had many more minerals then most pet crabs get. Your already doing a great job. Id switch to bottled water or tap with conditioner but dont think that you have hurt your crabs..Your a great crab mom!

I actually always use distilled water and also use salt water that is bottled in gallon jugs and has all sorts of live good bacteria, etc in it and is supposed to closely approximate sea water (It's made for use in salt water aquariums). I've been using this combo for going on a year and a half and it works really well!

I have a friend who owns a pet store and when i asked about buying the bottled salt water he hesitated selling it to me and i asked why. He said that they put algae kill into it so that the bottles dont turn green on the shelves. Also some companies put in snail kill in case any snail eggs are in the water so no snails end up in the bottles. snail kill is harmful to the crabs. Other types of chemicals could also be in the water that the water has been treated for. If the tanks had any bacteria problems the water could be treated with products for bacteria problems. It needs to be shelf stable for long periods of time. If your buying from a shop that fills right in the shop again your taking any problems that shop may of had with the water home with you. I have seen people have problems and i have seen people that have done just fine for at least 2 years straight that is the longest i have in my records of anyone using the product steady that claim to not think any of the lost crabs are contributed to the water.
For safer salt water my suggestion buy the salt and mix your own.
I dont think its hard to do and i dont think you can be to safe..