How much to mix

[Cutepetgroomer]

I found all natural sea salt at Walmart and picked some up so I can mix it with dechlorinator water. How much should I use when I finally do start using it? 1/8 teaspoon? Or 1/2 teaspoon? It will be made a gallon at a time and some poured into my 16 or so ounce water bottle I'm using for the saltwater

[megmaholm]

Do you mean sea salt like what you would put on food? If so, you'll want to get something different like Instant Ocean for saltwater aquariums. Sea salt won't have all the essential vitamins/minerals/good stuff they need. Instant Ocean is relatively inexpensive and should last a while.

[CallaLily]

What Megmaholm said. There's more info on saltwater in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=93854
Most salt mixes sold for saltwater aquariums (like Instant Ocean) are mixed 1/2 cup per gallon of dechlor water.

[Cutepetgroomer]

Actually from the research I've done in the past for biology class, as long as the natural sea salt looks dirty to us it still has all the good stuff in it. Sea salt , natural anyways should be sort of brown in color as it hasn't gone through a washing process. You can find it if you know what to look for.

[megmaholm]

Personally, I would still be hesitant to use it. The reason we recommend something like Instant Ocean is since it's synthetic sea salt, it's carefully formulated and guaranteed to have all the necessary elements. What you have won't really hurt them, but I'm not sure it'll be as helpful as something like IO.

[wodesorel]

Red Sea brand marine salt uses real evaporated sea salt, but they still have to mix in additional elements and play with the concentrations a bit to make it match natural sea water. The evaporation process removes many of the lesser elements and screws up the balance of what remains. Like meg said - it's definitely not harmful, but it's going to be on par with hermit crab salt and other sea salts in terms of benefits to the crabs.