New rules for care.... now they need salt water? help

renewed_mind · Post by **renewed_mind** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 1:49 pm

Oh well doesn't matter anymore anyway because I called my local water supply today to ask if they use chloramine or just straight chlorine to treat the water and they said neither we don't treat the water we just pump it from the underground water aquifer straight to your house the way it comes out of the ground so I'm of the hook

latieplolo · Post by **latieplolo** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 2:53 pm

...unless you have straight well water, then your water is treated. I'm not sure how, but it sounds like something got missed in that phone conversation.And just because this particular question hadn't been addressed yet: the reason they need salt water is that salt helps to regulate the level of water in their bodies on a cellular level. Every living thing does this, we humans just get our salt from different sources. You've probably felt really thirsty after eating too much salt- it's the same process.

renewed_mind · Post by **renewed_mind** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:13 pm

It pretty much is straight well water there is a tall narrow tower that goes god only knows how many feet into the earth and pumps it up and out to us its a county thing and they are devised up into districts so like there is one well for Texas county pwsd#1 3 that I know of for district 2 so on and so forth but I called the district I'm in they said they don't treat at all

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:24 pm

@renewed_mind, from what I can gather your municipal water is sourced from the water table itself and is not treated in any manor though according to my sources this may be about to change in the next couple of years due to contamination risks on the rise with future developments planed.Most municipal water sources are rivers which are directed into waste water treatment plants which then filter and chemically treat the water but unfortunately the processing facilities can not get all of the solid waste materials out leaving as much as 50% of it to be passed along to the consumer which includes ammonia, meds and basically anything anybody as ingested and then flushed down the drain which is a pretty sickening thought at the least.But anyway your source water appears to be safe though I would strongly advise that you purchase some basic water testing strips that cover chlorine and the like just to see if anything is present in the water that shouldn't be.

renewed_mind · Post by **renewed_mind** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:45 pm

I plan on calling them tomorrow and getting the annual water content list sent to me and you are correct it's not from a river and not run through a water treatment plant unless the ground and underground rivers count lol I think I will still end up getting drops cause it don't hurt to be safe

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:06 pm

@renewed_mind, yeah it's like my dad used to say better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.lolBeing that it is ground water your going to have some naturally occurring metals and even metals from the supply pipes leeching into the water supply which could be a potential risk for animals the size of hermitcrabs and since they are so overly sensitive to dissolving metals anyway it would probably be better to treat the water than not.

renewed_mind · Post by **renewed_mind** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:23 pm

Well needless to say I already down the store bought water and am just currently using tap waternow the only problem is I'm broke for the mind and I guess I'm going to have to find someone to either one me some money or someone who also loves hermit crabs to help get me started and get everything they need to get them properly taken care of