HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Ok mom may have come close to killing me for getting the ten gallon tank and such my crabs need. If you guys remember being under 18 then you know if your willing to get punished and lectured for something and you know about that going into it you have to care about it quite a bit. So that aside I have some important questions for you guys. 1. I accidentally put one drop to many in my water to declorinate it can I still safely use it? 2. My mom said normal toy store play sand has lead in it so is it really ok for the crabs and is it an automatic death sentence if I use it because it's all I have? 3. Is their anyway to convince my mom that this was all nessary seeing as the Gide that came with the crabs said all the roung things? 4. What is the right water to sand ratio for substrate and should I use salt or just plan declorinated water for it? 5. Is instant ocean salt ok for pp's as well as other crabs because I have pp's. Thanks much any other advice you have to give would be great.

Maybe show your Mom this site and have her ask questions or read all of the research that has been cited here.Onto the questions. 1. Too many drops of dechlor unlikely to be a problem. I would go ahead and use it.2. Playsand from the toy store or hardware store is one of the two acceptable substrates. We have been using it for a long time with no problems.3. The guide that came with the crabs was written by people with a conflict of interest. If your crabs die, you will buy more, they sell more. They are unlikely to get more of my money since my crabs will live for years/decades not weeks/months. This site has been around for a while and as things are learned from experience, it is shared here. I trust this site to have the most accurate yet conservative information about the care and keeping of Land Hermit Crabs.4. You should use just enough water to make the substrate sand castle consistency. I use dechlor salt water to do the initial soaking to inhibit mold but then add fresh dechlor water as needed.5. Instant ocean is good. Since you only have PPs you could use a less complete aquarium salt but Instant Ocean is even better and it or similar is required for exotics.Other advice:Keep asking questions.Look at the bottom of people's posts, often times you will find links to photos of their tanks. This can be great for getting ideas.

Is it ok if i used freashwater for the sand will it harm my crabs?

As long as you have used dechlorinater it will be fine. However, I like to use my salt water to moisten my sand. It helps prevent mold.