Cooking Water?

[autumnfalls]

I've been giving my crabbies some cooked veggies lately and I was wondering if the water I boil the veggies in needs to be treated, or if tap water will be fine.

[ZuZu]

well I have heard that boiling water gets rid of clorine so what I do is boil the water then put in the stuff for the crabs and let it boil a bi longer until the food is ready

[ladybug15057]

Boiling does nothing for the chloramine or the heavy metals in tap water so it should be treated to cook or even steam hermies food. (unless one uses distilled/pure bottle water)

[Mim]

Im so lucky that I have plenty of rain water...
I keep a bucket outside, Jar & freeze it for "dry times" (Jars are sanitized in boiling rain water... Yes... we get that much rain...LOL)
I also do the same with salt water as I live close to the beach...
(I do live close to the beach too)

[ladybug15057]

Rain water closer to the ocean/sea normally has a higher salinity level than fresh water that is normally further inland.
One should also consider a few factors if they collect rain water too, and how they collect it.
http://crabbywiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Rain+water

There could be other contaminants/impurities within it.

[Mim]

We are around half hour inland.. We do go to the beach each weekend so I get the water while there... I have had the rain water tested & all seems fine..

[CrabHappy9092]

I use rain water from our water tank and put that is their fresh water bowl and salt water bowl with hermit crab salt in it. I read your information on water and it said things about distilled water, tap water, dechlorinated water etc. but nothing about rain water. I was just curious if it was okay to put in my terranuim.

[Wai]

The rain water may be contaminated. I'm sure you wouldn't drink straight out of the rain water tank. Wouldn't it be easier just to give them dechlorinated tap water or from the bottle? It has been raining a lot and I know you would like to save money, but I just feel a bit uneasy about giving them rain water, especially if it has contacted metal or other potentially harmful substances along the way. The rain water may have pollutants from the air dissolved in it too.

[ladybug15057]

I have merged the rain water subject with an existing post containing information about rain water. Above I included a link about using rain water and how it can be contaminated with other impurities. Some of the impurities cannot be removed with a dechlorinator either.
I see you mention hermie salt? Hermie salt isn't good for them and actually a waste of money. It does not contain what the hermies need to remain healthy. (please see the water section under the Crab Care area)

[CrabbyJo]

As I understand it there are filter systems used for collecting rain water. This is very important, as you would not want to drink or use water that has not been filtered, even rain water. There is a lot of dust, pollen and other contaminants that can build up if there is no filter system in place.

If you have a filter system, find out exactly what it filters out, to determine if it's safe for your hermies. What might be "okay" for you can be potentially deadly for your hermies.

And what's "okay" for you doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy!

If in doubt, pick up some cheap distilled water, and make sure you have a good ocean sea salt mix to supplement what is missing from the distilled water.