Plastic Tubs for water dishes?

[hermiemommy101408]

I cannot find a big enough water dish to fully submerge Jumba who is my biggest crab. I am planning on buying a 55 gallon tank in the next couple of months. I was thinking could I use rubbermaid type bowls for the water and put puka shell or aquarium gravel on the bottom to make it deep enough? That way I can finally make a salt water bubble bath.

[CrabbyJo]

or how about a glass bread pan? That's pretty deep! You could put large gravel or small rocks in a slope to get in and out.

I don't know about the plastic dishes, what with all the noise about the chemicals that leech out of a lot of the plastics that are used for water bottles and such these days. It's quite different from the hard plastics used for making the commercial reptile water dishes. That's just my thought on it. I felt better getting glass.

[HermieLove19]

They actually have a similar plastic pool setup at the addiction store. It's a plastic food container with a pump and gravel. It's good for jumbo's and straws. Do the toxins leech out of the tupperware? Like the ones we use to store food in the fridge or freezer?

[ladybug15057]

There have been many studies that shows that all plastic type containers will leech a certain amount of toxins when warmed/heated. This includes those that are geared for use in the microwave as well.

[CrabbyJo]

What Marie says is true. I hadn't thought about the heating part myself. I just didn't feel comfortable with plastic storage dishes for my water bowls and went with glass.
So... the reptile bowls are also plastic, so there is certainly a risk there as well. We should be so picky about what we do for our own bodies.

[crabcrazygal]

wt about a ceramic, non painted dish or pot? you should be able to get one from a gardening store.
but i have heard of them obsorbing water and leaking

[HermieLove19]

I never knew that. I used to have tiny pools for the hermies but switched back to the rock bowls.

[CrabbyJo]

I've got a glazed terra cotta pot bottom for the ocean salt water in my iso tank. it works fine.

[crabcrazygal]

i might try ussin a terracota pot then. it is just that i read some where that they can leak, and i became a bit aprehensive about using them.

[emmac350]

If the terrra cotta isn't glazed, it will absorb the water. However, if it's been glazed (has a hard, shiny surface) it shouldn't do that. Also, if the pot has a hole in the bottom...don't use it, obviously.