How to mix saltwater for hermit crab pets
Hermit crab pets need sea water (saltwater), it’s an essential part of their life cycle. Unless you’re lucky enough to live on the ocean with access to clean ocean water at all times, it’s important to know how to prepare it yourself. What you need:
- RO, distilled or detoxified fresh water
- ocean salt mix
- container (ie one gallon water jug)
Sea / Ocean Water versus Saltwater
Sea Water (or Ocean water) has important trace elements like calcium and magnesium in the salt.
This is NOT the same thing as salt you buy at the grocery store!
You want to provide SEA WATER to your hermit crab pets, because this water will have the important minerals your hermit crabs need.
Most important minerals in sea water, needed by your hermit crabs, include calcium and magnesium. These elements will help them with molting and keeping a strong exoskeleton.
Where to find Sea / Ocean salt mix
There are multiple companies that make good quality sea salt mix. Most of these products can be found in the aquarium section of your local pet store. They are made for reef aquariums, answering the same needs for fish that your hermit crabs need.
There are also 2-3 companies that make a salt mix product for hermit crab pets. These products are not as easily found in local pet stores or online. We’ve included a link to the Flukers Saltwater Concentrate / Water Conditioner 2 oz bottle available on Amazon.
The good thing about this Flukers product is the small amount and small price, which is great if your hermit crab bowl is very small and you only need a small amount of sea water at a time.
IF your sea water bowl is medium or large, it’s more cost effective to use Instant Ocean or similar ocean salt mix for aquariums, and prepare a one gallon jug to keep handy.
Start with distilled or detoxified water!
Water from a faucet will have lots of chemicals and toxins that are harmful for hermit crab pets. Most common chemicals found in faucet water that need to be removed: ammonia, chlorine, chloramines and nitrates. There are other toxins also, but these are the most harmful to hermit crabs (and fish, and most other living things too!).
Test your water, fast and cheap
Want to test your faucet water? There’s a nifty inexpensive tool that will tell you instantly how good (or toxic) your own faucet water is! Here’s the one we use, that we bought on Amazon, here.
Advance tip: another testing tool you can use is a hydrometer, which tests the salinity (salt amount) in the water. IF you already have a saltwater aquarium, chances are you have one of these tools! For hermit crabs, this tool isn’t necessary as long as you follow directions when mixing the salt and water.
Best quality water to start with?
RO Water (reverse osmosis)
RO Water, which is the best quality water to start with. RO (reverse osmosis) water is widely recognized as the best quality water for reef aquariums because of it’s purity. It can often be purchased inexpensively at your local aquarium store.
OR you can purchase a countertop or under-sink RO filtration system for your home, and create your own RO water whenever you want! Tip: RO water filtration systems benefit the HUMANS in your home too!!
Distilled Water
An inexpensive option is to simply buy one gallon jugs of Distilled Water at the grocery store, which usually sells for under $1.20 each.
Detoxified Water with Water Conditioners
Add a water conditioner that detoxifies, to faucet water. Good water conditioner/detoxifiers will remove ammonia, chlorine, chloramines and nitrates minimally. Be careful because there are some of these products that do NOT remove ammonia, and this is a chemical that is harmful to your hermit crabs.
It’s a good idea to use a one gallon jug, add the water conditioner, and keep stored for easy and regular water changes. Test the water first in order to make sure it’s good quality and toxins are at a low level, before providing to your hermit crab pets.
When mixing Ocean Salt Mix and Water...
Generally, mixing the product is easy. For Instant Ocean’s Sea Salt mix, the directions suggest starting with 1/4 cup salt and adding to one gallon water and stir until fully dissolved.
Don’t mix IN your hermit crab bowl/pool.
Create an easy system to always keep some saltwater handy. The container should be airtight (so water doesn’t evaporate!).
How we mix saltwater
Note: maybe you’ll find an easier, faster way… but this is how we’ve done it for years:
We start with a gallon jug of RO water. We put 1/4 cup salt mix into a large plastic cup and fill with some of the RO water funnel 1/4 cup salt mix into a one gallon jug of RO water and shake really well.
This gallon usually lasts us about a month (we use a medium size bowl).
start with gallon jug of RO water
put 1/4 cup salt mix into a large plastic cup
fill plastic cup with some of the RO water
mix with salt (just enough that it can easily pour into gallon jug
put top on the gallon jug and shake, alot! shake and shake until salt is dissolved
Note: water evaporates and it’s VERY evident in saltwater bowls and pools! If you leave a saltwater bowl for a couple of days, it will become VERY VERY salty and you may see lots of salt crystals, depending on how shallow your bowl (or pool) is.
Your hermit crabs won’t want much to do with the saltwater once the salinity level is too high.
Solution? Top off (add fresh water) to your saltwater bowl/pool daily OR make a full water change every day.
And always remember… your hermit crabs NEED supplemental minerals like CALCIUM! They won’t get enough calcium just from their water/saltwater bowls or food you provide. Add a mineral block or two, to their habitat.
