Water Crystals

[tarantulaholic]

I normally used a little portion at a time (water crystal) with water and wait a few hours then dump everything in fish net, saving all the expanded crystals.
How long does a water crystal get fully expanded? I dont want to leaved them in water too long and starts melting away? or If I pull crytals out not fully expanded? Im using the 4mm (large) crystals from watersorb.

 

[jmiller]

They will not melt away. They take a few hours to expand but I try to leave mine at least 8 hours before using them. I make a 1 gallon jug at a time and keep them really wet. When I give them to my bugs I just pour off any excess water at that time.

I would not worry about them soaking too long just too short.

 

[codykrr]

if you want them to expand the fastest use hot water. it usually takes around 4 hours for me to fully expand a gallon. also as stated above they wont "melt away"

 

[tarantulaholic]

If they dont melt away, do they just evaporate then? Because I used to fill a whole container with crystal then day by day they slowly gets less. Seems like its evaporating, thats reason Im only making whenever they need crystals.

 

[jmiller]

If they dont melt away, do they just evaporate then? Because I used to fill a whole container with crystal then day by day they slowly gets less. Seems like its evaporating, thats reason Im only making whenever they need crystals.

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They do evaporate. All you have to do is just add more water. You can hydrate these and then dry them out over and over again.

If you use a gallon milk jug with the lid on they do not evaporate as quickly.

 

[tarantulaholic]

thanks for tip. :worship:

 

[codykrr]

to me or jmiller? or both:? any how, did you try the hot water thing? and also oneof the best ways to keep them from drying out is go o walmart and get a 1 gallon container. it will take exactly 6 teaspoons of water crystals to 1 gallon of water. i use hot water and screw he lid on and in aout 4 hours there done. i then take a strainer and dump all the excess water out because it WILL go stagnet and go bad.

 

[tarantulaholic]

thanks everyone for good tips!!! :worship:

 

[skips]

You can't over saturate them. I just put mine in a milk jug, fill with excess water and let them expand. that way just the excess water evaporates, not the water in the crystals. The stuff is anionic polyacrylamide. It's a polymer that is very negatively charged so as to attract the positive pole of H2O and hydrate very well. like was stated above, it can dry out and be rehydrated, but the original polymer will not evaporate.