I am amazed that your palm could suffer so fast. I would suspect severe environmental distress in the air, rather than the soil. Clarify what you mean by "crunchy" and turning dark green. Bad soil is highly unlikely to cause the effects you wrote about, especially in only a couple of days. Did your palm dry out, or get exposed to a flow of warm dry air from forced air heating?

I agree... this species seems to do great in sloggy soils and constantly wet pots as well as more typically maintained 'somewhat damp' ones.... though they also tolerate drying out to some degree (as do many Chamaedoreas). The darker it is indoors, though, the more they seem to become susceptible to rot, so keep it bright (just no direct sun as already mentioned). Low humidity is tough on many house palms... hard to do much a bout unless you commonly go about the house spraying your palm foliage (preferably with deionized water). As long as one avoids toxic build up of salts they should do OK. Brown tipping can be an adjustment to your 'non-greenhouse' conditions, a sign of salt build up, super high mineral content in the tap water, excessive drying out or low humidity (a good thorough watering monthly to 'rinse out' the salt build up helps.. .or better yet, put your plant outdoors when it rains (rainwater is magical when it comes to cleaning out soils in potted plants)).

Yes, they grow well indoors. Ideally though, it should be rotated between indoors and a shady, protected spot outside. Give it as much light as possible inside though. Mist it and dont let the roots sit in water. That pot will do it for a few years yet, but maybe even invest in a nice wicker basket or ceramic cache pot? You might want to mulch it with coco chips or something. http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/pygmy-date-palm.html

Difficult to overwater a Cat palm (especially in So. Cal.). I tend to keep my palms in smallish size containers as this lessens the chance of overwater and provides better drainage.) Good luck!