Moldy Sand

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:17 am

I did a search and couldn't find much discussion on actual SAND that had mold on it. Does sand get moldy or is it caused by wood, food, poop? Any mold prevention tips w/out drying out my crabs too?Also concerning mold, my sponge molded, should I be keeping it in the salt water pool instead of the fresh water pool to prevent this? I threw that one away btw. I am going to soak all my wood and coco hut in salt water, this should help too right? None have molded so far.Sorry I am freaking out. I don't want my crabs to get sick

moire_eel · Post by **moire_eel** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 7:59 am

The mold doesn't grow on the sand itself, but the mold spores can be harbored in it. If you're seeing mold, your humidity is too high or you don't have enough airflow, or both. I'd reccomend doing the following: * Replace your all your substrate with fresh sand. Dampen it with your saltwater mix - that will help it resist mold. * Calibrate your humidity gauge it it's telling you that humidity is between 70 and 80, since the mold indicates it could be higher. * Make sure there's enough of an opening for airflow ... I'm making up this number, but I'd say at least 20 percent of the top of the tank open is good. * Take out mold-prone climbing toys like wood and cocohuts and soak them in a strong saltwter solution. Let them dry completely before putting them back in the tank. It's probably a good idea to rinse off the tank and plastic stuff too.Having sponges in the fresh water is fine (and the sponges will last longer than they will in the saltwater). If you're changing them every other day and your humidity levels and airflow are okay, they shouldn't mold. If you do all this and the mold still recurs, you may need to treat everything with an extremely mild bleach solution, rinse it like crazy, and let it air out for at least a week until the bleach smell is totally gone. I have been through this (up to and including the recurring mold and needing to use bleach), and it freaked me out too. But it worked out fine and no crabs died. They just had to live all cramped in a smaller tank for a week - another reason to have iso tanks around.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 8:05 am

Thanks, last week the humidity shot up because my husband decided to be "nice" and mist them. I told him he didn't have to do that since they are now in a nice tank and the humidity stays in normal ranges. I am going to hide the spray bottle and tell him to stay away from the tank from now on lol. I only found a little mold, like it is just beginning. I couldn't even see it until I took the sponge to wash it and inspected it and found Tiny black dots. I found a small spot on top of the sand (greyish) also that wasn't very obvoius but it was right next to where the sponge was also. Thanks for your advice I am going to try those tips and see if it comes back. How long does it take to grow? I've had them in this tank for a month and just noticed this.

moire_eel · Post by **moire_eel** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:52 am

If it's just in one spot, I'd just scoop out that area and just keep an eye on things. Maybe add a little saltwater to the remaining substrate as a little extra insurance. When I had mold, it was fluffy white stuff. I tried EE for the first time and had mold in a week, so I removed the EE completely, boiled stuff and went back to sand. But there were enough spores remaining in the tank I guess that there was mold on the sand a week after I put it in. This was before I knew to add saltwater to the substrate, which might have prevented the whole thing!

NewCrabber · Post by **NewCrabber** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:17 am

It also helps if you chop fresh food into really small bits and grind or crush commercial food. They tend to stay at the dish to eat rather then taking the food with them. On occasion I do put a chunk of food in the dish, like a big apple wedge and they, LOL, they're so funny sometimes, will abscond with it, but it's pretty easy to see where it's going. A little while ago I was chopping up a fig for something and thought the hermies would like a piece of it. It's not something they've had before so I figured they would just pick at it in the dish. I put the dime sized piece in the dish, walked away from the tank, then turned back to open the lid a bit and the darn thing was GONE! Heehehe I don't know who took it and he/she made sure none of the others would get any, cuz who ever it was hid real well. I'm gonna have to ransack the tank now to be sure all of it was eaten. I have to assume so though! The funny part is that when I put it in the tank, there were only a couple of them sitting on the cholla, I couldn't see the others. One of them came out of the woodwork to get it.

Ren1216 · Post by **Ren1216** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:17 pm

Regarding the moldy sponges, you may know this already but you need to rinse the sponges out every few days. My humidity stays up where it needs to be just fine now, so I took the sponges out all together and opted for water pools that are only about 1" deep.... deep enough for them to bathe in but not drown in (I have small hermies). I just found the sponges to be a hassle.