HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi. I am going to get hermit crabs in a little while. I just started setting up my tank (28-30 gallons). I just put in my first bag of play sand so far into it & plan to get another bag later next week. My question is about coconut fiber. Can I used dechlorinated water only, if I don’t have ocean salt to make brackish water or should I wait until I do? Also how can I dry the coconut fiber after getting it wet? I want to make sure I am doing it right. Thanks for the help in advance.

Hermienewbie2 wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 12, 2023 9:25 pm

Hi. I am going to get hermit crabs in a little while. I just started setting up my tank (28-30 gallons). I just put in my first bag of play sand so far into it & plan to get another bag later next week. My question is about coconut fiber. Can I used dechlorinated water only, if I don’t have ocean salt to make brackish water or should I wait until I do? Also how can I dry the coconut fiber after getting it wet? I want to make sure I am doing it right. Thanks for the help in advance.

You should not moisten coco fiber with salt water, dechlorinated water is all that you need. You don't need it to be dry, just damp, wringing it out will do just fine! I recommend mixing it with the sand, but you can do layers of you like! It really helped with my humidity! I have a 40 gallon breeder and I used 100lbs of play sand and 3 bricks of EE, this created about 7 inches of substrate, which is more then enough! Remember that 6 inches or 2-3x ur largest crab is the recommended amount of substrate to have in your tank, you use whichever is bigger! More substate is better then less, remember that!

Many people use salt water to moisten their substrate at the start, it is totally safe to do so. If you need to add more water to it in the future or need to mist the tank, it is recommended to use fresh water instead of salt water because as the water evaporates from the substrate, the salt can be left behind in too high of concentrations and might harm the crabs.
You want all the substrate to be 'sand castle' consistency, so that it holds it's shape as the crabs dig tunnels and make caves for molting. If your coco fiber/ eco earth is in a brick, you can soak it in water so you can break it apart - then add it to dry sand and the whole thing should be sand castle consistency. If your sand is wet, you might want to use the flaky coco fiber in a bag. As stated, the important part is that it is the proper consistency. If it gets too wet, you can just put a fan to blow air onto it, and it will dry out pretty quickly.