HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi everyone.
I know you all might be mad at me......
Before, I did not know the dangers of calcium sand and I did spend a good $75 on it. Now I just found out that it is very very dangerous for the crabs. I spent so much money on this and little did I know... IT IS NOT GOOD FOR THEM! It is so frustrating. Do you guys know and brands that are easy to find and relatively cheap?

Play sand located at hardware stores. It comes in many brands. I don't use sand so I can't tell you which brand is better.

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You can also get/use eco earth (should look like coffee grinds and not the chunky kind). It comes in 8 qt and 24 qt bags I think. You can get a 3 pack of bricks much cheaper than the bags. 3 bricks is equal to same amount of sub in a 24 qt bag.

If you're going to use sand, I would advise adding ee to it to help hold humidity.

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Well I have been looking at play sand!
How many inches will a 50 lb bag fill in my 20 gal?
It is soooooo cheap tho!!!!! I know my Crabbos will be extremely happy!

But I will wait until I have to change sand again in a few weeks. They should be ok 4 now right?

Calcium needs to be removed ASAP. The sooner, the better. It hardens like cement when wet.... In the future, you should never have to do a deep clean (unless an emergency such as flood). You loose beneficial bacteria by cleaning all. The only thing you really need to do is spot clean (remove dragged a ways foods and poop.)

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If going the ee route with bricks - the cheapest option- make sure it's fine texture, not medium.

HeyItsEggs wrote:Well I have been looking at play sand!
How many inches will a 50 lb bag fill in my 20 gal?
It is soooooo cheap tho!!!!! I know my Crabbos will be extremely happy!

I used one bag of sand mixed it with one brick of ee and had about six inches in my twenty tall.

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Quickrete is usually the sand brand. Doesn't really matter too much. Play sand has been cleaned. All purpose sand (what I use) has a little bit of a clay base to it- hold sand castle base GREAT and is a little more expensive than play sand


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Ok, it took me less than 3 bags to fill my 60 gal so you should be good with one 50 pound sand bag. Also I add 1 part eco earth for 5 parts sand (it helps decompose old food bits) mix this well and add enough water for it to be sand castle consistency, this will keep tunnels from collapsing in and killing your crabs so it is a very important step- make sure you get the water through all of the sand. I add the water as I mix the sub. Depending on your crab size you could need 8 inch deep sub (that's what I have for some large crabs in the tank)


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I have a 20g high, I needed 75lbs of sand and half a bag of ee(the biggest bag) to get 7 and a half inches. I added the other half bag of ee and another 5 to 10lbs sand and got 9 inches

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Thanks guys!
When I get the chance to, probably the next time I go to the store or hardware store, I will get me some play sand! Thx again!

HeyItsEggs wrote:Thanks guys!
When I get the chance to, probably the next time I go to the store or hardware store, I will get me some play sand! Thx again!

I recommend mixing the sand and eco earth with dechlorinated marine salt water

Just to clarify- nobody will ever be mad at you for not knowing something here! We are here to help. But is there any bags of the calcium sand that you have unopened that you might be able to return for some of your money back?

You can also save the calcium sand to give as a supplement of course you have a lot of it


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