Divided Substrate, and How Much of Each?

[DreaminginBlue]

I have one 50 pound bag of QuickCrete playsand and four bricks of ecoearth. I can always run out and get more, but that's what I have as of now.
I would like to do divided substrate, so tips/experience/suggestions on that are needed...
I want to have an ecoearth forest themed section and then a sand beach section. I'm trying to make it look as natural as possible.
But I don't know how much of each to do, perhaps half and half of 1/3 sand and 2/3 ecoearth?
If I end up not liking them divided somewhere down the road, I figure I'll just take everything out and mix them.
Also, I have a crab that went down almost immediately after we got him. It's been almost a month and he's a little guy. He was accidentally disturbed a few weeks ago and came out, crawled around for a day, then went back under. No signs of molting when he came up so I wonder if he's just de-stressing?
Should I leave him under, or try to gently take him out when the crabitat is done if he hasn't come out? It'll be a while before it's ready, so hopefully he'll have surfaced before then.

[GotButterflies]

I'm not sure how big your tank is, but you need a minimum of 6 inches of substrate, or 3 times the height of your largest crab (whichever is deeper). The eco earth bricks do take some time to absorb the water, so I would recommend doing those first and then doing the sand.

I do not recommend digging up your crab. I would leave him in the old tank until he comes up, provided you can still maintain heat and humidity for him.

Good luck and happy crabbing

Edit: One crabber "caught" a crab that was destressing by carefully digging a hole, and then putting a bowl in the crabitat, and placing a small amount of really smelly food in there that they cannot resist. The bowl would have to be big enough so they can't get out of it.

[DreaminginBlue]

Tank they're in now is a 10 gallon, their new home will be a 40 gallon.
I'll leave him be, I can definitely keep up the humidity and heat for him until he comes up.

[Hermiearth]

For my 60g I believe I used a little under 3 bags of sand, but than again I used a 5-1 ratio of play sand to ee. I personally would t recommend the half play sand half re idea, because the crabs will just destroy it and it will cause a lot of frustration.


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[GotButterflies]

I think you will need more sand

[aussieJJDude]

One thing I would like to mention is that when they dig they will slowly mix up your divided substrates. If you use a divided, your basically decreasing the available digging room by half and increasing chances of aggression....

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[DreaminginBlue]

Sorry, I am a bit confused by your last post. What do you mean that the digging room is decreased? I thought they could just dig on either the EE side or the sand side. I thought it would be better to give them the choice of which they wanted to dig in. If I'm wrong on this I'll just do mixed instead so that they have the full floor space available to dig.
Forgive me for being a confused newbie, I know you're an experienced crabber and I trust your advice, I just was wondering what you meant.
Thanks,
DreaminginBlue

[silverblood72767]

I think he means if you only use something on the top of your substrate to divide the sand and Eco earth they'll end up mixing it up anyways, and if you put a divider that reaches all they way to the bottom of the tank you'd be dividing the digging areas into smaller ones they can't get between when digging and that could cause the aggression. Correct me if I'm wrong! It just seemed like that's what aussieJJDude meant.

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[DreaminginBlue]

Oh! I see. I was planning on using a piece of cardboard to divide the two when pouring them in, and then pulling it out, so there wouldn't be anything stopping the crabs from digging between the two.
Then again, divided substrate is starting to seem like a bad idea. I really wanted to do it so they'd have options with where they wanted to dig and I thought it would be awesome looking, but if it's not the best idea I'll just do 5:1 Sand to EE.

[aussieJJDude]

Nah it's fine. Just be prepared for the inevitable mixing of the two.

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[Da_Stos208]

I've been seeing that 5:1 sand to eco earth a lot, but I would think that that'd be too much sand, no? I use only eco earth, and its great: humidity is never a problem and i feel they can dig in it better than sand. Shouldn't it be 5:1, eco earth to sand? just a thought/suggestion, I'm curious on the reasoning behind that 5:1 staple.

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[aussieJJDude]

The reason due to the mix is that it closely mimics the wild, where on the beach you don't get prefect sand but some organics are thrown into the mix. However that's not the only reason or the most important, it's due to the durability of the mix. The ratio is the a families secret recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation, as it is more robust when it comes to digging and moulding, and holds the shape well. Ee is too light and doesn't hold tunnels as well as the mix, hence why we suggest the mix. Likewise straight sand doesn't absorb water in the similar way that ee does, which in a humid and moist an iroment can lead to flooding. Many crabs seem to prefer a mix anyway, and to keep it simple it was suggested by the 5 to 1 ratio, which most grabbers have had success with.

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[daws409]

The reason due to the mix is that it closely mimics the wild, where on the beach you don't get prefect sand but some organics are thrown into the mix. However that's not the only reason or the most important, it's due to the durability of the mix. The ratio is the a families secret recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation, as it is more robust when it comes to digging and moulding, and holds the shape well. Ee is too light and doesn't hold tunnels as well as the mix, hence why we suggest the mix. Likewise straight sand doesn't absorb water in the similar way that ee does, which in a humid and moist an iroment can lead to flooding. Many crabs seem to prefer a mix anyway, and to keep it simple it was suggested by the 5 to 1 ratio, which most grabbers have had success with.

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So a 5:1 mix would be like a 50 lb bag sand to a one brick of ee right??

I've always used straight ee for my tats.. I recently set up another ISO tank and I used a 50 lb bag sand mixed with 4 bricks because I didn't like the sand/gritty texture (I'm used to fluffy). Do you have to follow the 5:1 ratio when mixing?

I've recommended straight ee, straight play sand, or a combo of both to many, many people here. Is this wrong to recommend since 5:1 is more natural??


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[aussieJJDude]

I have no idea how one work, so I can answer that... when are you Americans going to go metric?
But the ratio is fine in terms of volume, not weight. So one scoop of one equates to 5 scoops of sand ect... using weight, it may have the same ratio but have a larger amount of ee in comparison.
And no you don't have to do the mixture. HCA we re recommend doing so, but as a group we don't believe you have to do it. We include the mix in the guide as it's by far the most popular and it's one that many recommend. However many people have used a various of different mixes or just use straight sand or ee, and they haven't had any problems with it.
To make matters worse, for aussie they recommend a 8 to one sand we ratio, for which I have no idea why... Many believe that straight ee for aussie are a bad thing.
Just do you and what works for you.

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[DreaminginBlue]

Can they dig okay in straight sand or straight EE? If not I'll do the 5:1 as soon as I figure out how much of each constitutes that ratio.