HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello all

I have a bag of sand left over from a new aquarium setup. Can I use it in my crabitat?
This is the bag:

https://www.vadigran.com/en/products/aq ... -white-2kg

Thanks.
Andrei

I didn’t really see any info from the link. Playsand is what everyone says to use. It says it’s gravel and that’s never good for crabs. That’s all I could see, hope someone else can be more definitive for ya!

The main thing is that it doesn't have calcium and that it's fine enough for the crab to dig through. It should be fine to use it to mix with the rest of your substrate, but I wouldn't use that to replace playsand due to cost only. If you have ever thought of resetting your aquariums, I would keep it for that purpose.

TLDR should be fine to use, just expensive.

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The fact that it's called "aquarium gravel" first concerned me, as gravel will not keep sandcastle consistency, which in turn will not allow hermit crabs to create tunnels and caves to molt in.

But according to the description and by the look of the picture, it doesn't seem to be anything other than sand, or contain anything that could be harmful.

If it's a case of mixing the rest with what you have (playsand, eco earth, etc.) then I don't think you will have an issue using this. As long as it's 100% sand, no dyes, and nothing added.

Thanks for the replies. We currently have only eco earth and we were thinking about creating a zone with sand. I am going to test and see if it holds its form when wet (like play sand does).
I looked a bit closer at the bag and I have this:



Or would it be better to mix the sand with the eco earth?

andreiv3103 wrote:Thanks for the replies. We currently have only eco earth and we were thinking about creating a zone with sand. I am going to test and see if it holds its form when wet (like play sand does).
I looked a bit closer at the bag and I have this:

We can’t see the image.

Edit: Never mind, it just popped up.


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Should work now.

That looks a little course. If you do use it I’d recommend mixing it in well with playsand so it’s easier to dig in.


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andreiv3103 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:16 pm

Thanks for the replies. We currently have only eco earth and we were thinking about creating a zone with sand. I am going to test and see if it holds its form when wet (like play sand does).
I looked a bit closer at the bag and I have this:



Or would it be better to mix the sand with the eco earth?

Good idea to test it out first.

Most people mix the two together, since they work hand-in-hand. Eco Earth helps hold the moisture, while sand helps hold the shape.
I know some people have either used only one or the other and have been successful, or even have used both at the same time but separated, as you're thinking of doing.

I personally prefer the mixing, simply for the ease of mind of everything working out.
If it's for a "type of look" kind of thing, something that I did in my 75g is that I used the sand/eco earth mix throughout the whole tank, and then on my "forest" side I put down a layer of eco earth on top of the mixed substrate.
It gets mixed in after awhile from the crabs crawling through it and digging in it, which could also become the case if you were to separate the substrates.

I understand.
Thank you very much for your advice.

That would be fine. Playsand is 100% quartz, and the consistency (grain size) isn't the same from bag to bag.

wodesorel wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:08 pm

That would be fine. Playsand is 100% quartz, and the consistency (grain size) isn't the same from bag to bag.

Ok. Thanks for the help.