HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I apologize if this is a silly question! I’m new to much of this, and bought some more sand to add to my tank. I bought the all purpose Quikrete sand which was listed as find in the substrate info page. However it talks about possibly rinsing it. I’ve also seen things about baking new sand. Could someone clarify why this is done? Is it to get rid of potential bacteria? I’m trying to determine if I should rinse my sand or not. Thank you!

LilHermieMom wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 01, 2020 9:50 pm

Hello! I apologize if this is a silly question! I’m new to much of this, and bought some more sand to add to my tank. I bought the all purpose Quikrete sand which was listed as find in the substrate info page. However it talks about possibly rinsing it. I’ve also seen things about baking new sand. Could someone clarify why this is done? Is it to get rid of potential bacteria? I’m trying to determine if I should rinse my sand or not. Thank you!

Don't use Quickrete sand as it's strictly for using as an aggregate with actual Quickrete. You want playsand, which is normally washed, filtered, and rinsed.

This is the sand you would want to purchase:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Quikrete-50 ... /206363630

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Any of the quikrete sands are safe, I've been using all-purpose in one of my tanks for a few years now.

You don't need to do anything to playsand because its already been washed and sterilized.

Honestly, the other sands are safe to use as is. We don't recommend doing anything to them. If you are seriously concerned about dust - which goes away as soon as you moisten it anyway - then it would have to be rinsed. Baking is for when it's gotten wet before purchase and there is worry about bacterial growth.

Thank you for the information! I do have another small question. I’m pretty sure I used quikrete al purpose sand last time I got sand and it’s a brownish tan color with little tiny pebbles and such but this bag is more red and much more fine. Any idea why that would be? I’m just curious really.

Where it's been mined from. Sand beds usually occur in ancient streams, rivers, lakes and oceans - formations that are gone and buried for millions of years. There are pockets of sand all over the place, and each one is going to have a different composition due to the rocks that were weathered to form it. The mining companies also use different methods, some will grade the sand (run it through sieves for like-sized particles), some will grind sandstone rather than use naturally occurring sand, that sort of thing. Unless the sand comes from the same location it will end up looking different.