HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My first trip to Home Depot to purchase a substrate for my tank, all I knew was I wanted a clean bag of play box sand. My first purchase was a Washed play box sand. It is a fine whitish / light brown washed sand. I did not exactly read the bag at first. Until week two when I had to clean my tank do to a mold build up from not enough air circulation. This second trip I glanced over the bags and found a tip printed on the bag. It read. Not for animal / Aquarium use. Or some thing along those lines. From what I have read over these past two weeks I thought I read some where not to use the fine washed play box sand. So this time I purchased the premium play box sand. It is more course than the fine, and darker in color. From what I under stand this is a better choice. Can any one confirm or deny?

ugh, don't tell me that the washed sand isn't good. I just grabbed the first bag of play sand I found, I didn't know there's a premium. Looks like I'm taking a trip to home depot again x_x

I use the quickret brand sand that comes in a 50lb bag for about 3.99. Its a brown paper bag and is in the area where you buy sand for making concrete. I know some sands can be very fine and get in to the gills of the crabs. sand pieces are sharp. You should not inhale any sand dust. Ive been told not to use aragonite due to the fine grains. I dont know of the brand you bought it might be fine. I can only tell you what i use from lowes or home depot that is inexpensive and I know is fine. I use 5 parts sand to one part EE with some crushed oyster shell mixed in. As i give my crabs worm castings if they are left over when i put fresh in i also dump them into the substrate.

Suebee,
Do you mix it all together or put sand down then EE on top?

I mix it all together. I use seasalt water to wet the EE first.

Thanks Suebee.
I will check tonight to see what brand I bought. The washed sand was $5.00. The premium sand was $4.00. Sounds like cheaper the better.

some times you can find a leaking bag with a small hole and they will mark it down in price to even lower for you. Just check it out well to make sure it is a new and not to big hole. You want to be sure the sand hasn't been contaminated. Ive found a tiny seal broke before and hardly no sand missing. It was marked down to 1.00 for 50lbs.

Miller Family after reading your post in Emergency and here I realized your set up and mine are about the same. From the glass lid all the way to the mold problem and the choices made when buying sand so here is what I ended up with and I am not sure if its the right stuff or not I am a little confused now Is the Sakrete sand the same one you bought the first time around too??? I ended up buying Sakrete Natural Play Sand. It says its a Fine Sand and it has been Pre Screened and Washed. I sorted through all the bags to see if I could find one without moisture but they all seemed some what moist.
This is the only type of play sand i found at this particular Home Depot so am wondering if its the right kind?

look in the area where they have sand for making concrete. When you buy sand it should be odorless and dry. quickrete is the brand that i have bought.

I got Quickcrete too, it better be good. I have used it in the past with turtles, so...hoping it's all good....it was for them.

I also use Quikrete brand. Bag says "Quikrete premium play sand".

so does that mean the Kolorscape Play Sand I got is bad? I only payed $4 for it, so I thought it was the right one.

Kolorscope sand is a mix between silica sand and aragonite sand. Quickrete brand is normally straight silica sand.

Aragonite sand is calcium carbonate - just like calci-sand and crushed oyster shell. Oyster shell performs beautifully in the tank, but calci-sand does not (clumps tight and smells bad). As to how the aragonite sand would work is the question. I'm betting that since it's a mix with silica sand that it should be okay long-term, but the only way to really know is to use it and just keep and eye on it, changing it if it does clump or starts to stink. I would love to experiment with it, but the stores around here have never carried the Kolorscope brand.

I don't think that the Kolorscope would harm your crabs at all, but you will need to monitor the tank a bit more.

Well, I put the sand in the tank last Thursday and the crabs seemed disappointed to be in sand again instead of the Cypress Bedding they were in, but today I just noticed Hermes attempting to dig. Hopefully he'll go down far and molt. I haven't noticed any problems with the sand. It doesn't smell and I don't notice clumps, it's really soft. But I know it's not too soft because I can make a hole with my finger and it withstands alright, no collapses. Hopefully this stuff it okay for them, maybe the EE is helping, I don't know.

This all started from a mold problem I had. Threw my discussions and fallowing others Suebee added these two links I found to be a helpful read.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... ht=#704403

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... sc&start=0

Seems that a good substrate is 5 parts sand & 1 part EE by volume with some crushed oyster shell in the mix. But as you read the links & discussions opinions very.