Unusual Smell after baking substrate, potentially harmful?

[Irthryll]

My substrate is the standard 4/5 playsand 1/5 eco earth, after finding bugs in it, I decided to bake all of it at 250 degrees for around an hour or so for each sheet of sub. After pouring all of the substrate it, and mixing it with water and letting it sit for 2 days I noticed the strong smell of burnt wood and isopropyl alcohol coming from the container. I brought this tank back to my apartment and put my crab in it as I do not have another tank there but left the seran wrap top off so that there will be no build up. Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this? I am afraid to close the lid since whatever is in there my build up and suffocate my crab, and as a result of this his humidity has been around 55 for a couple days. Any tips?

[JoeHermits]

That’s a very weird substrate smell. Are you sure there isn’t anything that was buried and burned when the substrate was baked?


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[Irthryll]

Yes I'm pretty sure, I think its a possibility that some unmixed clumps of ecoearth got cooked and thats whats doing it but I can't be sure

[JoeHermits]

If it’s bothering you you could always toss it out and start fresh


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[musicalhermies]

My sand/eco earth mix smelled horrible while baking, I let it air out and cool and it was fine. Still used it and it's been over a year and no issues.

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