Play sand gets too wet

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 9:15 pm

I have about 3-5 inches of play sand with the usual salt and fresh water supplies. The temp is average of 78 as is the humidity at mid-tank. The problem is that the play sand almost gets too wet. I have a glass top on the tank and have tried leaving it open. All that happens is that the sand stays wet and the humidity leaves the tank. I checked and there are no water leaks in the water tubs. A month or two goes by and the sand seems too heavy for the crabs to dig out. I have found 3 dead on the bottom during cleaning.

My question is: does anyone think that the coconut bricks (i'm not sure of the name) would lighten the heaviness of the sand? or would it just make it wetter and cause more problems. My crabs love climbing and i usually end up with at least 5 deep tunnels a night being dug. Anyone have other possible solutions to keep the sand from sucking up so much of the humidity??

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:47 pm

you are referring to eco earth (ee) or forest bedding (fb)...either one will draw moisture from the sand and air...you have to watch that the ee/fb doesn't dry out too much, as it will also draw moisture from the hermies

i have found that the sand is usually as wet as the hermies want it...i don't think the sand is actually pulling moisture out of the air...in is an inorganic substance, like rocks and that would be an odd property for an inorganic...i have 2 55 gal crabitats...one for my indo and pps, one for the es and rugs...the substrate in the crabitat with the es and rugs is always moister...they don't seem to have any problems tunneling and i haven't had any deaths in over 2 years....

good luck

Mormegil · Post by **Mormegil** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:54 pm

Do you guys remoisten the FB?

Would you just sprinkle water over it? Mine is under sand. Any suggestions?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 12:44 am

Temmaro, you say you often have lots of tunnels. This likely means that the sand is not too heavy for digging. I think burrohaven is right about the sand being generally as wet as they want it. They often moisten the sand themselves by 'drooling' saltwater from their shells! So they get it how they like

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:59 pm

Thanks for the input. I guess the few that did die was from stress. They were rather new (about 6 weeks.) and extremely shy. I hardly handle any of them at all.

I think I'll mix a half brick in part of the tank to test the sand. i'm not sure of the gallons, its 30x10x18. In general, while shy, most seem happy with the climbing and tunneling like crazy.

Thanks again.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:07 pm

Just be careful about mixing sand and "wood based" substrates. If you use heating units on the underside of the tat, the wood dries the hermies out too much. I hated switching to sand after getting the units but my hermies seem to be thriving in their humid, soggy, sandy home! I do try to change it out once a month, as the droppings are easily visible in sand only.