Spritzing the sand.....

Kelly Z. · Post by **Kelly Z.** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:45 am

I saw on a site that I should use salt water if I spritz my sand. Then went to another and it said NOT to. Now that I have been doing this like 4 different times...are my crabs in danger? All 4 of them have been buried for a week now. It's a 20 gal. tank with 5 in. of sand/ substrate in it. Also, I have some Aquarium salt that I'd like to finish before I buy another, and I will be buying the Ocean Salt Water products from here on out. ( but still won't spritz the sand with it.)The direction on the salt says to use 1 rounded tsp. per gallon of water...is that the ratio I should go with or is that not strong enough? What would be your reccomendation as to the ratio if what the directions say isn't accurate for haermit crabs? PLEASE HELP!!

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:10 pm

First spritzing with salt water is completely fine it wont hurt the crabs at all though you might have noticed a nice salt deposit film starting to show on the glass walls of the enlcosure.lolInstant Ocean and Oceanics are the only two types of Marine grade Aquarium salts I use though there have been a few members from overseas who have used the Red Sea aquarium salt brand with great success.All three above listed salt brands say to use 8tbls spoons of salt to one gallon of dechlorinated fresh water to make full strength sea water which is the ratio you should be using which means that the salt you bought isn't going to last long at all mixing it the correct ratio, You can get a ten gallon box of Instan Ocean for 12 or 13 dollars and it will last quite a while, back when I used the ten gallon boxes I could go three or four months in between boxes though I was able to find a 50 gallon box of Instant Ocean four years ago and still have not even used half of it yet.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:39 pm

Be careful if misting because it can cause over condensation and pooling in the bottom part of tank. Then you are just asking for tank of troubles

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:32 am

@Laurie, thanks for catching what I missed, I should have said something about that in my original post but I'm exhausted had bad allergic reaction to something and my arms broke out in something between a blistering and hives so I've been taking some very powerful medication at night to clear the issue up and this has been going on for several days now and I'm constantly in a fog because of the meds.lol

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:25 am

i just use filtered water

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:27 am

but yeah when you spritz, don't do it too much unless absolutely neccessary!

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:26 am

It sounds like you have the API brand that is designed to make fresh water slightly brackish(salty but not like the ocean) for certain types of fish. In this case like previously stated it won't hurt to spray with it in that ratio but if using it for their drinking/bathing water it should be considerably saltier. The salt water is suggested to use on eco earth to help prevent mold/mildew but the sand really doesn't matter. You could get a build up of salt though so I don't spray mine with it. And if your having to spray everyday there is another issue going on you should only have to spray the sub about once a week. It is very easy to over soak the substrate causing problems for the crabs. Here are some threads about salt water.salt water info salt water info