What kind of sand should I use?

[soccer50]

Okay so I have had hermit crabs for a few years now and have never used sand.
I live by the shore and I was wondering if I could use beach sand?

I know a lot of other peolpe on this site have said to use the play sand you can buy from stores but I dont really see how that is much better than natural sand.

Pleaseeee let me know what to use!
Thanks in advance.

[emmac350]

People on this site don't recommend playsand - we generally recommend against it. Playsand grains have rough edges that can scratch your crab's abdomen. If you look here, you will see the difference between playsand (bottom picture) and what quite a few of us on the forum use (top pictures). I generally recommend against using beach sand from a public beach. Between boaters and swimmers, the sand can be contaminated with gasoline, oil, sunscreen, non crab-safe foods, etc. The sand in the top picture is what I use - it's CaribSea brand aragonite sand (sugar or select grain size). Aragonite sands are made of Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and oolitic means that the grains are round. This won't have the contaminants found in public beach sand.

[soccer50]

Okay Thanks

[ladybug15057]

Not knowing what country you're from (you have not filled this information in and it can help us to help you more) the U>S. has also had oil spills and such from hurricanes as well as other pollutants that wash from the streams and creeks into the ocean. Many ocean shores along the U.S. are also experiencing significant erosion due to nature and man. Some beaches carry a heavy fine if one is caught carting off sand from it. Some beaches have also resorted to rebuilding their shorelines. Thing being not all are using sand either:

http://crabbywiki.com/tiki-index.php?pa ... ss+or+sand

[vckums]

I use a sand from Home Depot. It's a Monterey Beach sand. I've been using it over 4 years now with no issues. You can also find it at Toys' R us or any other home type store. Since it's your first time using it, I'd suggest sifting it to make sure you see no bugs or anything that shouldn't be in there.

[ladybug15057]

I did a bit of a quick search, and it seems possibly well... it isn't too recommended either:

Monterey beach sand
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/new-s ... -sand.html

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/misc/ ... -sand.html

To try to search this product actually doesn't bring up too much info other than the fish forum. Not even a MSDS?

http://www.google.com/search?client=fir ... gle+Search

[soccer50]

Thanks everyone
I do live in the US ( sorry thought I filled everything out that was to be )
and I have almost I guess you could say my own beach. Its private and shared between just me and my neighbor. I will go to look at better sand today

[vckums]

Guess you can say I've trialed it. 4+ years is a good amount of time for a trial. As for the links, it's a reef site. It's safe, I'll promote it as safe to use because of my experience with it.

[CrabbyJo]

Vicki, it's good to hear you've had good results with it.
It would be nice if more people would trial it as well and report their results.
Those two forums do recommend the aragonite sand as it has the calcium buffering qualities they mentioned.
So the calcium would be one thing the Monetery Beach sand lacks, so in this sense the Aragonite sand is far superior.

I believe it comes down to cost, ultimately. If one must go cheap, I think I would rather myself go with the Monterey beach sand rather than play sand, but would definitely go for the Aragonite if it is within financial reach. Myself, I am willing to fork out the extra dough, even though it means I have to tighten the belt a bit (40# will cost me $80 here).

For my iso's, I choose to just go with EE, as that is the easiest to replace and cheapest route to go.
After dragging a magnet through that playsand I bought, I'll never use that stuff again!

[ladybug15057]

Possibly this play sand is found on the west coast? Majority of postings I have read regarding play sand from either Lowe's or Home DePot the name is "Quickrete"? (as well as what is carried in my local area as well) And another note that was also stated on the older CSJ host, one must also take into consideration where the sand was manufactured at. (I will search through some of the archives on the older host that was saved to see if I can find further info on this...) The query (sp) that mined/packaged the one sold in Calif. May not also sell that sand further east.
And I am quite aware that the site is to a reef site. Is not other creatures and sites how some of the information has been found regarding hermies in the past? If a substrate would be considered safe in a fish/reef aquarium chances are super high it is safe for our hermies. There has been a LOT more research done regarding fish as opposed to our hermies, they are not considered by majority of the public or scientific fields as disposable pets.
A little note too, originally majority of the foods on the do not feed list were listed because they were poisonous to cats, dogs, birds, human, reptiles, etc. Same as many of the safe foods.

Edited to add:
I would be curious to see a close up picture of the play sand as the one was done in this link to compare it to:

http://crabbywiki.com/tiki-index.php?pa ... Substrates