How oftern do you need to clean your crabitat

[meluchja]

Just wondering if someone can tell me, how long is o.k. to go inbetween sand changes?? I'm thinking about changing over to cocofiber, but again, how often do you need to change it? And do you throw it out and use a new bunch or do you clean it somehow?
Thanks.

[krabby_katie]

Since I have a big tank (40 gallons), I only clean out my tank every few months. When I clean it out I usually throw out the old and put new stuff in.

[CrabbyJo]

From what I've read, most people deep clean every 3 to 6 months. Throwing out or cleaning and re-using depends on your substrate. If you have to use play sand, I would throw it out when deep cleaning.
I personally don't recommend using play sand after all I've read and after finding a ton of metal filings in mine when I ran a magnet through it (Quickrete brand):
http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... 32&forum=5

EE should also be thrown out and replaced. Both are relatively cheap substrates.
Aragonite oolitic sand (From Carib-Sea)can be washed, sterilized and re-used many many times. I use Aragonite sand myself.

That's the extent of my knowledge.

[meluchja]

Thanks for all your help guys.

I feel terrible though, I don't know which sand mine is How would I know. I buy it from the pet store, it's not calisand, just a pure white sand, that comes up clean when i do the magnet trick. They sell it as hermit sand. Hope this is ok

So I'm putting together my new tank 20"x10ish"x12ish", ready to move them over is about a week. So I'm thinking that a deep clean would be neccessary every 1-2 months, would that sound about right??? I guess I'll just go by how dirty and smelly it gets

Thanks again for all your help, it's soooooooooooooooooooo appreciated.

P.S Think I'm getting addicted here

[emmac350]

I'd steer away from most stuff that's marketed for hermit crabs. I am not sure, but I think that stuff is similar to calcisand. I'd recommend a reef sand (can get it in 25 lb bags) or an Aragonite sand (sugar grain or select grain). The aragonite sugar grain sand feels SO soft...I'd dig in it if I could, so I know the crabs will like it.