Excavator clay/playsand mixing 70/30 pls help

Malystryx

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I have a 20 gallon tank for hadrurus arizonensis. I bought 10 pounds of excavator clay and 100 pounds of washed playsand. How do I mix the two properly? I want to do 70/30 but I've never used excavator clay before and I don't know how to do the mixing. No one on these forums seems to know how.

Can someone please explain what I need to do???
 

The Snark

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How compacted is the clay? Can it be easily broken up into fully loose material - which is what you have to do. Aggregate companies normally run hard clays through the crush simply for convenience. Once it is loose material, unless you have a concrete mixer, make two piles of the correct proportions and grab the hoe.
 

Malystryx

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How compacted is the clay? Can it be easily broken up into fully loose material - which is what you have to do. Aggregate companies normally run hard clays through the crush simply for convenience. Once it is loose material, unless you have a concrete mixer, make two piles of the correct proportions and grab the hoe.
What? Idk the bag says to add 3 cups of water to 10 gallon of excavator clay but does that mean like measuring cup used for cooking? Also, do I mix the clay with water first and then add it to the playsand, or do I just mix the 70/30 then add 3 cups of water? Also how do I mix 70/30
 

The Snark

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3 cups or 2/3rds of a quart water to the clay, mixing until uniform consistency. They are using volume measurements and appear to want to break up the clay with sand, making it more workable.

So make a test batch. Start with a quart of clay, add 1/8th to 1/4 cup of water then add 2 1/3rd quarts of sand and mix thoroughly. Does the mix appear to be what is desired?
This is assuming it is 30 clay to 70 sand. If it is the other way around, the consistency seems wrong, reverse it by adding 4 1/2 more quarts clay to the mix you just made and 1/2 cup more water.
Then just use the quart measuring containers for the rest.
Add the water very sparingly. This is what is indicated by their formula.


To clarify, going by the numbers you gave. By volume, 24 ounces of water, 10 gallons of clay and 23 gallons of sand. Mix water and clay first, then add sand.
 
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Malystryx

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Yes 70 sand and 30 clay.

Okay so I am still very confused. I am familiar with cups but not quarts but I do have a quart container so Google says 4 cups is equal to one quart.

Also, if I wanted 30/70 can't I just dump the ten pounds of clay in a bucket and then add 30 pounds of sand, and then I read somewhere that it doesn't matter how much water I add as long as it is completely dry before I put the scorpion.

I am very sorry that I am hard to talk to it is just hard for me to grasp math type stuff. Please be patient with me.
 

Malystryx

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Like, if 10 pounds of excavator clay is 30%,how many pounds is that 70 of sand? I have a scale I can just weigh out the 70% amount and add the 30 and the 70 and then add water to it, right inside the tank and mix it up
 

Malystryx

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10 pounds clay =30%

10 pounds of sand, total 60% now, add 30% 10 pound sand, now 90% 10 pound clay 20 pound sand final 10% 1/3 of 10 pounds about 3 so I need 10 pounds of clay and 23 pounds of sand. Is my math right???
 

The Snark

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Yes, and no. Math correct but they were going by volume, not weight. But the two should be similar. Clay is significantly denser so if you go by weight, back off the amount of clay by about 5-10%
 

viper69

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I have a 20 gallon tank for hadrurus arizonensis. I bought 10 pounds of excavator clay and 100 pounds of washed playsand. How do I mix the two properly? I want to do 70/30 but I've never used excavator clay before and I don't know how to do the mixing. No one on these forums seems to know how.

Can someone please explain what I need to do???
There's a few people on the forum who have used this for both scorps and Ts. I haven't. Also, there's a scientific study examining scorp burrow formation and how it varies depending up on the substrate composition too (can find that on Google just like I did).

In terms of mixing- contact the manufacturer, they will know, unless they have never tested w/sand.
 

Malystryx

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I made this thread so someone can tell me what I need to do and explain it, the manufacturer isn't going to know specifics on hadrurus arizonensis... Please can someone help me
 

viper69

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I made this thread so someone can tell me what I need to do and explain it, the manufacturer isn't going to know specifics on hadrurus arizonensis... Please can someone help me
I know why you made it :rolleyes:

1. Have you even searched google? There's a lot of info on this product, sand and scorps including your species. Took me 2 seconds to find the specific answer to your question.


2. Quite a few Prod Managers actually own the animals the product is designed for or can be used for. You are asking for input on a common species too, however you'll never know if you don't call and just assume they don't know.

I was at a reptile show recently and I was asking about this specific product as I've been thinking about using it off/on for a couple of years. The woman I spoke with owns a variety of tarantulas and uses this product for them. Of course that doesn't specifically help you, but it is worth calling.

You have nothing to lose but a few minutes of time by making a phone call or emailing.
 

Malystryx

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shebeen gives a pretty good explanation in the below thread.
http://arachnoboards.com/threads/mi...h-sand-for-hadrurus-arizonensis.237468/page-2

I think it may be a good idea to do some small test batches first to get the result you are happy with.

Hmm okay shebeen makes it seem like I can just figure out the ratio like I did in my math problem and just dump it all in a bucket mix it up and just dump it in tank and push it down. So, I will do 15 pounds of ex clay and 26 pounds of sand and it should be fine because it says any mixture between 10%-30% is fine, so as long as I aim for between 20-30 I'll be good, just throw it all together add water and bam done, am I right???
 

The Snark

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Seems like you will be fine. But always make a test batch to be sure.

From working with aggregates and concrete there are a couple of things to always watch for. 1. Ending up making 'sandy loam'. After it dries out a bit is has no cohesiveness. This is the main cause of cave ins, large and small. Usually caused by dirty or dusty clay or sand. You have probably encountered this now and then with concrete. After a year or two it turns into crud, crumbling into crap. Commonest cause, when they wash the sand they aren't careful, or they just BSed the customer and sold unwashed sand that looked 'good enough'. 2. There is clay then there is clay. Get the wrong stuff, that is what they make red clay pots out of. A few moistenings and dryings and it might as well be concrete. Think adobe bricks.
 

vespers

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I've used it before, shebeen's instructions are fine. The percentages don't have to be exact; wild substrate attributes are not exact in consistency and friability.
 
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