help drying sand!

[Scorp guy]

Hi guys, well, i have a solfugid coming soon, but thats besides the point.

I have 5" of sand in a ten gallon aquarium, and ive been trying to dry it out since last night, and i mix it up and around, but it just keeps getting wetter and wetter towards the bottom!? how can i dry this out, without clumping it, so i have some nice, loose, burrowable sand. please help, asap if you can.

 

[Scorp guy]

anybody

 

[Deolok]

Remove it and cook it... or take it all out on to a flat piece of plywood and let it air out...best guess. And if its wet at the bottom like the deepest inch or so, it should be fine.

 

[Scorp guy]

bake it huh? would a microwave work?

 

[Brian S]

Baaaah!!! Go set it outside in the sun. Right now its hot enough to dry it out w/o having to cook it.

 

[PIter]

Place a long tube over the false bottom tube and suck up the water. Though make sure you don't get it in your mouth, trust me it's not nice!:8o

 

[twirl and kill]

or you can put a lamp over the talk and let the heat and light of it dry out,dont worry about it clumping when it drys you can smash the clumps out with your hands.

 

[JSN]

think heat...and ventilation...

 

[Michiel]

What are you going to house in this enclosure??? For a lot of desertspecies (that live in a burrow!!) it is beneficial that the bottomlayer is more moist than the top layer. Remember, they dig burrows in their natural habitat and at the end of the burrow it is more moist than at the entrance of the burrow.....
So there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Deolok]

M made a good point, let the bottom soil or bottom layer be moist. And the top more dry and erid. But dry the sand out first and then make a bottom layer out of coco-fibers or something and make sure its really damp then place at least 3-4" of sand over it.

Would anyone recommend starting a burrow with his hand, perhaps like making a small trench that left about an inch or two between the top sand and the damp material underneath it?

 

[Ryan C.]

Pre starting a burrow is unneeded but somtimes done up against the glass so you can see the scorpion in its burrow.

 

[Deolok]

Lol, I know its not necissary, but it sometimes looks more like apart of their natural habitats and they might appreciate or something... I dont know, sounds kinda childish, but one up against the glass doesn't sound like a bad idea.

 

[Scorp guy]

thanks guys.
\
The solfugid arrived, and is doing terrific! its a 3" egyptian solfugid I put a heat lamp over the top, and kept it to one side to avoid overheating. it still never dried Oh well, ill keep it moist like you guys said.

BTW, this playsand is a piece of $&^* lol. It had rocks, and grit and gravel in it:wall: I hate to rehouse this poor lil guy, but the gravel is worse on him. Dumb...whatchamacallit brand.

 

[Deolok]

Ha, was it tube sand or something like that? Or was it the type ya buy at walmart for sand boxes?

 

[Michiel]

I dug my Scorpio maurus palmatus a 45 degree angled burrow, and she (I guess it is a she, but i'm only 50% sure) loves it! She made the burrow wider at the bottom as they tend to do.......

It depends on the scorpion if a predugburrow is beneficial, maybe they get more exercise if they dig the burrows themselves...

 

[Deolok]

I think it might at first create a small shelter for the scorpion before they begin their own burrow. Its like digging a cave in a quary, ya basically got your work cut out for ya. So I really dont see any problem in doing some thing like this to help your scorp out.