Concrete and hermit crab Health

 

 

  

 

   

 

 

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[karbon]

Hi I'm building a fountain and I've had to resort to using quick drying concrete to cement the rocks together, my question is what are the health risks with using concrete for their environment.

Its an achoring cement that says it has no special curing needed, basic sand water mixture.

My real concern is less of the cement used to "weld" the rock together as much as I need to make a collection dish at the bottom to make it a waterfall and I think the easiest way to customize something like that would be to build it out of concrete soaked papertowel almost like a papermachette or however its spelled lol.

Anyways, here's what I have so far.


http://picasaweb.google.ca/KarbonXIII/Crabs_1?feat=directlink
For more.

[vckums]

I can't think of why not to use it safety wise. My question would be for the waterfall collection bowl. I want to say cement tends to soak up water, so might not work unless there's some sort of sealant. But I did send off your thread for someone to look at. Hopefully more members will chip in with their thoughts on this.

[willow111]

Yes, i think the cement will be okay for the safety.
Your waterfall looks like it's off to a good start!

[froggz37]

You'll want to be very careful on how you cure the cement. Cause it to cure too fast and it could become crumbly. It would also weaken the structure using paper towel inside the bowl structure. Decent instructions can be found in the following link.http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_aquarium_background.php

Wet cement is very caustic and can cause severe burns, that alone has kept me from using it to make the artificial backgrounds and hideouts that I have made for my reptiles with grout and sealer.

[vckums]

Thank you Froggz! It's a bummer about the cement not being good to use.

[karbon]

I can see how wet cement wouldnt want to be something you use, but they use cement in koi ponds and aquariums, zoos practically everywhere, they sell concrete water dishes too.

[One_Onion]

You could use Habba-Crete. They claim it's perfectly safe and will not affect the pH of the water. Which brings me to another thing. Most concretes, if I remember correctly, will change the pH of the water. You've got to soak it in some vinegar or something for a few weeks. You'll probaby find something on google if you do a quick search.

[froggz37]

I can see how wet cement wouldnt want to be something you use, but they use cement in koi ponds and aquariums, zoos practically everywhere, they sell concrete water dishes too.

And all of that concrete has been allowed to cure, and treated and then sealed. Its not bare raw concrete.   

[karbon]

So anchoring cement needs to be sealed with what?

[LordRhal]

Couldn`t you seal it with some clear silicone? Would that be adequate or would it not stay on the cement

[karbon]

would be hard to cover without making it look like crap.

[emmac350]

If you use an actual bowl (as opposed to making one yourself), it could have one major advantage - as your crabs grow, you can change the bowl to a deeper or bigger one to allow them to submerge. It'd be hard to do that if you had to make (and cure and seal) a bowl every time.

   This is Wasabi. He is a PP, (Purple Pincher) and sadly, he has passed on. He was the biggest out of all the crabs I have owned so far, and out of them all, he lived the longest. He lived about 6-7 months.

~Hermies4Ever~

Land hermit crabs store a small amount of water in their shells just to keep their gills wet, thus allowing them to breath.