Normal farming only works if you do 4-5 cantina energy refreshes, 3+ fleet energy refreshes, & 3+ regular energy refreshes, plus at least one refresh of each hard node each day.
That's 5-700 crystals for cantina energy, 3-500 crystals for fleet energy, 2-400 crystals for regular energy. Since a player getting 1st place in both arenas earns 900 crystals a day, the only one a player can sustain that level of farming is if they had a "stash" of 15-20k crystals that they can start burning through.