I made a water thing UPDATED

[Astronna]

Hmm... I guess to me "built in" is synonymous with "in-ground". I suppose that is incorrect. Sorry for the confusion.

[ErikRasmussen]

Built ins are usually siliconed to the tank and pretty permanent. They also take up substrate room, my last pools were glass bowls with rocks siliconed to them but one of my crabs outgrew them so i improvised lol

[JamieL]

The pools look great. I'm setting up a 55, I'm trying to figure out the water situation. I may steal your idea.

[ErikRasmussen]

They are still going strong, i haven't had to patch up any holes. I was able to tear off the needlepoint canvas molding around the rocks while still keeping them in a good shape and it is easy to clean.

The one thing I will do differently next time is find a critter keeper or glass container that is a uniform shape. This pool gets wider towards the top and prevents me from putting it in the tank width wise. It only has four convenient places I can put it, one in each corner.

[Just Jay]

Looks great!I have a Kroger in a keeper for both pools. I have been wanting to add rocks like this to it and love the idea of attaching the rocks to craft mesh.

Also since glass was mentioned I personally do not like the idea since glass dishes are so heavy and deep pools are already very heavy when fully filled.

[ErikRasmussen]

UPDATE:

The mesh started falling off but the rocks held together really well it was cool! Every time I cleaned them out i checked to see if water was leaking and last week they started leaking about a drop per 2 minutes. So I decided it was time to upgrade to glass. I went to the thrift shop and got two square tallish glasses and just siliconed the rocks right on. It is deep enough for my biggest crap and doesnt displace water like the round ones. (Pictures coming soon)

[LadyJinglyJones]

I. LOVE. IT.

Es are absurdly cute - like 4 wk. old kitten cute, or baby gecko cute... but they never grow up and stop being that cute!!!

Suffice it to say, I like your pics of crebs exploring pools, and have nothing constructive to add to this convo.

Edit - I think people use glass dishes less because the nesting method is popular for protecting dumb molters who make their caves under water dishes. It's hard to find tightly nesting glass dishes. .. you tend to lose more sub space with poorly nested glassware.

[aprilmay]

the Es are sooooooo cute! very envious of your large tank and giant pools, so pretty!

I did this for my 20gl tall.


like LadyJinglyJones said, it was hard to find an outside container to nest these in. but i got lucky and found a plastic container that mostly match these two's dimension. I added a cholla wood in the gap.
the upper container for pinecone and cholla were the outer nesting container.

how it looks in the tank, nested.

then i added a fish net on top to serve as bridge between the two as well as adding texture to the edge so they could walk around the perimeters. my PPs don't seem to like swimming but they like to stand on the edge or walks down a tiny bit to drink.


I've seen my PP drinking along all sides of these pools. and my smallest has fallen in twice when climbing to the moss pit above. both times, it climbed right back up, so the silicon "wave" + rock + net combo seems to work.

it has only been a week. But i already realized what Just Jay said earlier, it is really hard to get those glass pools in and out since they are heavy when filled with water! i think next time i will stick to plastic tapper ware...

[ErikRasmussen]

Interesting thought about the glass. Lately I have really started enjoying working with glass as climbing things for my crabs, the shell shop, moss pit and pools are glass. I also recently found a long straight vase that I am going to turn into some kind of a tunnel. My Es love trying to walk on glass because its the one thing they cant climb. As for how heavy it is I have not noticed that being a problem.

Correct me if I am wrong (because I very well might be) but aren't pine cones (or other woods with residue such as sap) bad for crabs?

Also thanks I love my Es, they are active for 48+ hours at a time and they love it when I rearrange the tank.

[aprilmay]

pine cones are on the safe food list.
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 25&t=92557
i've seen it in a few crabitat photos here. remember came across someone explaining that pine is not safe but pinecone is okay. crabs love climbing it.

one example

[ErikRasmussen]

Oh neat ill have to go and get some. Also here is a pic of my updated water thing.

A bit more conventional and slightly smaller. Sort of a cross between my old ones and new ones. Simplicity always works best.

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[aprilmay]

Oh neat ill have to go and get some. Also here is a pic of my updated water thing.

A bit more conventional and slightly smaller. Sort of a cross between my old ones and new ones. Simplicity always works best.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

LOVE it! i was thinking of above ground pools too! i think without the nesting makes it easier to take in and out.
what's the dimension of those jars? mine is 4x4x4, so i couldn't put in too much stuff since my bigger crab needs almost the entire space if they ever submerge...

[ErikRasmussen]

5x5x4. Yeah for the longest time I had round bowls covered in stones but my biggest crab kept displacing too much water so I needed something steeper. And above ground pools just make more sense now, i can see them swim, they dont have that much room to climb and I need all the sub space i can get with Es.

[ErikRasmussen]

Also since glass was mentioned, I had these pools and this glass miss out on with all my crabs molting and didn't have any problems. Also I modified the glass miss out to include a shell shop.

My Es love climbing on glass it's weird. I have another modification on the way.

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