UTH on the Side of Tank vs. On the Bottom?

[CrabbyMommy2017]

@GotButterflies

Today in between my children's therapy appointments I stopped at the store and had a picture printed of my Peanut. When we got done with all of our therapies for the day, I framed it and put it on the mantle in our dining room. I had put a picture of Peanut as the wallpaper on my phone but my daughter kept asking, "Where is Peanut?"

My son has autism and sometimes it's difficult to discern exactly what he does and does not understand. But I think my son actually does understand that Peanut has died. My son is a year-and-a-half older than my daughter.

My daughter's diagnosis has not yet been established. She has a lot of developmental delays and difficulties, but we have been told that she doesn't actually have autism.

Since she is only two years old I don't think she really understands that Peanut is not coming back. My daughter used to keep a very close eye on Peanut. Whenever Peanut got out of sight she would ask, "Where's Peanut?" It still stings a little bit when my daughter says this and I have to explain to her that Peanut died and went to heaven.

My son is now showing signs of fear when we are walking through the parking lot. He also has Mixed Receptive Expressive Language Disorder, so a lot of the time when he speaks I can understand what he's saying when most people can't. It's pretty clear to me at this point that my son understands that Peanut got hit by a car. That's been difficult to deal with when we have to go to therapy 4 - 6 times a week, as well as all of the errands that we run, when we are trying to walk from the car to the building through a parking lot.

Peanut's death has put some things into perspective for me. She was a true and faithful companion and im having a hard time coping with her death. With my OCD its come out quite a bit. Every day since Peanut died ive been re-arranging furniture and organizing things that dont really need to be any more organized than they already are.

Im pretty artistic and crafty, but im not sure i really have the proper skill to make a portrait of my Peanut. Ive tried to make her grave as beautiful as i can though and remember the good times i had with her.

[Hermias_mom]

Just hang in there!!! I am thinking of you, and very sad for you, and wishing I could send you hugs.

I sent you a PM.

[CrabbyMommy2017]

Finally getting back to you @Hermias_mom

The lid that my husband fabricated for me out of metal is working out very well. He basically took a square piece of metal, hemmed the edges on all four sides (so its not sharp), cut a hole in the middle of it and welded a metal screen over the circular hole that he cut (that is just about the same size as the circular opening for the light fixture that sits on top of it). The metal square doesn't seem to be getting hot at all, just the circular screen which is welded into it; so that makes it easy on me when I'm trying to get to the water bowls and such. I don't have to worry about getting an oven mitt just to be able to pick up the lid and change the water and such. LOL.

A funny side note about the other three plexiglass panels that make up the top of the tank: we used what we had on hand and available that was free, so the other three panels (which are not the metal lid for the heat light) are made up from the windshield of a rail buggy vehicle that my dad gave us. My husband cut them to size and then drilled a thumb hole in the end of them so that I could remove them easily. He also cut the corner off of one of them just barely so that the air hose for the bubbler bowl could go down into the tank. Hey, it does the job, and it was free!

I'm really not sure what type of metal he used to make the lid that the heat lamp sits on. I've been meaning to ask him that but keep forgetting. Most of the things that he makes at work are made for commercial kitchens. So I'm assuming that this material is resistant to rust. There doesn't seem to be any condensation on it, and none of the decor (and especially not the crabs) are close enough to touch it.

I still have not moved the under tank heaters from the bottom to the side of the tank. I have a big issue right now with that. The tank is sitting on a countertop bar area that is located in our mud room. I think it would be pretty easy to slide the tank over the edge so that I could reach the tank heaters and rip them off of the bottom. There are two of them and they're fairly small. They only cover about a 12 by 12 inch square put together. They're definitely not wide enough to cover the entire back of the tank above the substrate level. Another issue is that we used small spacers to make sort of like feet for the corners of the tank and the middle on the front and the back. We did this to create space between the tank and the surface of the countertop so that the cords would not be smashed by the side of the tank. When we go to slide the tank over to the edge to take the substrate heaters off of the bottom we will have to be very careful about removing the spacers as we slide the tank. Once we have taken the heaters off of the bottom of the tank there will be no more need to have the spacers though.

I like the idea of wrapping styrooam in aluminum foil. As soon as I can get ahold of some styrofoam I'm going to put it all along the back of the tank. We just threw away a bunch of styrofoam that came as packing material with a cabinet that we had purchased. It sucks that we already threw it away before I found out about the styrofoam trick.

I can't afford any new equipment for the hermit crab tank for a few weeks. It's just not in the budget right now. Using the space heater has definitely kept the tank warm enough. So I'm not terribly worried about the fact that I can't afford the proper under tank heater to mount on the entire back surface of the tank right now. We normally use that space heater in one room of our house which does not have air flow from the HVAC unit to our home. But it's summertime right now so that space heater is not needed in its regular place anyway. Thankfully that buys me some time to purchase the proper under tank heater that I need for the hermit crabs.

As soon as I can get ahold of some large pieces of styrofoam I am going to go ahead and insulate the back wall of the tank (as you described with aluminum foil), without the under tank heater in place, (except the small ones i already have, those i will use). I know this is not the way you had mentioned to set it up but I think it would still do some good in the meantime while I wait for money to become available in the budget to purchase what I actually need. I wouldn't have thought of that and I really thank you as well as everyone here for all of the good tips, tricks and techniques for achieving the proper environment and setup for the crabs.

The crabs seem to be happy with the setup now. I did go ahead and do the complete overhaul like I described, minus moving the under tank heaters to the side of the tank that is. I'm going to have to have help from my husband for that part. All of the water bowls, food bowls and moss pit are completely accessible and easy to get to now.

The crabs still have plenty of hiding places. Some of the decor had to be removed. But the substrate level is now deep enough in every part of the tank and I believe I have left the two buried crabs undisturbed by only putting about an inch per day of substrate over the areas where they are buried. Thankfully I watched them close enough to know exactly where they are buried at.

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to post pictures. LOL. I show the tank to everyone who comes to my home but I think it would be more appreciated by the people here to see all the work that I've done. I might even install that tap talk app that ive seen a lot of people here use. I'm not super tech-savvy so I've been a little intimidated to install it so far.

[daws409]

@CrabbyMommy2017 - Your posts are always so detailed!

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[KayedeeLove<3]

So sorry about your baby :'(

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[CrabbyMommy2017]

@CrabbyMommy2017 - Your posts are always so detailed!

Sent from my HTC6515LVW using Tapatalk

Its my OCD. I cant do anything that i dont do thoroughly. You should see my house. Dry erase and cork boards in every room. A binder for everything. But it comes in handy when you have kids with autism, adhd and a husband with adhd. Our famliy truly is meant for eachother.

[Hermias_mom]

CrabbyMommy2017 - Sounds like you're making great progress!!! Good for you! You gave a great description of your crabitat.

I had a few thoughts for you - marked with HM below.

Finally getting back to you @Hermias_mom

The lid that my husband fabricated for me out of metal is working out very well. He basically took a square piece of metal, hemmed the edges on all four sides (so its not sharp), cut a hole in the middle of it and welded a metal screen over the circular hole that he cut (that is just about the same size as the circular opening for the light fixture that sits on top of it). The metal square doesn't seem to be getting hot at all, just the circular screen which is welded into it; so that makes it easy on me when I'm trying to get to the water bowls and such. I don't have to worry about getting an oven mitt just to be able to pick up the lid and change the water and such. LOL.

HM: That's great that it doesn't get too hot! One less safety hazard is always a good thing!

A funny side note about the other three plexiglass panels that make up the top of the tank: we used what we had on hand and available that was free, so the other three panels (which are not the metal lid for the heat light) are made up from the windshield of a rail buggy vehicle that my dad gave us. My husband cut them to size and then drilled a thumb hole in the end of them so that I could remove them easily. He also cut the corner off of one of them just barely so that the air hose for the bubbler bowl could go down into the tank. Hey, it does the job, and it was free!

HM: Free + functional = great solution!

I'm really not sure what type of metal he used to make the lid that the heat lamp sits on. I've been meaning to ask him that but keep forgetting. Most of the things that he makes at work are made for commercial kitchens. So I'm assuming that this material is resistant to rust. There doesn't seem to be any condensation on it, and none of the decor (and especially not the crabs) are close enough to touch it.

HM: Commercial kitchen, and he said it's rust resistant. I'm going to assume 304 Stainless (aka 18-8 or 18-10 Stainless). 304 is the alloy most commonly used for commercial cookware. There are a few others, but 304 stainless is the highest quality and most widely used. As long as you don't see condensation on the metal, or corrosion byproducts, you should be fine. First sign of corrosion is often a discoloration/thin white film or powder that can't easily be wiped off. Could occur in just a few spots. The weld joint is particularly susceptible, especially if the joint is not well cleaned prior to welding, but since your husband seems to have lots of experience welding stainless, I wouldn't expect the weld joint to be an issue. Also, you're keeping the weld joint hot, which means no condensation=no corrosion. I was boiling marine saltwater in my 18-10 stainless steel pots, and I got pitting corrosion after a few uses. [What was I thinking? I should've checked...] 18-10 stainless is a great alloy for kitchens/cookware, but not for marine saltwater use. Recommended stainless steel for marine use is typically 316 stainless since it's much more resistant to pitting corrosion. [As I said, I'm still looking into the corrosion products of stainless steel and their toxicity to crabs. When I finish that I'll probably put up a post about it if the Forum doesn't already have one.] As long as your lid stays condensation free, you should be fine. And even if you get condensation, you're far enough away from the substrate and your saltwater pool that the likelihood is it's just regular water and doesn't have the marine salt in it. Plain water + 304 stainless = no corrosion. Any corrosion products, if they do appear, can be removed via wet sanding using a scotchbrite pad or steel wool and water (or rubbing alcohol for quick drying, whatever liquid you choose). Corrosion products in small amounts should stay adhered to the lid, so just check every month or two or whenever, and if you do see something, give it a good scrub and dry it out before using it again. You can use a hair dryer or heat gun to dry it out in a hurry or if it won't fit in the oven. If you use a heat gun, be sure not to burn yourself or anything else! However you heat it, be sure your weld joint and mesh is good and dry before using it again. Once corrosion starts, it typically reoccurs in the same spot more quickly. But if you have 304 stainless or a similar alloy, the likelihood you'll get corrosion at all is very low when using it as a lid far away from marine salt & marine saltwater, so really, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I still have not moved the under tank heaters from the bottom to the side of the tank. I have a big issue right now with that. The tank is sitting on a countertop bar area that is located in our mud room. I think it would be pretty easy to slide the tank over the edge so that I could reach the tank heaters and rip them off of the bottom. There are two of them and they're fairly small. They only cover about a 12 by 12 inch square put together. They're definitely not wide enough to cover the entire back of the tank above the substrate level. Another issue is that we used small spacers to make sort of like feet for the corners of the tank and the middle on the front and the back. We did this to create space between the tank and the surface of the countertop so that the cords would not be smashed by the side of the tank. When we go to slide the tank over to the edge to take the substrate heaters off of the bottom we will have to be very careful about removing the spacers as we slide the tank. Once we have taken the heaters off of the bottom of the tank there will be no more need to have the spacers though.

HM: FYI, when removing UTHs, try not to peel them up. They need to stay as flat as possible. If they bend too much, they break. I used a thin metal icing spatula (or putty knife might work) to cut the adhesive bond between the tank and my ZooMed and All Living Things UTHs. Once I moved them, of course, the adhesive was all pilled up, but I just taped the sides and it works for now.

I like the idea of wrapping styrooam in aluminum foil. As soon as I can get ahold of some styrofoam I'm going to put it all along the back of the tank. We just threw away a bunch of styrofoam that came as packing material with a cabinet that we had purchased. It sucks that we already threw it away before I found out about the styrofoam trick.

I can't afford any new equipment for the hermit crab tank for a few weeks. It's just not in the budget right now. Using the space heater has definitely kept the tank warm enough. So I'm not terribly worried about the fact that I can't afford the proper under tank heater to mount on the entire back surface of the tank right now. We normally use that space heater in one room of our house which does not have air flow from the HVAC unit to our home. But it's summertime right now so that space heater is not needed in its regular place anyway. Thankfully that buys me some time to purchase the proper under tank heater that I need for the hermit crabs.

HM: Way to innovate!

As soon as I can get ahold of some large pieces of styrofoam I am going to go ahead and insulate the back wall of the tank (as you described with aluminum foil), without the under tank heater in place, (except the small ones i already have, those i will use). I know this is not the way you had mentioned to set it up but I think it would still do some good in the meantime while I wait for money to become available in the budget to purchase what I actually need. I wouldn't have thought of that and I really thank you as well as everyone here for all of the good tips, tricks and techniques for achieving the proper environment and setup for the crabs.

HM: WARNING - DO NOT INSULATE any heater besides the Ultratherm brand under tank heaters. Folks on this forum have narrowly avoided having a fire due to unintended insulation of a ZooMed UTH. Anything but the Ultratherm brand is not designed to be insulated (manufacturer says it comes "pre-insulated" - I don't think much of their insualtion but anyway- ). From your description above, I couldn't tell exactly what you were planning to do. Insulating around the UTHs you currently have is okay, but don't insulate on top of them. If you put the UTHs you have on the back of the tank, I'd do cutouts for them in all the insulation, i.e. place the heaters on the tank so they line up with the cutouts in the insulation.

HM: Glad you liked the insulation idea though - GotButterflies told me about that one, and it works nicely for me. Were you planning to insulate opposite to where you are pointing the space heater at? Or I think you said you were pointing the space heater at one end of the tank, and you plan to insulate the back. That should help keep your temps up - I should think it will help slow down the loss of the heat you introduce with the space heater.

The crabs seem to be happy with the setup now. I did go ahead and do the complete overhaul like I described, minus moving the under tank heaters to the side of the tank that is. I'm going to have to have help from my husband for that part. All of the water bowls, food bowls and moss pit are completely accessible and easy to get to now.

The crabs still have plenty of hiding places. Some of the decor had to be removed. But the substrate level is now deep enough in every part of the tank and I believe I have left the two buried crabs undisturbed by only putting about an inch per day of substrate over the areas where they are buried. Thankfully I watched them close enough to know exactly where they are buried at.

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to post pictures. LOL. I show the tank to everyone who comes to my home but I think it would be more appreciated by the people here to see all the work that I've done. I might even install that tap talk app that ive seen a lot of people here use. I'm not super tech-savvy so I've been a little intimidated to install it so far.

Congratulations on the happy crabs!!! Happy crabs = happy crabbers lol

[CrabbyMommy2017]

@Hermias_mom

So ive looked up the Ultratherm brand uth in the size i need and have that webpage bookmarked for later (when funds become available). Heeding your warning, I'm going to leave everything exactly like it is until I can afford the ultratherm. It seems to be working out okay like it is so I think that will be fine. The ultratherm is not as expensive as I thought it was so maybe I'll be able to afford that a little bit sooner than i had expected.

As for insulating the back of the tank, my husband told me that he has some extra material left from where he did the ceiling out and his workshop. This is an insulation material that is much like sheetrock. On one side it has the foil and on the other side it is kind of paper like the surface of regular sheetrock. It would only be the back side of the tank that I would be covering. I have the two short ends of the tank setup in such a way so that I can view the crabs, but they still have a good hiding place there. I think that this material my husband is offering to me will work just as good as the styrofoam and aluminum trick, if not better. For now I will hold off on any of that until we get the ultratherm.

I have to note that I find your knowledge about metals quite impressive and I think my husband would enjoy a good conversation with you. LOL. He has been a welder and metal fabricator for over 10 years now. Before he worked at this place (which specializes in mostly industrial kitchen equipment) he worked at another place that handled all kinds of metal fabrication. He is an expert at hand rails and fencing. He has been working at his new job for a few years now. He loves it there but at first it was kind of boring to him to only be making kitchen equipment, when at his last job he would make anything and everything. I listen to what he has to say and I find a lot of it interesting, but sometimes I get lost in the conversation because I don't work with metal myself.

Since introducing the heat lamp above the tank Ive made some observations. The crabs seem to love it. Most of the time when they are just hanging out I find them somewhere under the light. They seem to be testing out different areas and hiding places which are located right underneath the heat lamp.

I have noticed it to be true what people say about a heat lamp drying out your substrate though. When I first set up the tank I used a full bag of play sand and 3 bricks of coconut fiber. I prepared the coconut fiber according to the package directions. It said it only took 30 to 40 minutes to decompress in the amount of water instructed. They totally lied! Each brick soaking in the amount of water instructed took over night to completely decompress. There was a lot of excess water as well with each brick. I left the excess water and just combined everything together. This left the completed substrate at just the right consistency.

Before adding the heat lamp the substrate was staying at the right consistency. I rarely had to mist the tank. Maybe once a week at most. Now that we have added the heat lamp I'm having to mist every single day. I am thinking of buying one of those misty mate things that people use on hot days to stay cool. It has a plunger pump top and a small hose where the mist comes out. Very similar to what you might see a pest control guy use for insecticide spraying. Just a smaller version of that and of course you don't put pesticides in it. The cheapest one I can find is about 30 bucks though. So I guess I will be using my spray bottle until the funds become available for that, because, of course, the ultratherm heater will come before the mister.

Once I get the ultra therm mounted to the back of the tank I'm not sure it will be necessary to have a heat lamp. When that time comes I will play it by ear and see what happens. We currently just have the two lights above the tank. One is the infrared heat lamp and one is the day light. The tank is so decorated that I of course want four lamps, that way you can see everything clearly. But two additional lamps on top aren't really necessary to maintaining a good environment. This would just make everything more visible to an observer. So those would be last on the list of purchases right now.

[daws409]

Just a thought, I wouldn't add a mister just yet... It may cause flooding issues with the sub. I would try adding bubblers to pools and a moss pitt first. You can also get that cocofiber climbing background and spray that 2x daily (or more)... Have you calibrated your gauges? They can get a bit wonky over time. And digital is more accurate than analog. I try to do mine at least every other month.

Edit- calibrate gauges: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=92540

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[GotButterflies]

So glad you got a portrait made of Peanut! I hope that brings you and your family comfort!

You should try drawing and painting! You may have hidden talents!! I always loved drawing. Someone asked me to paint a baby room. I said I had never done that before...next thing I was doing murals. You don't have to advertise you are doing it. Just try it! You might enjoy it! It relaxes me...unless someone puts pressure on me

I totally understand OCD- I've had it for years. I went through cognitive behavioral therapy and that helped tremendously! I found out about it through the OCD Foundation.

Family is the best! I'm glad that you have one another!


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[Hermias_mom]

CrabbyMommy2017 - Sounds like things are going well with the crabitat. That's great!!! Sounds like you've worked most things out, with a good plan forward.

I had a few thoughts for you, marked with HM below.

@Hermias_mom

So ive looked up the Ultratherm brand uth in the size i need and have that webpage bookmarked for later (when funds become available). Heeding your warning, I'm going to leave everything exactly like it is until I can afford the ultratherm. It seems to be working out okay like it is so I think that will be fine. The ultratherm is not as expensive as I thought it was so maybe I'll be able to afford that a little bit sooner than i had expected.

As for insulating the back of the tank, my husband told me that he has some extra material left from where he did the ceiling out and his workshop. This is an insulation material that is much like sheetrock. On one side it has the foil and on the other side it is kind of paper like the surface of regular sheetrock. It would only be the back side of the tank that I would be covering. I have the two short ends of the tank setup in such a way so that I can view the crabs, but they still have a good hiding place there. I think that this material my husband is offering to me will work just as good as the styrofoam and aluminum trick, if not better. For now I will hold off on any of that until we get the ultratherm.

HM: The insulation your husband suggests sounds great! If it has a higher R-value than styrofoam, it would probably work better. The higher the R-value, the more heat it should hold in the crabitat, if it's mounted with the foil side flat up against the glass/ultratherm. A general rule of thumb is the thicker the insulation the higher the R-value.
WARNING: One thing to be careful of if you're using something besides styrofoam - a lot of insulation materials create a breathing hazard - like you don't want to ever breathe dust or fibers that come off them, and many kinds of insulation just seem to drip fibers or dust. It's good that your insulation has foil and paper on the big surfaces, but I worry about the cut surfaces a bit, since I don't know the material, and I do know that sheet rock can mess you up if you breathe too much of it. I would try and cut it outside with appropriate breathing protection (like a dust mask), remove any cutting dust from the insulation surface (maybe dry wipe and vacuum and/or damp wipe and let it dry - sometimes a vacuum by itself won't suck up the dust because it's so small), and then seal up the edges before bringing it inside. Foil tape, often called HVAC tape, would work great to seal it up, if your husband has some lying around. If not, any other tape would probably do, just keep an eye on it occasionally to be sure it's not coming loose or degrading due to constant heat exposure over time.

I have to note that I find your knowledge about metals quite impressive and I think my husband would enjoy a good conversation with you. LOL. He has been a welder and metal fabricator for over 10 years now. Before he worked at this place (which specializes in mostly industrial kitchen equipment) he worked at another place that handled all kinds of metal fabrication. He is an expert at hand rails and fencing. He has been working at his new job for a few years now. He loves it there but at first it was kind of boring to him to only be making kitchen equipment, when at his last job he would make anything and everything. I listen to what he has to say and I find a lot of it interesting, but sometimes I get lost in the conversation because I don't work with metal myself.

HM: I love metal! Especially molten metal! I don't work with it so much anymore, but I still find it fascinating. I have a lot of respect for folks in your husband's profession - a good welder / metal fabricator can be hard to find, especially someone who has experience with lots of different materials and configurations.

Since introducing the heat lamp above the tank Ive made some observations. The crabs seem to love it. Most of the time when they are just hanging out I find them somewhere under the light. They seem to be testing out different areas and hiding places which are located right underneath the heat lamp.

I have noticed it to be true what people say about a heat lamp drying out your substrate though. When I first set up the tank I used a full bag of play sand and 3 bricks of coconut fiber. I prepared the coconut fiber according to the package directions. It said it only took 30 to 40 minutes to decompress in the amount of water instructed. They totally lied! Each brick soaking in the amount of water instructed took over night to completely decompress. There was a lot of excess water as well with each brick. I left the excess water and just combined everything together. This left the completed substrate at just the right consistency.

Before adding the heat lamp the substrate was staying at the right consistency. I rarely had to mist the tank. Maybe once a week at most. Now that we have added the heat lamp I'm having to mist every single day. I am thinking of buying one of those misty mate things that people use on hot days to stay cool. It has a plunger pump top and a small hose where the mist comes out. Very similar to what you might see a pest control guy use for insecticide spraying. Just a smaller version of that and of course you don't put pesticides in it. The cheapest one I can find is about 30 bucks though. So I guess I will be using my spray bottle until the funds become available for that, because, of course, the ultratherm heater will come before the mister.

HM: I think you mean like a bottle with a spray wand on the end of a hose. Usually when folks on this forum talk about misting solutions, they want to use something like a Repti-fogger. From what I've read, I agree with Daws409, Repti-foggers can flood your substrate and harm buried crabs. But I think you're talking about basically a fancy hand mister. If I had your setup, I'd wait until installing the Ultratherm to see how humidity was, and I think Daws409 gave some great solutions for increasing humidity. I'd like to second Daws409 suggestion of checking your humidity gages often, because they can read differently depending on where they are in the tank, and sometimes they can get oversaturated and not read properly for a while. A commonly recommended dual temp & humidity gage is the Acu-rite gage (example here: https://www.walmart.com/ip/AcuRite-Digi ... r/16888914 )

Once I get the ultra therm mounted to the back of the tank I'm not sure it will be necessary to have a heat lamp. When that time comes I will play it by ear and see what happens. We currently just have the two lights above the tank. One is the infrared heat lamp and one is the day light. The tank is so decorated that I of course want four lamps, that way you can see everything clearly. But two additional lamps on top aren't really necessary to maintaining a good environment. This would just make everything more visible to an observer. So those would be last on the list of purchases right now.

Sounds like things are going well with the crabs. I'm happy for you.

[CrabbyMommy2017]

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this thread more over the past week. Thank you all for your replies.

@daws409

Im finally getting a chance (& actually remembered!) to calibrate the gage today. I set an alarm for this evening to check it. Thank you for the very helpful link on exactly how to do that! The mister that I was describing would be just something that I use myself, and not actually leave in the tank. This would just save the hand cramps of misting with a spray bottle. I already have a bubbler bowl setup as well as a moss pit. One of these days I'm going to actually open up this website on my computer, and not just my smartphone, and figure out how to post pictures for y'all!

@GotButterflies

Thanks for the OCD info. I will have to look into that. Up to this point I've just been dealing with all of the different things that come along with having OCD and high anxiety. I've never really sought out any therapy for myself. But I'm learning more about OCD and high anxiety, through all the different therapies that I get my children involved in. It's funny that I never really realized how much of a problem my OCD and anxiety was until I became a mother. Part of that is also the fact that I didn't realize that people aren't as organized and finicky as me until I got married. In a way it's been a blessing. At this point in my adult life I really feel like my OCD is finally coming to some purposeful good use as I raise children with special needs.

@Hermias_mom

I have finally ordered the ultratherm uth today. It will cover the whole back wall of the tank and I will let everyone know how it goes when I go to install it.

Thanks again to everyone for your replies. I'm glad to be part of a group like this and have a new hobby that helps keep my mind off of things, but also engages my OCD tendencies. Having OCD makes you feel like you have no control sometimes. In a way, having this hermit crab tank has helped me with that. I can completely control their environment and also add to the beauty of my home as well as the education of my children. Multi-purpose pets! LOL.

Thanks,
CrabbyMommy2017

[CrabbyMommy2017]

Good Morning,

I got my Ultratherm uth in the mail about a week ago and last night my husband and I finally got it installed on the back of the tank using the piece of wall board insulation I described previously.

Before the installation, I capped off all the ends of the piece of insulation wall board using wide clear packing tape. I then secured the 11 by 47 inch Ultratherm heater to the back of the 55 gallon tank (using the same packing tape), on top of the backdrop picture (which is taped directly to the back glass of the tank). There is a small section, which I had my husband cut out of the insulation board, for the cord to the ultratherm. Then the insulation board went on, (shiny side facing the uth), secured on all edges using the same tape. The packing tape did not stick very well to the shiny side of the piece of insulation board, so I found that I had to use a lot of it. The tape sticks very well to itself, but not so much to the shiny side of the insulation board. I debated taping off the entire shiny side of the board, but thought that might be going a bit too far. Now that it is all installed, I am confident that the tape (that is capping the ends of the board), will remain in place.

I have also since calibrated my digital thermometer/hygrometer. Pretty accurate for $7! Lol. (Amazon)

I'm glad to report that I can finally stop using the infrared heat bulb that I had ordered prematurely, immediately after adopting the hermit crabs. I wish I had read more on this board before purchasing that; because it did seem to zap the humidity, (even when placed directly above the moss pit). But I did end up with an extra incandescent fixture at least, (I'm hoping in the coming months to obtain two more light fixtures so that I can light up the entire tank during the daytime). And I'm pretty sure that my friend, (who has recently adopted a bearded dragon) would appreciate an extra free infrared heat bulb.

Last night I tested everything out. The crabs went all night long with just the ultratherm heater and no infrared bulb. The humidity is a couple of percent higher (at 89%) and the tank temperature is now about 5 degrees more (at 87°) even without the infrared bulb on all night long. I guess the true test is coming in finding out whether or not I will have to mist the tank more than twice a day in order to keep humidity up.

I want to thank everyone here for all of your tips, help and advice. Now I feel like I have finally reached a good stopping point with the crabs' environment. I seem to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things like this. This hermit crab tank has been worrying me for a number of weeks now and I'm glad that I finally don't have to worry about it.

Thanks to all and I hope y'all have a great day!