CrabbyMommy2017 wrote: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.