Appropriate stand for crabitat & more?

[Momma And Company]

A lot of your questions are a personal preference. Some things like depth of substrate can depend on species and crab size.

1. As curly stated 6" is a good start. I like to start with a bit more sub, maybe 7-8" since it tends to settle over the first few months.

2. Mixing sub I like to mix a bunch of smaller batches in 5 gallon buckets. I feel I can control the consistency a lot easier. It's more work, but it's easier to add more sand if you added too much water. Once mixed I like my sub to where it feels dry, but if I poke a finger into it, it keeps a hole.

3A. A lot of people made stands out of plywood and 2x4's. Making a stand would probably be your cheapest option, especially since you want something lower. I would put two 2x4 together for each corner, then add a three 2x4's in between. Due to the weight I would rather over engineer the design so it doesn't collapse.

I would avoid any tables that do not have a load rating that's at least double what you are putting on it. I work in the amusement industry so everything is always has a high safety factor.
3B. I usually sketch out my ideas on a paper. I don't have anything to exact scale but close enough for planning.

4. We have used foam insulation board in the past. It works but makes a mess cutting. We have found Reflectiix works very well and is much easier to work with. It's similar to bubble wrap but for home insulation.

We run tow UTH's on our tanks. On our 75 we have one across the back 11x 47 hooked up to a thermostat. A second on the side we plug in as needed.

Our kitty Fleabag helped with a heating guide a few years ago! http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... e#p1072369

Hi Motor, thank you for replying! I agree on a bit more sub, for settling. What do you think about "fluffing" the first 1-3" or so, if all carbs are up? Just in case I have any high flyers who might fall, or if there any other benefits or warnings?

If after I have my sub in place, mixing parts at a time is it a good idea to do the chopstick/dowel rod/etc. test and wait maybe a week, just to see?

I like your design idea, if my coffee table inquiries don't pan out could I contact you about making a stand?

I'd be using Reflectix tape but also wanted something a bit more like the foam insulation. I don't mind about the mess. Also, does the tape "slide"...? With the inside temp being 80+ optimal would the glue lead to sliding, so the UTH's would "drop"..?

Also, what is the best way to mount UTH's using a tape method...? Before sub, after?

Thank you so much!

[Momma And Company]

You’ve got great answers from experienced crabbers, but thought I’d throw in how I mixed my substrate. I also do a 5:1 ratio playsand:coco fiber. I did all the mixing in my tank. Added first bag of playsand and then just eyed what seemed to be 1/5 of playsand layer of coco fiber on top. It doesn’t need to be exact. I then used a large spray bottle of treated water (I use Prime for freshwater) and focused on one area at a time, spraying and stirring...then spraying and stirring some more, lol. Used a big wooden spoon. Once that amount was the right consistency, I’d do the exact same thing again over top of first layer. It was easy to tell when I had reached the original layer and with all the stirring and moving the sub around, I felt confident I got it all the right consistency. Only cons with this was my arm felt like it was going to fall off after the spraying and stirring and the sound of the wooden spoon against the glass (eek). I was fortunate enough that my boyfriend could lift and pour the sand bag into the tank too. This part could be tricky...wish I could come help you, haha!

All by hand?! You poor thing, my god bless you! I'd probably give myself a heat attach or "Popeye" arm syndrome, LOL. Yeah I think I can get help in buying the tank and sand (getting it to my house and inside), but I think that's where my help might end. I wish I could have someone as wonderful as you too to help, bless you, thank you so much for replying! I just want to do my best by my future babies.

[MurkyCrabs]

Thank you so much for your reply! Yeah it's adding the water that really makes me nervous. I'm so a total newbie, so having TOO much EE might get me into trouble and I won't know it? Can I ask, do you leave the EE bricks whole and then drizzle water over them - then break them up, etc? Or do you break up the dry bricks as best you can, then add water?

That's, oddly, why I like the idea of 8" over 6 - not just because of settling but because in the initial 6" set up I might goof with too much water so then I'd have to add more sand and EE, yanno?

So what I usually do is put my brick in a big bowl and then fill it up with water as much as I can and let it rest. From there I break it up and then let it sit for ten minutes and repeat, as well as adding water as needed. Doing this I usually still end up with too much water, which is why I also later put it in a bucket so that I can avoid dumping all of the water into the tank. If I end up with too much water I just break apart small bits of dry EE off of a brick and put it in until the water is gone. Also, having more EE than play sand won’t cause them any harm, I’m also a beginner crabber and it’s caused my crabs no issues


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[Momma And Company]

So what I usually do is put my brick in a big bowl and then fill it up with water as much as I can and let it rest. From there I break it up and then let it sit for ten minutes and repeat, as well as adding water as needed. Doing this I usually still end up with too much water, which is why I also later put it in a bucket so that I can avoid dumping all of the water into the tank. If I end up with too much water I just break apart small bits of dry EE off of a brick and put it in until the water is gone. Also, having more EE than play sand won’t cause them any harm, I’m also a beginner crabber and it’s caused my crabs no issues


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Ooh okay I see now... yeah reading this, it sounds like a good plan. I'm going to write this down, when it comes time for me to mix my sub. And the "ultimate test" is when you both, squeeze the sub or mix in your hand and there's no water run off and it keeps it's shape like a sandcastle... and also once in the tank if you can get your finger down or a dowl rod, etc. to the bottom and it keeps shape and no water after say, 24 hours... right?

[Wlfwo]

I'm not worried about the weight of the blocks, I can paint them outside, carry them in one at a time. Plan to do 3 rows of 2, so as to have middle support. Stick the glue on and stack it. Let it sit until it's good and dry. My house is an old farmhouse, over 100 years old, has the original wood floors. Floor holding is not a problem.

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[Momma And Company]

I'm not worried about the weight of the blocks, I can paint them outside, carry them in one at a time. Plan to do 3 rows of 2, so as to have middle support. Stick the glue on and stack it. Let it sit until it's good and dry. My house is an old farmhouse, over 100 years old, has the original wood floors. Floor holding is not a problem.

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Gotcha. My house is over 100, I wouldn't call it a farm house necessarily but back when my great grand parents had it, it definitely was with a milk and butter vat, fruit trees, small barn with the cow and goats, etc. Fruit cellar, etc. I'll look into using the blocks, thank you!

[Motörcrab]

Hi Motor, thank you for replying! I agree on a bit more sub, for settling. What do you think about "fluffing" the first 1-3" or so, if all carbs are up? Just in case I have any high flyers who might fall, or if there any other benefits or warnings?
If all my crabs are up I will pull all the shells, and other stuff off the sub and turn the sub by hand. I read someplace to churn the sub every few months. I believe it's to aerate it to help prevent bacterial blooms. Since most of us have a bunch of crabs it's impossible. We have a lot of clumsy crabs that fall all the time! I have a video where I caught one of my crabs literally flying/falling from nowhere!

If after I have my sub in place, mixing parts at a time is it a good idea to do the chopstick/dowel rod/etc. test and wait maybe a week, just to see?
I would recommend mixing the sub with just enough water to eliminate all the dust from the sand. The 65 gallon we did about a year took about a week to balance out with heat and humidity. I think a monthly sub check would be more than enough. If you are loosing a lot of water from pools, constantly misting or you have constant condensation inside the tank I would check a lot more and figure out why it's happening.

I like your design idea, if my coffee table inquiries don't pan out could I contact you about making a stand?
I could probably sketch something up and figure out a basic material list. I've been trying to come up with an excuse for us to take our hearse on a road trip. A 49 year old car with a big block isn't very practical for that though!

I'd be using Reflectix tape but also wanted something a bit more like the foam insulation. I don't mind about the mess. Also, does the tape "slide"...? With the inside temp being 80+ optimal would the glue lead to sliding, so the UTH's would "drop"..?
we use duct tape to hold everything in place. I avoid cheap stuff since that tends to be a little thinner and doesn't hold as well.
We used poly pro insulation board. It comes in 4x8 sheets. The stuff we used was made out of styrofoam balls. When we cut it, it made a complete mess. After we had it cut we duct taped all the edges to keep more mess to a minimum.

Also, what is the best way to mount UTH's using a tape method...? Before sub, after?
we found that you can actually tuck about 1/4" of the UTH between the glass and the black brace on the top of the tank. When we tape our UTH's we try to keep the tape on the very edge to not cover any of the heating element. We always add the UTH
and insulation to the back before adding the sub. It's easier to have the tank away from the wall. We like to add the heater and insulation then flip the tank 180°. Then we add the sub!


Thank you so much!

[mool]

I "guesstimated" that one bag of play sand (50lbs) mixed with one hydrated brick of Eco Earth was close enough to a 5:1 for me.

For my 75g tank I dumped a dry bag of sand into each half of the tank and then dumped to moistened bricks of EE onto each side. I hand mixed it together in the tank. I then dumped another 50lbs of sand onto each side and dumped two more moistened bricks of EE onto each side and hand mixed it all up again.

This mixture seemed a bit dry to I added more water. The tank was initially filled to the 10" mark with the 200lbs of sand and 4 bricks of moistened EE. After two days of not touching the tank; the sub settled almost 2" inches, so now I'm going to add another brick of moistened EE and another 50lbs of sand.

I'm going for a minimum of 12" of sub because I have a jumbo crab in a shell slightly larger than a baseball.

[Momma And Company]

I "guesstimated" that one bag of play sand (50lbs) mixed with one hydrated brick of Eco Earth was close enough to a 5:1 for me.

For my 75g tank I dumped a dry bag of sand into each half of the tank and then dumped to moistened bricks of EE onto each side. I hand mixed it together in the tank. I then dumped another 50lbs of sand onto each side and dumped two more moistened bricks of EE onto each side and hand mixed it all up again.

This mixture seemed a bit dry to I added more water. The tank was initially filled to the 10" mark with the 200lbs of sand and 4 bricks of moistened EE. After two days of not touching the tank; the sub settled almost 2" inches, so now I'm going to add another brick of moistened EE and another 50lbs of sand.

I'm going for a minimum of 12" of sub because I have a jumbo crab in a shell slightly larger than a baseball.

This actually sounds like a great start point for me, thank you so much! I'm thinking to have mine settle in the 7-9 range just to give my grabs room to grow before I'd have to add more. It's tough not knowing what my new babies sizes might be. I've contacted the pet stores in my area and all of them have said they take in rescues if they have room "in the back" for adoption which happens I guess frequently sometimes.

So I could have all little/small (if I'd have to buy them new from them) or I could get some rescues maybe too from them and then... I dunno. Or rescues maybe from the adoption section here. Trying to hedge my bets I guess, LOL.

Thank you again so much for replying, I add advice like this to the binder I'm making.

[Momma And Company]

Motor - If all my crabs are up I will pull all the shells, and other stuff off the sub and turn the sub by hand. I read someplace to churn the sub every few months. I believe it's to aerate it to help prevent bacterial blooms. Since most of us have a bunch of crabs it's impossible. We have a lot of clumsy crabs that fall all the time! I have a video where I caught one of my crabs literally flying/falling from nowhere!

Yeah I've seen some crazy vids and read some stories, gosh it would freak me out! LOL. I dunno if I should ask this elsewhere, but if you get them good shells (I still need to learn how to inspect them for damage, it's on my list!) are they USUALLY okay from falling/antics? Granted in most tanks the fall isn't far I know but with all the bowls/decor/etc. do they get injured that way very often in your experience? This sounds so stupid I know but since they're our babies one of my instincts is to wonder if "toddler proofing" the crabitat can happen and I know it can't, LOL.

Motor - I would recommend mixing the sub with just enough water to eliminate all the dust from the sand. The 65 gallon we did about a year took about a week to balance out with heat and humidity. I think a monthly sub check would be more than enough. If you are loosing a lot of water from pools, constantly misting or you have constant condensation inside the tank I would check a lot more and figure out why it's happening.

Okay sounds good. From all I've been reading, my pools would be off on the sides. Instead of having them side by side, I might try at first to put one at each end of the tank to start out so hopefully that would cut down on evaporation. Plus this way I could get them bigger pools and put them parallel with the side walls to take up less digging room. I'd have a main container (that I'd bury a bit down in the sub) to hold the actual pool container(s) and then stuff moss around the edges between the two.

I'll have moss too in some baskets, initially I'll be wetting it outside and then putting it in and then misting it as needed unless I need to replace or rewet outside the tank. Condensation I know will probably be because of temp differences inside the tank and the room temp outside. I don't know how bad it might be so it I'll keep an extra close eye on it.

Yeah ideally I'd like to get my tank set up for awhile so I could make sure I get things stable and problem solve the best I can without the crabbies in there having to suffer from my experiments. I think I saw somewhere that you're in central PA? I'm in NE Ohio so can I ask, on average, for the winter, how far does your tank temp fall at night or is it steady?

Motor - I could probably sketch something up and figure out a basic material list. I've been trying to come up with an excuse for us to take our hearse on a road trip. A 49 year old car with a big block isn't very practical for that though!

Ooh bless, LOL. Nooo, I meant if you could draw up a simple thing with as you said, a basic material list.

Motor - we use duct tape to hold everything in place. I avoid cheap stuff since that tends to be a little thinner and doesn't hold as well.
We used poly pro insulation board. It comes in 4x8 sheets. The stuff we used was made out of styrofoam balls. When we cut it, it made a complete mess. After we had it cut we duct taped all the edges to keep more mess to a minimum.

Sounds good, after checking I have both duct tape and Gorilla tape.

Motor - we found that you can actually tuck about 1/4" of the UTH between the glass and the black brace on the top of the tank. When we tape our UTH's we try to keep the tape on the very edge to not cover any of the heating element. We always add the UTH
and insulation to the back before adding the sub. It's easier to have the tank away from the wall. We like to add the heater and insulation then flip the tank 180°. Then we add the sub!

Okay what do you mean tuck? I know the braces but do you pry them up a bit or...? Depending on how my glass lids go, I was figuring maybe taping TO the braces a bit or not? Where I plan to put my tank/stand, I'll have sliders on the stand (flip it on it's side and put them on) so then when I have it pulled out away from the wall I can easily get behind to do the UTH's, etc. Then when ready, I can plug in and "slide" it closer to the wall if that makes sense? Hopefully it would work out like that! It would save me from needing help to flip it 180.

Thanks again so much and sorry for setting up the post like this - when I clicked quote on your last reply, it was all blank so I just copy and pasted and then left your answers to reply to.

[mool]

After my sub settled for about a week, I added another 50lbs (one bag) of sand and another brick of Eco Earth. It's still below my target level of 10-12", but I will be adding sub from my 40g once I'm ready to move the crabs.