HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I just filled my 75g with sub to the depth of 10". It took 4 bags of playsand (200lbs); 4 hydrated bricks of Eco Earth; and 5 gallons of water. It's exactly 10" of substrate.

Once I add the substrate from my 40B, I should have 12-13" of sub. I probably won't use it all but it will be enough to seed the new tank with the bio active goodness in that tank.

mool wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 12:12 pm

Once I add the substrate from my 40B, I should have 12-13" of sub. I probably won't use it all but it will be enough to seed the new tank with the bio active goodness in that tank.

This will work great for me, but you could explain more about the "bio active goodness"...? Or did I miss reading it on a care sheet or? Still suffering abit from info overload but this caught my attention, thanks!

Crab tanks become "bio active" in a similar way that fish tanks do. A colony of healthy bacteria grows and thrives in the tank and that bacteria helps digest waste and keep the tank clean. Bio active tanks are becoming more popular in other animals that live in terrariums/vivariums such as snakes, frogs, geckos, etc.

Once established and in absence of a flood or other situation that can allow the "wrong" kind of bacteria (anaerobic) to grow, bio-active tanks require very little maintence of the substrate.

Here is a really good presentation Courtney Karr of BioactiveFX1 did for the very first Crab Con in 2019. I consider it a moderate level tutorial, not really for beginners. It goes over water, lighting, substrate, isopods and other things. It goes into a lot of details that will be confusing and won't make much sense to someone just starting out due to the terms. Pausing the video and doing a few Google searches will help you understand a lot easier. The water portion probably takes the most additional researching to understand the process with ammonia, nitrates, nitrites.

https://youtu.be/4ZvBcrxy8Ic