Mites, standing water and molters. HELPPPP!

[Heatherleighhh]

I've noticed some mites in my tank i especially see them getting stuck in the water dishes but have also seen them on one of the crabs (white little bugs as well as some flying gnat type bugs) i know how to take care of them my problem is this. I bought new sand was planning on emptying half the tank and putting new sand in and then doing the other half when my molters came up there is two down one of whom i believe might be dead hes been down over two months (he only had one leg) the other has been down about a month. As i was emptying the first half of the tank i'm seeing a lot of standing water it also smells awful the deeper i get (not dead crab smell more like sewage). Do i just empty the whole tank now and move the molters to a iso or just leave it as is? I don't currently have another tank to hold all of the others long term to wait for the molters to come up

[CallaLily]

Yes. A flood like this is reason to dig. The smell is from a bacterial bloom so your substrate will need replaced or baked (I personally would just replace it). Have ISOs ready and go slowly when digging. Good luck!

Edit: try to determine what caused the substrate to flood. Leaky pools, humidifier set too high, misting too often, etc. You may be interested in looking into building a false bottom too.

[Heatherleighhh]

I think the issue started when i was having a problem with the humidity staying up, i was spraying the tank multiple times per day to keep it at 80%. I took your advice emptied the whole tank and threw together a quick false bottom with a tube running out to siphon out the water should it happen again. As i suspected the crab with one leg passed (i beleve he molted but couldnt dig himself back out), the other was finished molting with only a little exo left so i put her in a iso tank. Thank you for the help i would've never thought about installing the false bottom