Flood??

[Crabalicious]

Also... I saved the 5:1 substrate from a temporary tank I had set up. I baked it all before I bagged it. It's in my cold basement. Should i bake again or dump it?

[Motörcrab]

Here is the post from when ciaraalston was moving and had to dig up six crabs! She detailed the process very well. It should help you out!

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=118837

If the substrate was dry and sealed I don't think you would need to do anything. I would check it to make sure nothing got into it or somehow magically managed to get some funk going on. If it seems good I would reuse it.

[Crabalicious]

Ok. Thank you!!!

[Crabalicious]

Sitting down a minute. I have moved the other crabs, iso is ready. The tank is saturated with moisture. It is extremely difficult to gently pull back the wet sand. I am beside myself with worry. I can't believe I didn't realize how wet it was! I am so nervous that I will come across her the wrong way.
This is a bad situation.

[Crabalicious]

I FOUND HER!!! Omg I am so relieved! She looks great. She had a big cave around her. Her color looks great too. Her color looked good before though. I saw no eco skeleton. I do not think she molted and ate her eco in like 3 weeks? She is a large crab I imagine it would take her longer? The last time she molted, which was probably her first in many years...she was an adoption...she was down a little over 8 weeks. Maybe just a vacation. I didnt want to examine her too much.

To note, I started under the water pools, that just frustrated me and I was thinking it was to wet to dig. I went to the opposite end, found a lot of random stuff buried. And it was pretty damp there too. No bad smells I got so lucky that I chose today to check this out!!! So wasn't having any luck and tried back of tank and pretty quickly I found her! After I got her settled I looked around her hole better and there was a lot of water pooling.

After reading the suggested post and another posted like 8yrs ago..
I decided to put 5:1 substrate like 6 in deep in iso. I dug a trench and put her big cave over it so she feels sheltered and can dig again if she chooses. I.put some food, moss, worm poop, and could only fit one water bowl so I went with fresh water. I papered it up and covered it all so it is dark.

4 rooms in my house are trashed from this but I am so happy I found her and I am very optimistic. I was thinking to completely leave her be with no peeking for 24 hours.

Thank you thank you motorcrab, for your good advice and all that you and the other moderators do for us and the crabs. I can't tell you how much you are appreciated.

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[Motörcrab]

Your welcome! I happy everything worked out for you! We all try our best to give the best information and advice as possible. I try to base techniques and scenarios Xenocrab and I have experienced. I think it is the easiest way for me to help resolve situations like this.

I just know from our flooding last year they aren't fun and need to be taken care of as quickly as possible. They don't look like much until you get down pretty deep into the substrate. With any laying water it can quickly turn into a bloom.

Bubblers are a double edged sword. They are great for raising humidity but if not monitored closely they can quickly lead to flooding in a month or two.

[Crabalicious]

I think my condensation was a huge factor too.
Is too much moisture an inevitable issue? I just don't see how moisture from say evaporation of any water pool, will leave the tank and not build up.
Like it's mostly recycled into the tank/sand.

[Motörcrab]

Yea exactly. If you get a lot of condensation on the inside of the tank it will eventually turn into water droplets and run down into the substrate. It's always best to try and wipe it off.

Even the tiny bit of overspray from bubblers will eventually soak into the substrate too.

The best solution is to have some airflow into the tank at all times. Finding that perfect amount is the tough part to figure out because it changes throughout the year. Humidity is no problem for us from mid spring until mid fall. Come winter when the humidity outside drops to 30% it is a fight to keep it in the safe zone inside the tank.

[Crabalicious]

Ok. I will take all that into consideration and fix it with new tank. I need to ask a question, unrelated. I see some of you using egg crate. I love that idea, as it won't mold and can help certain builds. I also loved yours and xeno's pools with the egg crate ramp. And I plan to copy it somewhat, I think. If you don't mind. Guess we all borrow ideas. I'm wondering, do crabs like climbing eggcrate? Or is it better to put craft mesh over it? Not just in water. I can't find that answer. I made a beautiful wood pier /dock, for a 2nd floor. Researched what to seal it with and let it out gas. But still it's too stinky for the tank. I have not given up. But that egg crate seems like a good answer.

[Links]

Is it safe to say that if the top of the sub dries out that there is no flooding?

I haven’t seen mine dry out in over a month.

I know the way we build golf greens is same as people building false bottoms.
There’s trenches dug with perforated drain pipe in it and a layer of gravel over all that. Then the sand / peat mix is layered on top of that.

For the sand to drain, the entire layer of sand has to reach its water holding capacity before water will drain into the grave layer.

And when the top becomes dry we start watering. But there’s never water draining if the surface is drying out. It only drains when we get large amounts of water like rain hence reaching its holding capacity.


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[Crabalicious]

I can't speak on that. But, I was reading about floods yesterday and decided to check my tank. And YES, flood.
I slid a chopstick down the front of the glass, a few times in one spot, and I could see water at the bottom. In my mind it was not a lot. I was very wrong. As you read here I had a crabtastrophe. But I was lucky there was no stench or bloom or whatever we call it.

[Crabalicious]

I did decide to throw out the substrate though.

[Motörcrab]

Is it safe to say that if the top of the sub dries out that there is no flooding?

I haven’t seen mine dry out in over a month.

I know the way we build golf greens is same as people building false bottoms.
There’s trenches dug with perforated drain pipe in it and a layer of gravel over all that. Then the sand / peat mix is layered on top of that.

For the sand to drain, the entire layer of sand has to reach its water holding capacity before water will drain into the grave layer.

And when the top becomes dry we start watering. But there’s never water draining if the surface is drying out. It only drains when we get large amounts of water like rain hence reaching its holding capacity.


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It is never a 100% sure thing that if the top of your substrate is dry you are safe from a flood. Most people have their heaters start at substrate level. You will get some radiant heat from that drying out the very top of the sub.

Your safest bet is to check your substrate every few weeks. Slide a chopstick or butter knife along the glass in several spots and give it a wiggle then pull it out. In a few seconds the hole will pool with water if you have flooding.

I never used a false bottom. I read mixed opinions on them. I heard of crabs somehow making their way into them and getting stuck. Then you need to rip your entire crabitat apart to get them out. Also if you don't have a drain hole at the bottom of your tank all the bad water will just lay there unless you can suck the water out. Ideally if you could slope the bottom of the tank similar to a bathtub all the water would pool to one area. Remove the plug and allow it it drain. Still all of the substrate at the bottom will be very wet and still potentially cause a bloom.

To prevent blooms you are supposed to churn your substrate every few months. It's almost impossible since moist people have a bunch of crabs and some are always molting.

Last year I was experimenting with adding air lines in a grid pattern with holes drilled in it at the the bottom of my tank. My thoughts were adding air into the substrate will help get moisture out and allow oxygen into the substrate at the same time. It would also help raise the humidity too. I used it for a few weeks but got worried the air may disturb molter's so I stopped using it. I talked to Courtney Iris Karr about it a while ago. She thought it was a very interesting concept and could be beneficial. I really need to plug air back into it and see what happens.

[Links]

Ok cool. Yeah I guess the tat is a different ball of wax compared to what I’m talking about do to heaters and such.

Your idea of pumping air down there sounds like a great idea to me but my thoughts on that (because I thought of exactly what you’re talking about) is most of the air is going to come straight up the hole you created with the airline tubing but eventually the surrounding area will wick to that area with the airline. it’s just like Aerifying with added airflow. Only problem is it’s hard to aerify with crabs under there LOL


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[Motörcrab]

I have a main line going down to the bottom. Then it "T's" off, again and again. It's basically a big air tube manifold. It's made of 5"-6" squares of tubing across the entire bottom. Holes are drilled every 3" in all of the airline at the bottom. My thought were any air getting into the sub would be beneficial. I'm not sure how it would eventually push up through 6-8 inches of substrate. I did a trial run before covering it and I did get air everywhere across the bottom.

My other thought was that just a little air on a freshly molted crab may assist with the hardening process. It may also hinder shedding the exo. That's the reason why I stopped using it them more I thought about it. It is in my 75 with my strawberries and they are known to get molting complications easily. That's why abandoned the project. I don't really want to hurt any crabs experimenting. It could be a complete disaster or possibly something amazing. If I knew more about their general biology and all the scientific information I would be more inclined to continue with it.