HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Been a crab owner since this past summer. I was browsing on here on ideas for my new tank, came across false bottoms and people talking about flooding so I decided to dig to the bottom of my tank and, of course, FLOODING!!! It is not absolutely terrible as in not even a 1/4", but there IS a sloppy stinky mess down there...I have been searching on here for like an hour and a half for a step by step guide of how to build a false bottom and haven't found it. Just bits and pieces from threads of people who already new what they were doing...I have no clue! So, questions:

1) I have 3 molters down, with the newly discovered flooding, do I build my new tank as fast as I can and dig them out?? Or still wait for them to come up to move them as I was planning to do. I can't have 2 tanks going either because I don't have the heating source for 2.

2) Can someone give me a step by step guide how to make a false bottom?? PLEASE! I know I need pvc pipe cut to about an inch or so and placed evenly at the bottom, I need weed block, and plastic canvas...Do I NEED eggcrate? Or is that just a suggestion? Do I silicone the pvc to the bottom to make them stay? How do I notch the pvc pipes on the bottoms? And how do I attach it all together. Please help

Right now you want to get all that excess water out before thinking of a false bottom for a new tank.

To remove that excess water, you need either: paper towels or DRY EE.
For the paper towel method:
a) dig down to the bottom of the tank.
i) do you know where the crabs are situated? If not, I would advise digging down in each corner so you can dry out the substrate quicker.
b) Add paper towel into the hole, wait for them to soak up the water.
c) Once full of water, take out and add some new towel to the hole (wring it if you're running out on paper towel).
d) Repeat step b) & c) until it is no longer required.

For EE method:
a) dig down to the bottom of the tank.
i) do you know where the crabs are situated? If not, I would advise digging down in each corner so you can dry out the substrate quicker.
b) Add some dry EE into the hole, this can be a broken brick of EE or some loose dry packaged EE.
c) Wait until it has soaked all of the water to be soaked up.
d) add some more EE until satisfied - eg, no more excess water.

For false bottoms, you don't need eggcrate; however if you want to add it you can. You don't have to silicone the pvc pipes to the bottom, once covered with 6+ inches of sub, they not moving anywhere. To notch the PVC, you need a saw of some sort, if you're not handy with tools I would advise us to ask for help.
(If HCA doesn't have a step to step guide on false bottoms, i would suggest looking on reptile/frog forums if you're in a hurry.)

Desirae327 wrote:Been a crab owner since this past summer. I was browsing on here on ideas for my new tank, came across false bottoms and people talking about flooding so I decided to dig to the bottom of my tank and, of course, FLOODING!!! It is not absolutely terrible as in not even a 1/4", but there IS a sloppy stinky mess down there...I have been searching on here for like an hour and a half for a step by step guide of how to build a false bottom and haven't found it. Just bits and pieces from threads of people who already new what they were doing...I have no clue! So, questions:

1) I have 3 molters down, with the newly discovered flooding, do I build my new tank as fast as I can and dig them out?? Or still wait for them to come up to move them as I was planning to do. I can't have 2 tanks going either because I don't have the heating source for 2.

2) Can someone give me a step by step guide how to make a false bottom?? PLEASE! I know I need pvc pipe cut to about an inch or so and placed evenly at the bottom, I need weed block, and plastic canvas...Do I NEED eggcrate? Or is that just a suggestion? Do I silicone the pvc to the bottom to make them stay? How do I notch the pvc pipes on the bottoms? And how do I attach it all together. Please help

1) how long have they been down? If theyve been down a month i would be more confident about digging, same goes for less than a week. Anything in between makes me nervous. If you know where they are you can slice around them and move them out of the tank.
2) cant help, but there are threads. I will try to find one for you. (Edit: viewtopic.php?t=101247)
3) for immediate help, you can throw some dry play sand where you dug into so it can help soak some of that flood. Hopefully it can spot dry and wick excess moisture away from where there be molting crabs.


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This really helped me out when I was building my false bottom.
viewtopic.php?t=92881#p855446
(I could be totally wrong about this!!! Let me be clear on that, I could be very wrong!) I do think egg crate is essential to a false bottom. Without the sturdiness of the egg crate, I feel like the weed block and plastic canvas would collapse in places and would eventually have to be redone. There are lots of threads on false bottoms and a lot of them are helpful but I feel like that thread I linked is kind of a... starting point? It really helped bring everything together for me.


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moonbeam wrote: I do think egg crate is essential to a false bottom. Without the sturdiness of the egg crate, I feel like the weed block and plastic canvas would collapse in places and would eventually have to be redone.

This is my opinion too but I do remember someone here didn't use it but instead used a bunch of PVC supports to hold up the needlepoint canvas. Doesn't sound like a good option for larger tanks and with a lot of substrate IMO it'd be worth adding that extra support the egg crate provides.

Ok. I've gotten started. Luckily the flooding isn't bad, just waaay to saturated at the bottoms. I caught it quick! I got all my supplies. I got a long PVC pipe and was going to cut it down. My cuts aren't straight will that matter?? I'm going to try to still holes and see if that works. I don't trust getting that close to the saw! If crooked PVC doesn't work, they have bags of precut PVC I can get, it was just more expensive and yet were taller than I wanted.

Also, no I do not know where my 3 are down they have all been down at least a month though. So is it safe if I dug them up and when I find them try to transfer tem as safely as can without digging all the way up?

I would dig up the crabs, however every person will tell you something different. The best course of action is to go with your gut.
I had a similar situation during my first month of crabbing, I too manage to flood the tank. Long story short, my first moulter pulled through successfully with a surface moult.

Is it essential to cut notches in the PVC supports? I can't find a way to do it. Grrr!...Could I maybe just put duct tape over the tops so the water doesn't go down into the pipes? Or would that cause flooding or something?

If water leaks within the pipes, notches help it run out so you can suck it all out together. Duct tape over the tops would work, but so would unevenly cut pipe ends at the bottom


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What I did was a double layer of egg crate. On one corner I clipped out a 2x2 square on only the top layer. Then cut the embroidery canvas and the landscaping fabric to keep that corner open. Once it was all put together I was put the pvc pipe into the opening and it fit snuggly. I can put the air hose down to the bottom and it will go through to the bottom to get the water out. No worries about the hose not being a to maneuver because the pipe settled.

LOL Ok, thank you. Ugh, this is such a mess. I guess good thing though I read about flooding before I built my new tat without a false bottom, because no more upgrades after this one. I'm duct taping the tops of the pvc supports just in case.

So, when I'm securing this all together with zip ties, I zip tie everything around the edges? The eggcrate, the fabric, and the plastic canvas all zip tied together?

Yep

Make sure to cut the egg crate one row shorter and one row more narrow than you measure. Your zip ties will stick out.