HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So today began my first attempt at a somewhat knowledge-based tank My current setup is a 20g with woefully low sub of all EE. I tried to spruce it up once I found this site but it just made me realize I wanted more space to play with. Enter the 40g tank...

So far tonight just got the sub mixed and am going to let it sit for a few days to let it settle and make sure the consistency stays right. I'm currently at 150lbs of sand, 2 bricks of EE and 5g of salt water all hand mixed (talk about a hot mess lol) for about 8" of sub right now which is exactly what I was shooting for. I'm sure I'll need to add to that as it settles but I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself so far



The soup before more sand was added.



And after...the finger tunnels I made are still holding. It's a little wetter on the bottom but I'm going to let that settle overnight and remix.

Ultratherm should be here by Friday and I've already got a new gauge set ready to roll. Am going to calibrate the humidity gauge tonight or tomorrow. Also have little paint trays and Tupperware for new pools...my guys are still relatively small so I may stick with the paint trays for now. Got a little pump, tubing and air stones from Petsmart yesterday so I think I should be good to go there. Also picked up a couple of those wire corner shelves yesterday and poached a non-corner pair from my closet (somehow I've reached a crabs > shoes paradigm...my husband is like ) so I'm going to play with levels over the next couple of days to see just how much vertical space I can pull off.

Tomorrow it's off to the craft and thrift stores hoping to find plants and vines. Those are really the only things I'm seriously lacking at the moment and everyone's tanks are so pretty with all that greenery

Question on the pump for the pools...do I need to place the pump above the water line of my pools like I do with my fish tank? I have a check valve but wasn't sure if the elevation is an issue since I'm not actually circulating water.

And in general THANK YOU!! To everyone here who has been so helpful and open to sharing their ideas, successes and failures...it's given me a ton of info that I didn't have before and I feel much better equipped to provide a good home for my crew


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 6 crabs

Haha, mixing sub is *so* much fun, isn't it? I started out thinking, I'll just do this carefully and not make a mess...

I keep my pump outside of my tank with air tubing running into the tank through the corner of the tank down to my salt water pool. The placement of the pump doesn't matter just make sure you install a check valve. Know that crabs will climb the air tubing. One of my purple pinchers swims out to it multiple times a day then climbs it and walks around the tank using the lid.

Kleinerhejhog wrote:Haha, mixing sub is *so* much fun, isn't it? I started out thinking, I'll just do this carefully and not make a mess...

I started with the idea of mixing it in a bucket and then transferring to the tank in small batches. Then I realized that would have had me hefting 50+ lbs. of sand (wet or dry) like 5 times per bag and said no thanks lol I was surprised to find way less sand on the floor than I had expected but the inside glass is a *little* messy from the splashing


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 6 crabs

Matt wrote:I keep my pump outside of my tank with air tubing running into the tank through the corner of the tank down to my salt water pool. The placement of the pump doesn't matter just make sure you install a check valve. Know that crabs will climb the air tubing. One of my purple pinchers swims out to it multiple times a day then climbs it and walks around the tank using the lid.

Like @Matt, my small pump sits on the aquarium stand next to the bottom of the 29g. My pools are plastic storage containers holding a little under 3 cups of water each so I just added a splitter a few inches above the pools to service the two short lines going to the airstone in each pool. Because the pools are only about 4" deep, I didn't bother with a check valve. And yes, the crabs regard the air tube as another climbing device so, to try to discourage that, I have vines and a large fern frond hanging over the pools and a plastic succulent between the pools to aid ingress and egress.

Ok cool

I'm pretty stoked...my Ultratherm should be here tomorrow and I just need some more cocofiber backing to wrap the wire shelves in and I think I'm good except for plants.

I'm actually at 76.8 degrees and 96% humidity before UTH and pools


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 6 crabs

Question...if I were to get a background to hide the UTH, is it safe to attach the background to the outside of the tank where the UTH would go? Seems like it would melt the plastic of the background but seems inside would spell disaster from claws


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 6 crabs

I wouldn't attach anything next to or on the UTH as it is a fire hazard. Inside would probably be better as long as it doesn't block the heat.

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soilentgringa wrote:I wouldn't attach anything next to or on the UTH as it is a fire hazard. Inside would probably be better as long as it doesn't block the heat.

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Except to insulate*

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Ok, I was kind of thinking outside was a bad idea but good to have confirmation. Thanks again


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 6 crabs

Not entirely sure what possessed me to do a race to the finish line tonight (it's 3am ) but I'm mostly done. Yay!!! Here's some pics from the last week or so as things got going...I'm 100% open to suggestions so please let me know if you see something amiss. This is a 40g with 3 PPs, all relatively small (largest 2 are probably between quarter and 1/2 dollar size but I haven't measured).



Corner wire shelves with cocofiber mats cut and zip tied on.



Lower levels of corner shelves with dry moss & a hide under each. Added chola access until my netting dries overnight.






Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 3 (for now) crabs

Lookin' good!

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^^ the glass needs a good wipe down but Balla and Spot immediately made for the hides under the shelves so I'm going to leave them be for a bit



Poop dish and a total splurge on the abalone "dish". I actually got 2 at Michael's...they were like $8-9 each but so pretty! Cricket, worms, bee pollen, mushrooms and some calcium powder in that dish.



More moss. This container is going to act as a kind of bridge between the moss pit over the water dishes to the corner shelves.



Water pools with air stones and ramps in and vines out. Had to add some glass stones until they get the hang of the vines...Twitch fell in the SW pool and wandered around in a circle, pushing the vine out of the way, for like 15 minutes and I felt bad lol













Twitch making his first (frantic) visit to the corner moss after his harrowing experience in the pool


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 3 (for now) crabs

I have more vines and some netting + more shells to add tomorrow but they're all cooling or drying. Also...I got this bag of shells from Michael's the other day for $11.99 and wasn't sure that I'd get much out of it but came away with a decent number of growth shells as well as quite a few to use as dishes.







No turbos but my guys haven't 100% specialized into those yet so the magpies are still a hit


Zoo mom of 3 cats, a dog, a fish and 3 (for now) crabs

The glass will forever be in need of wiping down... I got the same shower caddy as a secondary shell shop and got the power lock suction cups and they pull it down at least once a week lol.

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