Up the heat?

[DragonsFly]

Yes, this is just one of a zillion things you would have no idea about, starting out, that you figure out as you go along. That's what makes this board so incredibly valuable--there's so much to learn, having a large assortment of people with all kinds of experiences all in one place to answer specific questions is just not something even a whole encyclopedia of crab-care (if there was such a thing) could match.

[prismatik]

Here is a link for the bubble wrap insulation that Dragonsfly mentioned.
http://m.homedepot.com/p/Reflectix-16-i ... /100012574

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[Giner13]

Here is a link for the bubble wrap insulation that Dragonsfly mentioned.
http://m.homedepot.com/p/Reflectix-16-i ... /100012574

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Thanks!

[Kermie16]

Ok, so this would explain why when I added about 2 inches of substrate to my tank that was maintaining 80 degree stable temp to drop down to 74-75 . Wow. Well, I have an ultra therm Uth covering the whole backside of my tank. I am very uncomfortable putting anything on top of the UTH. So I put aluminum foil on both sides of my tank. I have a crab currently molting in the tank. Should I put some hand warmers in the tank on top of the sub to speedy up the heating? Hesitant to put anything under the sub. I also have some if those emergency reflective blankets, would that work better than the foil?

[Kermie16]

Ok, so felt like I couldn't wait for a response since I have a molted in the tank. I went ahead and put jelly jars with hot FW in the tank - didn't go down deep at all with them. Literally just snuggled them in the top substrate enough so they won't topple over and Holy Moly! The temp totally went up to like 84!! Also wrapped the the visible parts of the tank with a reflective emergency blanket. Going to keep everything like that until water cools down.

[Kermie16]

Sorry for the onslaught on questions! But how do u pre-warm the dry, non compressed EE?? I've never used the ones in the compressed packages. Just the one in the bags.

[DragonsFly]

Sorry for the onslaught on questions! But how do u pre-warm the dry, non compressed EE?? I've never used the ones in the compressed packages. Just the one in the bags.

Use fairly hot (not boiling) water to reconstitute it, and it should be warm-ish by the time it is ready to use.

[DragonsFly]

Ok, so felt like I couldn't wait for a response since I have a molted in the tank. I went ahead and put jelly jars with hot FW in the tank - didn't go down deep at all with them. Literally just snuggled them in the top substrate enough so they won't topple over and Holy Moly! The temp totally went up to like 84!! Also wrapped the the visible parts of the tank with a reflective emergency blanket. Going to keep everything like that until water cools down.

Bear in mind that your thermometers are measuring air temp, so that method will bring up the air temp quickly, but probably not the substrate very much. Of course, the heat will slowly transfer, so it will help, but remember that the substrate will always change temperature (whether up OR down) more slowly than the air in the tank.

[Kermie16]

Ok! Got it, thank you

[DragonsFly]

Ok, so this would explain why when I added about 2 inches of substrate to my tank that was maintaining 80 degree stable temp to drop down to 74-75 . Wow. Well, I have an ultra therm Uth covering the whole backside of my tank. I am very uncomfortable putting anything on top of the UTH. So I put aluminum foil on both sides of my tank. I have a crab currently molting in the tank. Should I put some hand warmers in the tank on top of the sub to speedy up the heating? Hesitant to put anything under the sub. I also have some if those emergency reflective blankets, would that work better than the foil?

Just for future reference, 74-75 degrees F is actually okay for PP's. Their preferred range for temperature is between 75 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit (preferred humidity range is 75 to 85%, so that's easy to remember, just one set of numbers for us Fahrenheit folks). The point is, you don't have to stick to a rigid "80 and 80 at all times, no exceptions!" Temperatures much below 75 are cause for concern, less than 70 is eventually not survivable, but "74-75" for a while should be no problem at all (for PP's--some other species require warmer temps). So it probably would have been fine to just let the tank warm slowly back up. The temperature in their natural habitat doesn't stay at a constant 80 all the time; there are natural variations. But yeah, in the future, moistening the substrate with warm water will help, so you don't add cold substrate to the tank.