HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Happy happy day for me After a 3 hour drive to 2 different parts of Maryland I now own 2 new tanks!!! A 65 gallon and a 29 gallon.



I don't think the boy is to happy to have his space invaded back there As soon as I get them home it's cleaning time...any tips on cleaning them up safely?

Oh my gosh, that face! No, he doesn't look too happy but he's a cutie.

I mostly use diluted white vinegar to clean tanks up (1:1). If you're super worried about sanitizing, you can use bleach - 10 parts water to 1 part bleach. Rinse, rinse, rinse and then allow to air dry for a day or so. I've seen some crabbers mention rinsing in strong dechlor water just to be extra safe but chlorine will evaporate after 24 hours.

Yay for you! Looks awesome!

The one will have to be scraped cuz it has algae on the back but the other one should be fine cuz he just emptied it and he took really good care of the tank nit one spot of algae.

LOL, your son's face!
totally looks like, "she is at it again..."

However, congrats on your new tanks, I really look forward to a load of pics.

I can see him having alot of those looks cuz I'm totally hooked on these awesome little critters

We started cleaning them up tonight and my oldest daughter is really pulling her weight so she can have one of the tanks as her own

Ok as I was cleaning up the first new tank I noticed that the silicone is really green and in alot of places it's actually coming off. Should I just scrape it all off and put new in or should it be Ok since it's not really gonna be holding water? Can I just replace it cuz I don't really like the look of it. It kinda looks like it's still dirty.

If you want you can replace it, the green stuff is due to algae and will have no side effects on the crabs. However since you mentioned that it is falling off in places, I would just re-silicone it just to make sure so the panels to pop from the substrate. Plus it will look a tonne cleaner if done correctly.

Ok I googled how to replace the silicone and I think I understand how it goes so i started removing the old and along the bottom the silicone is still clear and attached really well. From what I understand new silicone will not stick to the old well but was wondering if it would be Ok to still leave the old along the bottom and just replace the sides since I don't really have to worry about it holding water? I'm thinking being 29 gallons I'll prolly only need about 100 lbs of sand and normally they would be holding 200+lbs of water :-/ so confused

I have no idea re: siliconing but would love to see pics of your progress!

I'll be posting tons of pics and even more questions along the way at the moment I'm kinda at a stand still till I can get my hands on some silicone :-/ maybe I'll post the pics of the big tank and get started cleaning that one

Oops busted...guess I shouldn't have left the step stool by the aquarium...anyways here's the 2nd tank after some cleaning

Ok I'm going Wednesday to pick up supplies to start my tanks. First up I guess is the false bottom any suggestions on what to do/not do, things to use/not use, or anything you wish you'd known before you started?

Stay at home mommy to 4 kids (Ana 11, Joseph 9, Alizabeth 6, and Christian 2) 8 cats, 5 hermits, 4 little molly fish, 3 ferrets, 2 parrakets, 2 Oscars, 1 cockatiel, 1 goldfish and 1 bone headed pittbull.

I bought something like this
http://www.michaels.com/10186954.html#q=lace&start=7
and weaved the plastic needle point together so it laid flat all in one piece. That way it was so much easier to zip tie everything. My first false bottom for my 55 I didn't do it take way and it was torture. I also did 2 layers of egg crate stacked instead of 1. I zip tied those together by themselves before putting all the layers together. You don't have to do that but if you are using 2 layers it is so much easier.



Before the zip ties are in to connect it all.

.ake sure you measure correctly and take into consideration the extra space you will need on all sides because of the zip tie ends sticking out a little bit