HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So my hermit crab tank has flooded and I have no clue what to do as I only have a small spare tank to put them into so should i get some of the substrate out, set up a heat mat and move my 4 hermit crabs into there and then what do I do after that??

I put mine in a temp container with a hot pad on top to keep them warm I mist inside really well and the combination of heat and moisture makes it perfect. I pull all my substrate out and if any of it is bad I throw the bad part away. The good I mix up with dry sand and/or EE until it is the right consistency and then pit everything (and everyone) back in.

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KellyCrabbieLove wrote:I put mine in a temp container with a hot pad on top to keep them warm I mist inside really well and the combination of heat and moisture makes it perfect. I pull all my substrate out and if any of it is bad I throw the bad part away. The good I mix up with dry sand and/or EE until it is the right consistency and then pit everything (and everyone) back in.

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Okay they are in a container with a heat mat atm and I will get some EE tomorrow but they should be getting a new tank built in about a month or so anyway so I'm hoping it's not that bad of a mess in their tank. The reason this happened is because I couldn't keep my humidity up but it may have been my gauge and I was misting daily

I have had 3 floods. It is bad news.

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KellyCrabbieLove wrote:I have had 3 floods. It is bad news.

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Yeah and I only had about a month to go till a new tank but thankfully non of my hermit crabs were molting . I couldn't get any Coconut fibre today though so they won't be able to move back home for maybe a week or so

I heard once where sombody dug a hole and stuck one end of a roll of paper towels in the hole to soak up moisture.

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I tried that myself. Too much water and it ended up being a bacteria bloom.

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me n my hermikids wrote:I heard once where sombody dug a hole and stuck one end of a roll of paper towels in the hole to soak up moisture.

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In my tank there must be a good few litres of water and it has started to stink so need to change it all out tomorrow which will be fun

Oooooh, sounds like a chore! Good luck

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me n my hermikids wrote:Oooooh, sounds like a chore! Good luck

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Thank you! And what a chore it will be!

For me the paper towel method worked quite well along with fluffing up the sand afterwards and getting some "air" back into the substrate. If I did have a bacterial bloom it must of been small as I didn't notice it.

aussieJJDude wrote:For me the paper towel method worked quite well along with fluffing up the sand afterwards and getting some "air" back into the substrate. If I did have a bacterial bloom it must of been small as I didn't notice it.

I started emptying the tank of substrate and there must have been at least 5 litres of water in the substrate and it stank of rotten eggs so I'm moving them into a temporary 2ft tank until I can build a new tank for them

I think it depends on how much water there is and how much paper towel you are willing to go through. I went through a half jumbo roll before I smelled the bad smell of the bacteria bloom and realized it was a lost cause.

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KellyCrabbieLove wrote:I think it depends on how much water there is and how much paper towel you are willing to go through. I went through a half jumbo roll before I smelled the bad smell of the bacteria bloom and realized it was a lost cause.

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That's annoying after all that work :/ I just gave up straight away and bailed at least 5 buckets of substrate and water and my hermit crabs have been moved into a temporary 2 ft tank with about 2 inches of sand as that is all I had

Been able to pick up a three pack of Eco earth but as it's winter here no where sells play sand so should i just put as much Eco earth in until I can move them to a more permanent solution next year??