30 G Tank - First Build

[Persea]

Oh, man, I haven't been on the forums lately! But I finally hit the point of this adventure where my tank needs....planning. Turns out, doing things without measurements is a bad time! It's been interesting.

I started out by just gathering crab supplies and setting them in the tank until it got to be time to start working. For some reason, I wanted to try a false bottom - for the challenge of it, maybe?



Got that false bottom in there! Took more effort than expected, but was actually pretty fun.



Aaaand we've got some 9 inches of substrate in. Slightly higher ratio of sand:EE, just because my house is very, very not humid and I think the extra EE might help keep the tank at the proper humidity levels. Also, turned out to be around 10 in of sand. That's fine, though. It'll settle. (....right?)



Driftwood ramps into the pools are curing....the wood is entirely coated, just because I really didn't like the look of craft mesh. Nucleotide, the cat, came over to check things out!



Finally, went to put things in the tank and play around with setup, before I figure out my heater location. (This is not everything. I paused once I realized a tiny problem with my pools.) Uh, oops....? I really don't want to figure out smaller pools!




I'm really hoping imgur doesn't eat my photos....

[Astronna]

Broken images buddy, sorry.

Make sure to go to your album, and click on the picture. On the right side, it'll have a bunch of things you can copy as links. The one to use here will be "BBCode" (Not the Linked BBCode). It includes the so you don't need to click the img button at the top of the post here. If you need any other help with it, I use imgur all the time for my photos so I can help you out.

[Persea]

There we go! Images fixed. Ty for the help.

[Astronna]

No problem

I actually dug into the substrate a bit and made my water bowls in-ground. You can perhaps make the ramps and things get to the ground by having the bowls dug in halfway? I don't think you have a lost cause by any means.

What other ideas do you have for the tank?

Since your substrate is so deep, it might be a very good candidate for some of the underground tunnels people have done. I can't remember what they made it out of though? Perhaps somebody else can chime in with that one.

[aussieJJDude]

Id be careful pf the driftwood, that does not look easy to climb

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[Persea]

Astro, I do plan on putting my pools into the ground! I just....need to decide where to do that. My original plan was to have them side-by-side, but they ended up not fitting like that. Whoops. Once I figure out placement, then they'll be buried.

Aussie - I'm a little worried about it too! I've got the pools set as tupperware sitting inside a second tupperware, so if it turns out that the driftwood doesn't work out, I'll just buy two more and make a set with something else. Hopefully, that won't be needed.

[Persea]

Getting things into place has taken forever! Especially since I only have so many clips to hold things in place while the silicone dries....



But it gets done! A surprising amount gets done, actually.



We got both pools buried, cork bark up one wall to keep my desk light from disturbing them when I'm working, cocofiber along the back, and a mass of fake greens that's actually hiding a moss pit. That bowl's mostly there to help me dig in the sand.



Looking the other way, we have a heat mat, a digital thermo/hygrometer (I expect heat and humidity will go up once I actually insulate everything....and have water in the pools.), and a good, clean assortment of proper shells.

Progress is progress! I'm liking it so far. Next step: to figure out what on earth I'm doing with these airstones....

[Persea]

Well, that did it. I ended up with three crabs! Semi-unplanned: a kid I babysit got them from a friend and was keeping them hidden under her bed. Her mother was...less than pleased, and planned to just toss them out, so I took them home. They're much bigger than what I planned on getting, so this week has been full of emergency changes!



This, here, is Adenine. She's pretty active! And she loves high places.



The other two instantly dug down and hid, and have been coming up to steal food in the dead of night. I actually spotted Cytosine taking some apple before retreating once more. Still no sight of Guanine.



As for the tank overall: a lot of changes have occurred. A lamp with UVB "tropical" light set up for 12 hours a day, because this room gets no outside light. Extra shells in much, much bigger sizes! A second heat mat, because it wasn't staying warm. It's still only in the low 70s, so when I can I'm going to insulate the tank. And lastly, some glass on the top to keep some heat and humidity in!



Here's a decent view from the top, without the screen....reminding me to clean out and refill the pools soon.



And a personal favorite shot of the "moss archway"! Adenine likes to hang out here, and I can hear Cytosine clacking over the egg crate at night (when I'm trying to sleep).



Lastly, here's a shot of Adenine trying to hide in the shell shop....please, just change out of that painted shell! You'd hide much better that way, kiddo!

[DreaminginBlue_2]

Beautiful tank! I love the names of your cat and your crabs.
I'm so glad they got a good home with you.

[aussieJJDude]

Did you name them after DNA/RNA?

Btw that uvb bulb is pointless the way you have it.... UVB does not penetrate glass.... if you want your crabs to have access to UVB, you need nothing between the bulb and the crab, since even screens can block up to 90% of the rays depending on the size of the screen.

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[Persea]

Thank you, Blue! I love to get creative with the names of pets who won't learn them anyway. So much freedom!

And Aussie - I absolutely named them after DNA. Hopefully, if I get more crabs, I can follow the theme!

And ah, yeah, I'll keep that in mind! The screen has some pretty wide holes - too small for the crabs to get out, mind, but still big. The glass is just there until I can get the humidity up higher. Now that I got the heat figured out (and at a steady ~82 F) that's my next challenge. The glass is far too heavy to be a long-term solution - even less so now that I know it blocks the UVB. Would using saran wrap/clear tape to cover some of the screen block the UVB too?

[aussieJJDude]

Anything will block it... even screen does

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