HCA: Hermit Crab Association

After quickly going from a 10g to a 29g, The Addiction had me perusing CL for a 55. I found one for a good price, but needed a stand. We wanted something that would match our living room furniture, but anything of even decent quality would have cost several pints of blood and my everlasting soul. So I decided to build one instead. A little lumber, a healthy dose of insanity, and a lot of planning later, a stand began to emerge.
When completed, there will be doors on either side and a shelf in the middle. And more importantly, it will support a 55 and not look like a particle board nightmare in the living room.

On to the tank! Today the corner guards were cut and installed. And yes, because I'm obsessive, I created a jig so the holes in the corner guard were evenly spaced.



Then onto the pools. They're OXO containers, nice and clear so we will be able to see if any of our crabbie tribe decide to take a swim. I went with the 'container within a container' idea so I can take the inner one out to clean it and not drag sand across the house. There's a few holes drilled into the outer container so that annoying 'container suction' thing doesn't happen. The blue pebbles are just for a wonderful splash of color.

Then I took a couple of bird ladders, cut them to length and attached needlepoint mesh. On the bottom of the pools for crabbie traction are a couple of suction cup bathtub appliques, cut to fit. Everything is designed so I can easily and quickly take everything apart to clean it.



The last two of my tribe that were down molting are back up and look fabulous! Now that all ten are up, time is of the essence to get this project finished and get all ten of the tribe moved into Crabtopia. Stay tuned for more progress!

wow that stand looks amazing!!!!!

Amazing job on the stand, and cool idea with the pools! Can't wait to see more pictures!

Sassypants, I love that you said "On to the tank! Today the corner guards were cut and installed. And yes, because I'm obsessive, I created a jig so the holes in the corner guard were evenly spaced. " Yes! Someone more obsessive than me! All I did was use a ruler and a Sharpie to mark the exactly-evenly-spaced holes on the corner guard strips before drilling .

BTW, that stand is gorgeous: much more attractive than any you'd find in a store and much sturdier, too, I'm sure.

Thanks lemonlime, Asheka and Crabinski! I've done woodwork projects before, but nothing to this scale. I designed it on SketchUp and went from there. I'm happy about how it turned out, and it didn't cost me anywhere near $600+ to get a nice oak stand.
And Crabinski, I think we're compulsive kindred spirits.

Today, the climbing wall went in. It's plastic hardware mesh secured on all sides to the corner guards so crabbies can't get behind it. There's about an inch of space between the mesh and the back wall, so the tribe can climb to their heart's content. I can also hang plants or attach bark without blocking the airflow around the UTH.

Then I built a stand for the pools out of PVC and egg crate. It supports the pools so they don't potentially crush a crab that is digging below them. There's also holes in the bottom of the PVC posts (that will get covered with landscape fabric) that will allow me to siphon out any excess water should a flooding incident occur. Or, I'll just give the crabbies little pails so they can help bail out the tank.



Now impatient me gets to drum my fingers for a week while I wait for the varnish on the stand to fully cure. Then I can set everything up and start adding substrate and oodles of fun crab stuff. That's the fun part. Can't wait! I'm going to be so tickled to watch the tribe explore their new digs.

Everything looks great! That stand is beautiful and I really like your climbing wall. I tried to do something similar in my tank with a fish net, but my implementation wasn't as professional as yours. Net ended up being a bad choice and I didn't have it taunt enough for proper climbing, but I think yours will work quite well.

Wow; this is turning out to be quite interesting... I would love to see how it goes!

Clever idea for the pool support! I'm looking forward to the rest.

Thanks Form, aussie and Sweet Pea. I'm curious to see how this turns out too. [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]


Finally a little more time to work on the tat!

Got the UTHs on the back and one side. Insulated the back with 2" of foam insulation covered with two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil on the front and duct tape all around. Overkill? Yeah, probably. But we had it left over from a construction project. Plus the only place for the tank is the northwest corner of the living room, which will be the coldest corner during our Chicago winter. I'm hoping to keep the heat in and the cold out. Once the side was also insulated, it was time to finally move the tank into the house. Yay! Progress!

Tomorrow I start loading the sand/EE mix. I plan on having beer and Aleve ready when I'm done.

Anymore updates? Looks great!

More please!! This is such an amazing project! I'm drooling over all the important small details. So great to get it right from the start. It's like a planned community....whereas my 55 gallon developed more like urban sprawl.

I'm really enjoying your progress. Hope you continue to post.