HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello folks! I know, I haven't been on as much. I've been working from home which is cool but it means I'm a bit busy with distractions haha. Anyway, so basically I've been meaning to upgrade my babies' tank. Couldn't find a cheap one anywhere...until a few days back. I got this...Exo Terrarrum (36x18x12) and it's really WIDE. Which I love because hey, more places for them to move around right? Right! except...

the bottom portion is twice the size of the top of my original tank, which means it'll either be lopsided and fall off or...

I have this idea. That. i basically cut like...a square in the middle of the plexiglass of the bottom of the topper, get that somehow on top-do I epoxy it? How do I attach it all?-and then fill the entire bottom tank with play sand...or fill it as much as I can, fill a bit on the top with play sand for the flooring and then start putting their stuff around? I'm still so new at this and of course whenever I ask my step dad who usually likes making stuff, he just goes "I don't know". which is frustrating because I'm not a DIY person, I like it all made up already and then putting my stuff together.

However the Terrarium is shallow and well, I kinda need that depth, ya see.

Also, should I leave the heating pad I have attached to the bottom tank or should I move it to this new one? The guy who sold it to me put something over the screen on the top to keep humidity in which was AWESOME so I don't have to keep covering the kiddos with a pink towel over the top XD

Here's a pic http://www.exo-terra.com/nl/products/na ... _large.php

I've never had a topper, to start out, but I've seen some interesting builds - to be honest, what's always looked easiest is turning the topper tank upside down, so the "screen lid" is the new bottom. That way you don't have to cut anything!

You could maybe put the topper perpendicular to your bottom tank, and put some kind of plexi or plastic or wood in the open spaces - like little shelves that you can fill with moss or plants? And maybe leave a little bit of space in the bottom tank for pool access and general surface-goings?

How big is your bottom tank?

When talking about width, do you mean from front to back, or 'left to right'?

I would use the terrarium as the main tank. And take your current tank and use a topper but that me.... To do this you'll need a piece of plexiglass against the doors so you can have deeper substrate.

Edit: with my topper tank, I only have a UTH on the base/main tank.
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daws409 wrote:I would use the terrarium as the main tank. And take your current tank and use a topper but that me.... To do this you'll need a piece of plexiglass against the doors so you can have deeper substrate.

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Even removing the screen, custom made glass lids and a small tube to connect to current tank could work well.

Agreed!

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Wow, haha, so many responses! X3

Persea, the bottom one I want to use, the one they're in now, is a common aquarium, so it's about half as wide side to side as the one I want to put on top.

aussieJJdude, it's left to right, so it'd be pretty lopsided if I did just one side or the other, it doesn't go back far, although I guess I could make it do that?

daws409, I'm afraid to use the other tank as the topper instead, mostly because I'm afraid it'll bust my terrarium as it's actually not as deep.

Like I thought, I was going to cut a hole in the bottom of the terrarium, however I'm not so sure HOW to do that. I really love how wide this terrarium is and I want it as the main, except that it's not deep, perhaps about 3 inches when I need 6-8, which the one they're in definitely takes, but it's not as wide and thus is feeling cramped (to me. I don't know how they feel. Good I guess since they have wild parties all night XD)

I mean. If I can maneuver something that leads out from that tank to the terrarium while also making sure they don't accidentally try and molt in the shallower substrate.

I tried to look up ideas but it's hard since most of it is either DIY which I'd love to make my own aquarium for these cuties, haha. Or it's for fish and it has all this other stuff I don't need.

I guess the main question boils down to: can I put a wider tank on a deeper tank as a topper, and how would that work out?

Ok, if you want a topper you could kind of borrow the idea of a 'drop off aquarium' click here to see what I mean, where the deeper part is your main tank fill with sand, and then the shallower part repersents the overhand, which would almost be "levels". Then you need to DIY a stand for the ends, such as using 2 by 2, and a saw to make a box to support. If you really want, you could even silicone in glass dividers, and these "levels" could be a good place to make a moss pit or a shallow sand/EE/rock bed, used for a shell shop, food, water, chia seeds.... sky the limit...

How does that sound?