Noisy air stones?

[Hermias_mom]

Elly, how's the airstone working now? Sometimes they run better after a few days.

Pretty well thanks. No change. Right now my biggest struggle is heating. So im tryin to work on that. But im almost ready for crabs! Lol. Im working on buying an ultratherm, but looking for the best price. Im also considering a larger tank. So i just dont know wth im gonna do really.

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I acquired crabs without my standard advanced planning myself, so kudos to you for trying to get things straight first!!! The crabs will thank you.

You mentioned you were considering upgrading to a larger tank. Folks on here say buy the biggest you have space available for, and I'll second that. Craigslist, offerup, bookoo, yard and consignment sales, also Petco/Petsmart 1$/gallon sales are all ways to find large affordable tanks. Starting out I bought a 10 gal from a consignment sale for $10.00, and thought it would be plenty of space. I was so wrong. Once I got 6" of sub in it, it was half full, and finding places to put climbing branches and hides and space for the water bowls and food shells was harder than I thought. Plus I wanted to add a shell shop off the sub, a second level, a moss pit, and a hamster wheel. And they really need more things to climb... the hamster wheel just wouldn't fit. These guys walk miles a day in the wild. I think they need a hamster wheel, but that's me. . And I wanted more than two crabs. A 29 gal upgrade is in the works for me.

Also, to speak to your temperature issues, I couldn't find where you posted pics of your tank, so I don't know your current setup, but when I switched from medium Zoomed and small All Living Things UTHs (at the same time) to an Ultratherm with a Zilla thermostat set on 80F, my temp and humidity issues were both fixed. I bought the Ultratherm big enough to cover the entire back of my tank, then insulated it with Reflectix and Styrofoam (Aluminum foil will work instead of Reflectix if you want). I don't have air stones in my pools because I haven't needed them yet (It's been two months so far...) A spray of the moss pit once a week seems to be enough so far. FYI my sub is playsand/ecoearth 5:1 moistened to sandcastle consistency with marine saltwater.

The Ultratherm may be a bit pricey but I think it's worth every penny. And I'd recommend a thermostat. Just my two cents. Good luck!

[elly_bananas]

Thanks so much for ur advice. Im at 5:1 play sand and coconut fiber, in the 10 gal, so as you said its tight after all those things in there. I removed the sponge and switched around the bowls, added the moss pit, but im going to have to adjust that sucker, i think its too high. Lots of trial, lots of error. Ha! But i am indeed itching for more space. My husband isnt having it right now since i just bought all this, so ill have to time that juuuust right lol

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[elly_bananas]

Thanks so much for ur advice. Im at 5:1 play sand and coconut fiber, in the 10 gal, so as you said its tight after all those things in there. I removed the sponge and switched around the bowls, added the moss pit, but im going to have to adjust that sucker, i think its too high. Lots of trial, lots of error. Ha! But i am indeed itching for more space. My husband isnt having it right now since i just bought all this, so ill have to time that juuuust right lol

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Also the sub is 6 inches, i just didnt put the whole thing in the shot. [WINKING FACE]

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[Hermias_mom]

Elly, your moss pit looks great! So does your crabitat- much more decorative than mine -I like it

I have a reptile mesh lid, and the crabs are often walking across it, upside down. I think they'll love your coco mat on the side, and climbing your greenery, wood, and cholla! . If I were a crab, I would enjoy it! Mine regularly cross the habitat by crawling upside down along an oak branch smaller around than my finger. I think they like figuring things out and doing things that seem difficult to us. .

[Hermiearth]

Keep in mind that in a 10 gal tank it is recommended you keep a max of 2 crabs


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[elly_bananas]

Keep in mind that in a 10 gal tank it is recommended you keep a max of 2 crabs


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Indeed i will. Lol

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[elly_bananas]

Elly, your moss pit looks great! So does your crabitat- much more decorative than mine -I like it

I have a reptile mesh lid, and the crabs are often walking across it, upside down. I think they'll love your coco mat on the side, and climbing your greenery, wood, and cholla! . If I were a crab, I would enjoy it! Mine regularly cross the habitat by crawling upside down along an oak branch smaller around than my finger. I think they like figuring things out and doing things that seem difficult to us. .

Thats interesting. You think i should leave it? Im going to cover the mesh lid to keep in the heat n humidity, tho im unclear what to use to do that atm. Thank you for your kind words and praise. I like it too.

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[Hermias_mom]

Elly, your moss pit looks great! So does your crabitat- much more decorative than mine -I like it

I have a reptile mesh lid, and the crabs are often walking across it, upside down. I think they'll love your coco mat on the side, and climbing your greenery, wood, and cholla! . If I were a crab, I would enjoy it! Mine regularly cross the habitat by crawling upside down along an oak branch smaller around than my finger. I think they like figuring things out and doing things that seem difficult to us. .

Thats interesting. You think i should leave it? Im going to cover the mesh lid to keep in the heat n humidity, tho im unclear what to use to do that atm. Thank you for your kind words and praise. I like it too.

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Yeah, I think you should leave the moss pit where it is. But you should totally do whatever you want to - it's your crabitat

If my crabs were in there, they would climb up the coco mesh on the wall, into the moss pit, have a snack, and then proceed to cross the reptile mesh lid (upside down) in several directions, probably looking for any space they can get out of the lid through. They might come down using the greenery or wood you've got in there that comes up pretty close to the top of the tank. As I said, I think they'd love it!

An interesting side note - I recently put that same white plastic bin that you're using as a moss pit in my crabitat (if I'm seeing the size correctly) as a shell shop. If you shave the ends of the plastic down, it will JUST fit across the width of a 10 gallon, with a few Command hooks to hold it up through the slats in the sides. I was seriously contemplating that for a while, and may still do it later, but I didn't want to block my UTH or my thermostat sensor, or put stuff right over both water dishes, so I ended up putting my shell shop caddy corner across my freshwater pool and touching the repti-hammock I'm using as a second level. I was looking for where I'd posted a pic, but I haven't apparently taken any of the new shell shop yet. I'll see if I can snap one when I get home.

If you're interested, the last three pics on this thread are of my current crabitat (minus the shell shop ). I've got all sorts of ideas for what to do next in the 29 gallon with more room, but if you plan to stick with a 10 gallon for a while, it might give you a few ideas. Lots of great pics under the Pictures section of this forum too. (there are LOTS of great ideas out there!) I went a bit overboard with my coral purchases, and then I felt like, I've got to use it because I bought it, so I have a coral theme going on. Definitely going to do more greenery and wood in the next build - that's one thing I like about yours.
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 8&t=113702

For covering up a reptile mesh lid, folks recommend plastic wrap or press-n-seal. Just put the reptile mesh lid in place, secure with lid clips (no escapees!), then cover most of it with your preferred plastic. I use press-n-seal to keep in the humidity, and change that out every month or so when it stops being sticky. You can leave part of the lid uncovered as needed to help regulate humidity if you need to. Some folks use glass or plastic cut to size as a second lid below their reptile mesh lids to keep the tat warmer, but I haven't done that myself, so I can't speak to that.

I'm a new crabber, so I'm not saying this is the best approach, but this is what I did to my lid and it seems to work so far - I started crabbing in the winter time and had a lot of issues with getting the crabitat hot enough first off. After the third rebuild I got a bit mad that it kept not working, so on my fourth build I went a bit overboard, but it's working, so... I covered 3/4 of my lid with Reflectix to insulate it(cleaned with rubbing alcohol first and allowed to dry, just in case there were contaminants on the Reflectix, but this was probably overkill), then put a 1/2" piece of styrofoam covered in Aluminum foil on top of the Reflectix, made little cutouts so I could get to my lid clips, and then covered it all with Press-n-seal (leaving a bit uncovered to regulate humidity). I also made a removable styrofoam piece covered in press-n-seal facing outwards so it would stick to the tank lid and be moveable so I could insulate the part of the lid that didn't have Reflectix on it. Yea, I think I went a bit nuts, but I was so TIRED of it not being hot enough for my crabs!

That's awesome that you don't have crabs in there to worry or stress about while you figure everything out.

[123AE]

I don't know if you know this yet (it's fine if you don't because every one makes mistakes) but you may want to remove that sponge this is because they don't drink out of them and they just harbour bacteria) it also looks dyed or bleached it's by no means that bad at all but you may want to change it


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[Hermias_mom]

I use my sponges as a dry food source.

[soilentgringa]

I use my sponges as a dry food source.

They really don't offer any nutritional value, and if they've been processed or bleached, wouldn't be of any benefit at all.



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[soilentgringa]

I don't know if you know this yet (it's fine if you don't because every one makes mistakes) but you may want to remove that sponge this is because they don't drink out of them and they just harbour bacteria) it also looks dyed or bleached it's by no means that bad at all but you may want to change it


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The bacteria thing has been debunked. There really isn't any bacteria that we know of that can hurt the crabs. Their systems are designed to process decaying organisms and in the wild many crabs live further inland and fill their shells with stagnant rain water out of puddles.

If you are a human with a compromised immune system or don't wash your hands after handling stuff like mold or sponges, you could maybe get sick, but other than that or allergies to like...bloodworms or cocofiber, you shouldn't become ill from anything in the crabitat.

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[GotButterflies]

That looks great for a 10 gallon! Awesome job!


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[elly_bananas]

I don't know if you know this yet (it's fine if you don't because every one makes mistakes) but you may want to remove that sponge this is because they don't drink out of them and they just harbour bacteria) it also looks dyed or bleached it's by no means that bad at all but you may want to change it


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Sponge was gone after the pics were taken. I think i mentioned that already, but no big deal. I had done some lone research and found this out previously to this post. Thank you tho!

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[elly_bananas]

That looks great for a 10 gallon! Awesome job!


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Thank you so much!

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