Château Creb: ninety gallons of anomuran madness

[LadyJinglyJones]

Ugh, no... had some brain chemistry issues for a couple of weeks & couldn't get it together to clean/set up/build a stand for it.

But I'm back online and will hopefully have some progress posts soon... I'm making some new salt & fresh rock pools for the new tank tonight, which will be big enough for any crabs that get to large size.

And the lady from the Canadian Crab Connection (who is awesome & a great asset to the community up here, imo) has ordered me a second ultratherm so's I'll have full coverage on the back for the cooler months & we split the shipping (which is ghasty from the Bean Farm 'cause it's a big package from the States).

Anyhow, I hope I can get things set up in the next two weeks... but I have to move my Aquarium to fit the crab tank & I'm really not looking forward to that hassle... catching small, fast tetras in a planted tank (even after I remove all the decor) is a total pain! :crybaby:

[GotButterflies]

So glad to hear you are doing better! Do it all in moderation


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[karlys]

catching small, fast tetras in a planted tank (even after I remove all the decor) is a total pain! :crybaby:

If it helps you, I find that using two nets at the same time is the most effective. I have neons, embers, and glowlights and I hold the little net in my dominant hand and try to corral them into the big net in my other hand. Still infuriating but slightly less so at least.

[Fledgling]

catching small, fast tetras in a planted tank (even after I remove all the decor) is a total pain! :crybaby:

If it helps you, I find that using two nets at the same time is the most effective. I have neons, embers, and glowlights and I hold the little net in my dominant hand and try to corral them into the big net in my other hand. Still infuriating but slightly less so at least.

You could also try draining out some of the water. Gives them less room to maneuver.

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[LadyJinglyJones]

Actually, funny story: a friend accidentally emptied her neat scotch (or most of it) into my tank today.... needless to say, the necessity for an immediate (very large) water change superceded girly fun-times. We took the opportunity to slide the stand far enough to accommodate the 4' crab house. I hope my fish don't all die from poisoning/the stress of a 90% water change when I haven't been keeping up maintenance as well as I should.

FUN!

Also, managed to drop Jeets (who I thought was underground) in my oven during my bi-weekly cricket bake (booger was hiding in a crevass in a cork, I couldn't see him til I heard a little 'thunk' on the bottom of my pre-heated oven). I grabed him as fast as I could, but am seriously ready to cry over how badly this day is going.

I can't wait to have this tank set up and no more cricket nonsense in the crabitote. Crickets are the worst.

[PinchersAndShells]

Actually, funny story: a friend accidentally emptied her neat scotch (or most of it) into my tank today.... needless to say, the necessity for an immediate (very large) water change superceded girly fun-times. We took the opportunity to slide the stand far enough to accommodate the 4' crab house. I hope my fish don't all die from poisoning/the stress of a 90% water change when I haven't been keeping up maintenance as well as I should.

I had to look up what neat scotch is..... I hope they will pull through!!! However this reminded me that in the state of Ohio it is illegal to get a fish drunk, which is really just a random tidbit of info I find funny.

Also, managed to drop Jeets (who I thought was underground) in my oven during my bi-weekly cricket bake (booger was hiding in a crevass in a cork, I couldn't see him til I heard a little 'thunk' on the bottom of my pre-heated oven). I grabed him as fast as I could, but am seriously ready to cry over how badly this day is going.

I can't wait to have this tank set up and no more cricket nonsense in the crabitote. Crickets are the worst.

Glad you caught Jeets! And I'm rooting for you to have a successful upgrade, as well as hoping you feel better soon!

[LadyJinglyJones]

Quick update:

Working on pools, got my hamster wheel, going to add siliconed ledges to hook second level stuff to...

And mostly just working on the stand. Here is initial picture, though I'm much closer to the stand being done now. I'm using youtube's king of DIY basic aquarium stand design out of 2' × 4's.



I have to stain it still because both father & partner cried foul when I said I'd just stick the tank on an untreated pine 2×4 frame in the living room. I was accused of aesthetic double standards since I'd veto'ed some of my partner's groadier furnature. But that stuff was crazy-ugly.

Meanwhile, dad was a construction carpenter, & and is having a coniption over using "construction lumber to make furnature, like some kind of luddite"... um, dad, are you sure that word means what you think it means?

[DaJimmer]

I'm just catching up with this thread congratulations and don't forget you can always buy small pieces of wood trim to tack on with small brad nails may make it look halfway presentable.

[daws409]

Thanks for the update!!

You could make a 'sheet' curtain out of fabric to cover it and use Velcro to secure it to the frame. You could also buy curtains and use a tension rod to secure it depending how big of gap you have between the 2x4's.

This is a piece of fabric secured with velcro (wish I had better pic):


And this is curtains held with 2 tension rods (one on each side of shelving):



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[DaJimmer]

Conclusions about false bottom?? I've seen only a couple false bottom tanks used for things like poison arrow frogs. And the idea there I think was that there was constant running water seeping through the substrate filtering and then going to the false bottom and being pumped back through it was a self-sustaining bio filter system. The false bottom on a crab tank is really just flood space?

[Happyhermiehome]

Wow daws those are some serious tanks!

LJJ do u have a link to those DIY vids? I really like the simplicity of your stand

[daws409]

Wow daws those are some serious tanks!

Lol thanks!



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[LadyJinglyJones]

Wow daws those are some serious tanks!

LJJ do u have a link to those DIY vids? I really like the simplicity of your stand

I know, isn't daws awesome?

The stand has a little more to it than pictured there. That was just the first day of building & I was all proud of the progress I'd made. I'll put up another pic soon.

But sure, here he is... he's a champ at doing things cheap:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLcWeE ... N4Y9AYuwcQ

He's made like 3 versions of this stand build video, also canopies, adding shelves & doors, diy led strips... and all this with heavyer, water filled tanks in mind, so you know they'll be crabitat safe. His finishing techniques aren't always pretty, but they're easy/lazy, so I like 'em.

Fair warning though, things like how to get really flush cuts on the ends of the 2x4s without the equipment he has (so everything is fits tightly) - not explained. Some skill saws are awful for doing this (like my peice of wood-butchering junk)... I got my dad to help me cut the lumber because the man is a wizard with a hand saw. I was all, 'dad, you will neve get one good cut, let alone the number we need, with that rusty dull saw'... and promptly had to eat all the words. So I recommend having a former carpenter for a parent. Or buying/renting the kind or saw he uses.

Also, if you don't have clamps putting the upper & lower frame together its a two person job - one to predrill & screw, and one to hold the pieces in place.

[Happyhermiehome]

Wow daws those are some serious tanks!

LJJ do u have a link to those DIY vids? I really like the simplicity of your stand

I know, isn't daws awesome?

The stand has a little more to it than pictured there. That was just the first day of building & I was all proud of the progress I'd made. I'll put up another pic soon.

But sure, here he is... he's a champ at doing things cheap:

[url]https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLcWeE ... N4Y9AYuwcQ

He's made like 3 versions of this stand build video, also canopies, adding shelves & doors, diy led strips... and all this with heavyer, water filled tanks in mind, so you know they'll be crabitat safe. His finishing techniques aren't always pretty, but they're easy/lazy, so I like 'em.

Fair warning though, things like how to get really flush cuts on the ends of the 2x4s without the equipment he has (so everything is fits tightly) - not explained. Some skill saws are awful for doing this (like my peice of wood-butchering junk)... I got my dad to help me cut the lumber because the man is a wizard with a hand saw. I was all, 'dad, you will neve get one good cut, let alone the number we need, with that rusty dull saw'... and promptly had to eat all the words. So I recommend having a former carpenter for a parent. Or buying/renting the kind or saw he uses.

Also, if you don't have clamps putting the upper & lower frame together its a two person job - one to predrill & screw, and one to hold the pieces in place.

Ok thanks LJJ

And yeah Daws it totally awesome

[LadyJinglyJones]

FINALLY.

I finally, after about 1 000 000 000 distractions and impediments, chucked all the kids from both tats into the fully set up 90.

I destroyed my back a month ago, so there were a lot of things I planned (staining the stand, deeper sub, attempt at live plants, magnetic ledges with rare earth magnets, Fort Cork Round...) so that's all gonna have to wait til spring. Too cold to work in the garage now, where it's okay if I make a mess.

My rock pools are curing - i'll put up pictures as soon as I clear space on my phone.
(I have too many blurry pictures of crabs I need to delete - the memory is full )

I noticed that the kids really like to sit on the little pebble ledges in the bubbler spray, so I made glass bowl pools that will hopefully be more permanent than the tupperware pools.

The crebses are super active & exploratory.
I put out a lot of foods to really drive home the fact that there is no need to compete for resources, & everyone from both tats should just get along.

And everyone's been really chill - so i'm happy.

(But getting it together took me waaaay too long. Gah.)