Expanding my 40B tank vertically

[Tmomma]

I'm so excited to finally do a tank extension! Couple of questions though.

Currently have 40B tank and am going to put an exo terra 30ish gallon terrarium on top. It has the double open doors. Planning on sealing it up where tanks connect to help with humidity. However, I prefer to keep the double doors functioning. Has anybody done this? If so does the door crack let too much humidity escape?

Will I need to include a fogger or something to keep humidity high in the upper realm or will daily spraying be enough?

The exo terra tank is 24x18x12 so there will be a 1 foot gap left in the bottom tank top that I'm hoping Lowes will cut my current glass topper. Has anybody had success with Lowes doing this?

Lastly I see a lot of conflicting info on sub cleaning and how often. The tank extension will make this a bit more difficult so can I go a couple years without a full change out? I recently lost a crab to a deep clean because I thought they were all up and my 2 largest were the same size with almost identical shells. I was so mad and heart broken because my sub was fine but I read every 6-9 months you should change it. Needless to say I'm leaning more towards the group that lets the sub just be unless theres an issue. Thoughts or tips on easier cleaning with this set up?

[DragonsFly]

I had my 55g for years and never changed the substrate. I had live plants in it, so that would have been particularly annoying to do. With enough substrate, and with a mix of Eco Earth and sand, and especially if you have good diggers that stir the soil up fairly regularly, theoretically it can become bioactive and balanced. I'm with those who say don't change the sub unless you get a bacterial bloom or other problem. (But I only have 2 crabs, in a 120 g; if you had more crabs in a smaller volume of substrate, it might be that waste products would build up?)

I think I saw something where somebody took the double-door arrangement and put a strip of plexiglas on the back of one of the doors to overlap behind the gap and across to the back of the other door while still allowing the doors to open. In other words, the strip was about 2 1/2 inches wide, and was only glued to the back of ONE of the doors, but it overlapped BOTH doors about an inch on each side of the gap. But because it was only glued to one door, you could still open the doors as long as you opened the one the plexi was not attached to, first. Does that make any sense? I'm sorry I have no idea how to find that, I'm sure it would have had pictures that would help.

I did not find a fogger to be much help at all with humidity, while it did encourage mold. I think that is because it rolls out all this cool fog that just settles on things and keeps all the SURFACES actively MOIST, thus making mold happy, rather than staying in the AIR, which is where we need it in a crabitat, to keep the CRABS healthy. The biggest humidity booster I've found is a fountain in the tank. I found an old plastic ("resin"!) table-top decorative fountain with a fairly deep bottom basin at a thrift store. The water fell into one smaller basin about halfway, then down from that smaller basin through several streams into the larger bottom basin. That moving, running water in several streams aerosolized a ton of humidity into the tank.

Live plants, if you can get them growing, also lift water from the substrate and release it into the air.

[Tmomma]

Thank you!! The plexiglass idea helps, simple fix! I have bubbler pools in my tank so that helps..I wonder if it'll just take a couple days for humidity build up in the air. I currently have 4 PPs so not too many since I don't want to overcrowd. All great diggers and have had great and multiple molts so I think my sub has been good.

I'll just go with my gut and common sense next time... if my tank doesn't show signs of being nasty then it probably isn't. Won't the poo degrade after a bit of being buried?

I love the fountain idea...did your crabbies use it? Did you have to filter it somehow? I've been wanting to set up a 1 gallon fresh water tank in my crabitat but am intimidated since I've never ran an aquarium. All the filters and PH, nitrate etc are like greek to me.

[DragonsFly]

Yes, the EE in the substrate helps to break down the poop. It's still a good idea to remove any poop you may happen to see, especially early on before the soil gets well established, but with a large enough volume of substrate and a small number of crabs, you don't have to be obsessive about "cleaning."
M
Both my water sources are bubble pools at this time, also. I am also quite intimidated by the notion of trying to create balanced aquaria in the tank. It seems, at least from some crabbers' experiences, that this is better for the crabs, but others have kept crabs literally for decades without providing them actual mini-aquaria.

I have ordered a new pump for my little fountain and hope to put it back in the tank soon. The way it is made, it doesn't really require a filter. When I first got it, I put a little piece of natural sponge in the "return hole," but I found over time that they almost never dropped anything into the basin, so I quit doing that. The fountain is small enough that I just take it out and clean it, just like my bubble pool, and put it back in. I have it sitting on top of a piece of plexiglas so that, if a crab happens to dig underneath it, their "roof" won't be removed when I take it out to clean it.

And yes, they used it--they climbed all over it, sat on top of it often, hung out at the upper basin, and hung out at the lower basin. When they were much smaller, I had a plastic grid "ladder" attached to the lower basin by aquarium silicone to make sure they could get out, but now they are both big enough to just pull themselves out of it if they did go (or fall) in, so I removed that.

[crabbycasey]

Just seeing this…I did the exact same thing with my 40g breeder and flipped a 30g 18x18x24 exo terra on top. It fit half the tank perfectly and I used the mesh lid (covered in plastic wrap) of the exo terra to secure a lid to the open part of bottom tank. Secured it all with gorilla tape and it doesn’t budge! Can easily access the bottom tank by lifting the mesh lid (attached a commando hook as handle). My exo topper doesn’t have double doors, but there’s a small gap around the single door. Used the gorilla tape over the side that hinges. I love that stuff! I’m very precise with my taping, lol. You could always use it to fold and layer over the edges of the doors to minimize the gaps…like you’re extending the size of the doors, if you can visualize what I mean.

I’ve been able to maintain good humidity in the top with a shower caddy moistened moss pit and also a reptile feeder with little plastic dishes that I keep filled with water. All attached with suction cups.

Let me see if I can find a couple pics…it’s been a little bit since I took any…

This was before I added the shower caddy moss pit on the back wall, up top


The reptile feeder with water dishes (featuring an inconspicuous Turbo)

Have you already done it?! I was so excited to give them all that climbing room! They were up there the very first night.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tmomma]

This is awesome thank you for sharing. It looks verry nice and your tape job is very precise. I am waiting until Christmas so my hubby doesn't notice too many crab supplies coming in at once. He's gracious with my obsession but I see the eye rolls. I can't wait to add the climbing room for my little guys. I have two that LOVE to climb. I am planning on decking out the back with egg crates covered with plants and bridges. I think having a few moss pits up there will help a ton and be a fun hang out. I am planning on a 24x18x18 or a 24x18x36....we'll have to see how generous santa is.

[aussieJJDude]

If you want, consider getting a 36 x 18 x 18 (or a taller 36 x 18 unit) as its exactly the same footprint as a 40g breeder. May as well go big right?

[Tmomma]

Yeah I have a repti zoo tank that size in my amazon cart. I figure it'll be easier to just forgo the cutting glass and just access the entire tank through the double doors. I think I'll just need to position my pools up front for easier access.

[Tmomma]

Just got a 65 gallon double door terrarium for $200 on fb market. Now I have to do some adjusting and decorating!! Really hoping the 40 gallon b will hold it....

[myllkti]

Been super interesting catching up on this thread! Have fun w your modifications! I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

[Tmomma]

Ok I just finished the tank extension today!! I still am going to buy/make a few decor items and need to get some more sand but so far happy with how it turned out. Working on getting humidity and temp back up in the tank. Going to upsize my pools to hopefully help with this. Pics coming once I figure out how to upload them.

[Tmomma]

Ok I just finished the tank extension today!! I still am going to buy/make a few decor items and need to get some more sand but so far happy with how it turned out. Working on getting humidity and temp back up in the tank. Going to upsize my pools to hopefully help with this. Pics coming once I figure out how to upload them

[Crab-Bee]

The pictures didn't work

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[Tmomma]

Hmmmm they do for me if I click on them and hold them down....

[aussieJJDude]

Yeah, its not coming up for me either unless I open them up on url!

(Url for photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/194787380 ... ted-public)

Heres a quick guide to share pics using flickr, and once you have the jpg url, then insert in the img tags.
https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/art ... -or-Albums