Sorry for such a delayed reply, but if you are still interested in this idea I can give you a great answer now that a lot of time has passed! I have never noticed a plastic smell of any kind from the tote in the past two years. I believe this is because Sterilite is food safe. I wouldn’t recommend using any other brand of tote without research first. The Sterilite recommendation came from this forum, although the post I used for reference is long lost in my memory unfortunately.Hermiemom68 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:28 pmI love your set up! I have been wanting to use totes for awhile now but I read they leak fumes from pvc they use to harden plastics. Have you noticed any kind of smell? I’m getting older and just can’t handle those heavy glass aquariums and loved the tote idea. How long have you had them in your tote setup? I love what you’ve done
Thank you for your kind words! The tote has been a fantastic enclosure for my crabbies. The plastic holds in humidity perfectly, and my crabs are still thriving to this day. I just fed them
Two of my crabs have been in there since the day of the original post, and two new crabs have been living in there as well since Halloween 2022. I’m thinking of getting some new decor and shells soon to liven things up. One thing I will recommend is either passing on the LED lights or getting a good waterproof strip of LEDs. The strip I had ended up breaking after a year. All of the original toys and hides are holding up just fine, even the leaves. The handle and wheels were invaluable when I had to move apartments, I just had to remove the substrate. Definitely way more manageable and cheaper than glass!