Your MASSIVE dream tank (fun idea-sharing)

[Kat]

flutinkat, alarm bells went off when you said 'pleco' & 'planted tank' in the same sentence. I hope you mean a dwarf variety & mostly plastic plants 'cause plecos love sandy substrate to bury in & they will rip up plants. The big ones can even thrash at them w/ their tails and cut them in two. I learned this one the hard way.

HermitMickey, 600g sounds lovely w/ double pools like that. I hope that dream comes true for you one day!

That's good to know! I kept a pleco in a tank with gravel and a huge tunnel he loved, but my plecos kept outgrowing my 20g which is what has kept me from getting one. I guess catfish are the same way? May have to stick with shrimp...I'm working on learning about the aquatic world on a competent level.

[Ebonsong]

There are some dwarf plecos you can get that won't get larger than like 8" or so, but they're still able to thrash at plants. And they still like a sandy bottom substrate, so that means clashes w/ roots.

When my partner had a pleco years ago he had this bamboo-like plant (really thin/long) & every time the pleco thrashed near it, it'd cut them all right in two. Great for transplanting cuttings but eventually the thrashing was too much & the plants all died.

I've a planted 33 gallon atm. Currently, all it has in it are a variety of shrimp & one albino corey. The corey is so gentle & doesn't mess w/ any of the plants other than to clean them. There were neon tetras and a SAE (confirmed) but I'm moving soon so I gave those to some local freshwater buds. It's much easier to keep now & the shrimp are very active since they're the bosses of the tank. They zip about everywhere & run after my zucchini slices right in daylight

[Scarlz]

Well, my mother is extending our house, and she's giving me my own room for all of my exotics/animals. And She even said she'd dish out some money for me to make my 500 g tank in the room. I'm in the process of drawing it out :3

[DSNinjaX]

My dream tank:

The whole BEDROOM would be a tank. The walls, ceiling, and floor would be covered in glass 2 feet of sub on the bottom, a ton of glass "bridges" that make huge second and third levels, climbing walls, a moss pit that would take up a whole CORNER of the room, and, of course, blocked-off pathways for maintenence and just viewing teh crabs without stepping on them.

Sadly, this is only possible in a researcher-style funding. This, however, would blow even the most expierienced crabber away. I'd even have a rainfall system (whenever it's raining outside, it's rain'n in the crabitat)

[Cecil716]

Well, my mother is extending our house, and she's giving me my own room for all of my exotics/animals. And She even said she'd dish out some money for me to make my 500 g tank in the room. I'm in the process of drawing it out :3

Dont forget to buy a misting system, Large tanks = lots of misting needed. A misting system would help with humidity A LOT.

[aussieJJDude]

My dream tank - might be reality if I get a solid job...
Would be an "in wall" tank.... So it would be 3 - 4m (120 - 160 inch) long, around about 1.8m (72 inch) high and 0.6 - 1m (24 - 40inch) wide. To maintain the tank, I would have sliding glass doors. Due to it being in the wall (or if it isn't, taking up one wall in my house) it would be made out of wood with glass doors. of course, if the tank doesn't span across the whole wall, there would be a window on one side. The wood in the tank would be covered with pond liner.
The high of the tank (excluding substrate) would be 1.3 - 1.4m (52 - 56 inch) so I am looking of a sub level of 50 - 40 cm (20 - 16 inch). The sub would be half or 3/4 sand, then have half or 1/4 EE, moss, leaf litter ect...
There would be levels made out of wood and these would be 15 - 20cm (6 - 8 inch) deep, due to the fact there would be live plants in most of the levels.
The water dishes would be fish tank, and the tank would been seen from the outside. I would silicone a plexi or glass divider so theres a fresh water and a saltwater pools. To see from the outside, the wood would be cut out, and shaped with the ramp - so all you see is the water... The pool would span across the tank (or most of it) so it would be a custom made to fit in the tat. It would be an inch or so higher than the sub, and would be 40cm (16 inch) long max! The pools will have aquatic animals, such as fish (rainbows for the freshwater part) and most likely damsels (and MHC's!) for the marine section - and don't forget snails and shrimp for both! Of course, there will will be plants in the freshwater and Soft corals (and mangroves!) for the marine part. there would be filters and heaters for each water section....
There would be either one large food bowl, or multiple food bowls scattered across the tank.
Heat would be by a heat cable or it would have its own mini ducted heating system...
Of course, there would be lighting (these would be on a timer):

• - for marine corals
  - normal lighting
  - dusk/dawn lights
  - moon lights

And plus there would be plenty of decor - like wood and rocks like every other normal setup
This tank would hold 15 - 40 crabs...
(I might draw a "sketch" on Google sketch-up if I have time )
This idea is kinda based off naalide tank.... Thanks naalide!

[Scarlz]

Actually, they don't. Larger tanks seem to balance themselves out a lot more...

[Ebonsong]

Loving the new posts. So much energy and enthusiasm. These are great ideas, y'all!

[Rocky]

Alright.. so I did a little doodle for y'all



Curlz inspired me for the duo tanks They're not to scale since they'd be about 100 gallons each, anything else would be too much for me. But on the right I have the big digging/climbing tank, taller than it is wide, with 20 inches of sub and a few feet of climbing space featuring the massive moss pit and massive shell shop, nets, cholla, plants, and a hot basking spot at the top(infared). This tank would be kept at 85F/85%, and it would have minimal hideys but whole oyster shells mixed into the sub to be used as support structure type things for tunnels
On the left, I have my food/water tank, featuring the water bowls (2L each or .5gal) on a stand type thing to keep them elevated and away from the substrate. They'd have bubblers and I'd change them out about once a week. I'm not going to go for any sort of fancy pools or fishies or anything since I really hate dealing with water, especially fishy tanks full of it I also have lots of hideys and lots of large bendy vines, since mine love the big fake vines, and two or three bowls for fresh and dry food mixes. There's also a cooler basking spot (moonglo) and this tank would have maybe 10 inches of sub and it would be kept at 80F/80%. I have the connector tubes going around my computer, and they would have grips on them and they would be put together in pieces, so in case of an emergency I could get into it. And of course they'd be on each side of my computer since I'm there often enough (and there's me happy I'm not at work or something)
I want to keep them at different temperatures/humidity levels so the crabs can move and decide for themselves where they'd like to be :3 the food/water tank will be pretty steady, but the climbing tank will often become a rainforest with the help of my trusty spray bottle. I would have light timers for both tanks, a nice fancy digital therm/hydgrometer set in each, bubbler pools, and maybe an automatic mister. So all in all, I just have to spot clean and change the food daily, and do an inch clean (where I go through the first inch of all the sub and clean things up, fluff the moss and change shells) and water change once a week or so. I've found that once you get it going and stable, it stays pretty stable
Yea.. I've got lots of tanks planned out I'm planning on a scorp or trantula tank (not sure which) a dumpy tree frog tank, my crestie tank(s) a ball python or cornsnake tank, and a little black widow tank. They all have to wait 10-15 years until I'm set up in my own place, but I still like planning them out!

[Cecil716]

Rocky, You may want to have food in BOTH tanks. What if a crab prefers to eat in the main tank? Or doesn't want to go over to the other tank?

[Rocky]

They scavenge for miles in the wild and have incredible senses of smell, I'm sure they'll be able to find it The tube will only be a foot long at the longest I think. Besides, it's just an idea and wouldn't be put into action for 10-15 years, I can play around with it and see what they like best

[Muffincrab]

I like RockyGurly's drawing, I've always liked the idea for having more than just one tank. My dream tank would probably be multiple tanks (4-5) all connected with glass tunnels. Maybe each one could have it's own weather variations and live plant life, too.

I once had a dream that I had a crab tank as large as a gymnasium, and it had its own artificial ocean tide and jungle. There were hundreds of little hermit crabs everywhere. Hey, it's a dream...

[Ebonsong]

Rocky, I like your idea. I've seen the duo tanks before (on here & elsewhere) and I find them fascinating.

I would make sure that whatever I used for the tubes though is transparent & easy to take apart (like giant hamster tubes or something) as I wouldn't one getting stuck or decide to moult in the tube.

[Skymall007]

I've been dreaming of making a garage into a beach and sitting there while hermits crawl all over my and fall from mini palm trees but logistically......

Defiantly a 400 gallon doors that open from the front with real plants and that monsoon rain thing, timers, filtered hermit fresh and salt water swimming pools. A hermit jaccoozi (spelling?) and many stories full of interesting things. I would want tunnels leading to other enclosures and one of the enclosures would have a doll house so it looks like they are in a house.

It would also be cool to have a tube going all over my house so the hermits could walk from room to room but again, kind of far

[Ebonsong]

Skymall that sounds wonderful. Tubes are always tricky, esp if you're not in a hot place. For me in Canada I'd have to look into heated tubes, which kinda goes a bit too far.

But we can dream, right? Carry on the wonderful ideas!