aussieJJDude wrote:Wow, this is awesome! I have bookmarked this page as I am in love with your crabitat. If I was to upgrade, I think my tank would be set up very similar to yours!
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With the 5:1 ratio, is it EE:sand or sand:EE? And if you're willing to share, how much did this cost you (roughly)?
It's a ratio of five parts eco earth to every one part sand. I mix in the sand to help the eco earth keep form better, making it less spongy than it normally is. I have seen no reason to mix eco earth into a majority of sand, so I keep the left side as just sand. I like the idea of giving them a choice. I've had molts in both sand and EE before, so I don't believe that one is necessarily "better" than the other, it just depends on the crab.
For price: Well, that's a tough one. I already had most of the supplies on the inside, so the big one for this tank was . . .well, the tank
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. It all depends on what you can find online. I found the tank online on craigslist for a good deal. But there also may be better ones. Here's a list:
Tank, stand, and lighting: $225
Clamp lamp and 150w Ceramic Heat Emitter: $40
4 50lb bags of sand: $20
9 bricks of Eco Earth (3 3-packs): $30
Acrylic divider and silicone: $12
That right there is just the base of it all: heating, tank, lighting, sub
Inside stuff:
Large tree ornament: $25
2 corner and 1 back wall shower caddy: $20-25
Cholla wood: I think $5, I bought it a long time ago online
Hemp net: $10 on ebay
Clings: the water cling came free with an old tank, the forest cling was I think $10, and the dark tropical flora background I found on clearance for like $3.
Huts: all the "regular" coco huts I made myself. For a description, just ask. The large hut in the back left I bought on amazon for like $5.
Pools: Free, I made them myself
Cork panel I found this at a local pet shop for like $10
All other things: Everything else was not very expensive, and so adds up to maybe $25 overall.
That makes a total of: $425
That's a lot, right? The majority of it, as in all the stuff on the inside, I built up over a year while transioning through various tanks. A lot of that stuff is unneeded. For example, you could buy a large pile of 10" cholla wood pieces on ebay and make a huge, intricate climbing structure, without having to buy a huge tree ornament and nets, etc. The biggest expense was the tank, stand, and lighting. Everything else after that is up to the creator
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The tank and stand were my birthday present, and the other stuff was either a result of holiday and birthday money, or money saved up from lawn-mowing. It took a while to get it, and I knew I would have to have more money than the tank itself cost. Luckily, in-laws made up for that
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I honestly stole a lot of ideas from others and put it together. I don't feel like I'm very creative, I just mix stuff together. Sugarselections' 90 gallon was big inspiration, as well as many others.
Oh, and thanks for the praise
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. I don't mind if others copy at all. I'm not even quite finished, as mentioned above, but it won't change too much. Just do whatever looks nice to you, and whatever makes the crabs happy.
I worked hard on their setup, but I still have to work harder in the area of more diverse foods, and other health treatments. Some people just don't have the money to buy a large setup, but the hard work and effort they put in is, in my opinion, more important.
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When you've been crabbing for so long, you don't even know how many crabs you have now...