Hi! Haven't posted in a while, new crabitat!

[hermitcrabdc]

It's looking really nice already It's much fuller and they have a lot of places to hide.

[JamieL]

I really like what you did with the plants and egg crate. Where did you get those at? I recently got a 20L too and I'm very happy with the length of it. I too have thought about doing a second story over my water bowls for a shell shop/ moss pit.

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Thanks! The plants are old silk aquarium plants I had, I think from petsmart. I cut them off the base and zip tied them to the egg crate. I've never seen anyone climbing on the red plants, but they climb around in the green one and walk along the top of the egg crate piece.

I just lost one crab, a new one, I believe to PPS so now I have 4 crabs, but 3 are down to molt!! I wanted to make the substrate deeper and add more things to the tank, but I'm nervous about collapsing their caves if I do too much. Although all 3 went down, but they all seemed like they dug in the same area?? Won't they run into each other down there? The substrate isn't even disturbed on 3/4 of the tank, all just in the one corner. I thought my substrate conditions were right in the old tank, but now that I'm really thinking about it I cannot remember the last time any of my crabs molted, unless they somehow did a speed molt without me noticing. My last man standing above ground hasn't been digging or anything really, but if he goes down too I probably won't be surprised. No fun!! Hahaha.

[JamieL]

I don't have the light on yet so it's hard to see, but there he is, all alone perched atop the mound of his buried friends

[JamieL]

Worked on the tank, here's the progress!

[Crabinski]

Looks great! Plants make such a difference, not only aesthetically but by providing more climbing/hiding places for the crabs.

[JamieL]

Thanks!! I'm pretty happy with how it came out, I hope the other crabs like in when they come up. Hermies having a great time climbing all over the place. I'm hoping I didn't disturb the molters, but I kind of lightly scooped in a little new sub and set the new decor on top.

[landlubber]

It looks fantastic! Great job! But I HAVE to know about that light-pretty awesome. I have been thinking about better lighting and am considering several options, but I like the LED systems. What kind of light is that, do you like it, and how much do they run?

[JamieL]

Ooh it's the lighting fixture from when this was a planted fish tank. It's a T5HO fixture, the brand is aquatic life. It has two bulbs, a 6000k natural daylight bulb, and a pinkish red lower spectrum bulb, both for freshwater aquatic plants. I used it for a little over a year and a half before I upgraded the fish to a larger tank and had to buy a new fixture, but it fits perfectly on the tank, it sits on the rim and I can still open the glass canopy without removing it. The legs can slide left to right so it can fit a slightly larger or smaller tank. The high output bulbs are pretty strong, but since these are old they're slightly weaker, so I think that's probably good, because they're still pretty powerful. I was having minor heating issues, but i
get an extra 5* of heat with these, so I'm in the perfect range now. and they're raised off the glass so that's good. I bought it on amazon, I paid about $90 for the fixture with the bulbs included, and the same bulbs have lasted me this long.

This is it, if the link works: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002BH9NL ... op?ie=UTF8

I was giddy when my husband came back from the storage unit on Sunday with it like "hey do you need this?"

LEDs I think give off very little heat, and I don't think any UV? I could be wrong, but I think that's right or close to it, based on what i know about growing freshwater plants. I'm more experienced with tropical fish and aquatic plants than hermit crabs if you don't need additional heat, LED is probably better. I figured too that the daylight spectrum given off by these couldn't hurt. my bulbs are for freshwater, marine lighting spectrum is higher (10,000k white/blue light) to mimic the sun over a reef, maybe that would be more true to their natural habitat? But I love this fixture so I'm very happy to get more use out of it

[JamieL]

Here's another view of the light fixture, and hermie, holding down the fort

[hprmom]

I'm getting ready to upgrade, browsing pics for inspiration. Your set-up looks lovely! What a transformation from the first picture. Thanks for sharing!

[JamieL]

I'm getting ready to upgrade, browsing pics for inspiration. Your set-up looks lovely! What a transformation from the first picture. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you!