55 gallon decor

[Kermie16]

The free 55 gallon tank I got has been washed, scrubbed, dried with corner guards installed! Today I tackled the EE and playsand.
Did you say sand "parfait"?!

Have to admit, the HCA members who recommended this on several posts, I love the look of it! I kinda mixed the sand and EE on the top level just so it wasn't all sand. The bottom (can't been seen in pic) is actually all EE. Figured it would help maintain humidity down there.
We also started a bit of decorating. Added fish net, coco wall (not sure of actual name),
Aquarium rock that came free with the tank, and aquarium vines which we cut up and tied to the corner guards with zip ties. (Can't see in this pic but I like how the aquarium rock looks!)

And I FINALLY get to use the pools I made!! (YAY!)

Will post more pics as things move along. The ultratherm with insulation and humidity are all stable so once the decorating is done our hermies will go in one by one as they come up from molts

[Orangeguy]

wow looks good so far I cant wait for the rest

[Kermie16]

Thanks!! I am waiting for a couple of pieces I made, a shell shack and an underground hideout,
to finish drying and curing. Once those are in, I can get things going a bit faster. Will post more as things move along!

[hprmom]

Kermie, that looks GREAT! I love the pools! It'll be fun to see what your hermies do with the parfait. So far mine have mostly been staying away from the glass, but the hubs pointed out one spot where a crab had made a window and backfilled it... it looks like a mini jupiter's red spot among the stripes, lol.


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[Kermie16]

Thanks hprmom! And I appreciate all the helpful advice u gave me It will be fun to see what the hermies do with the sand! I think for the most part they will be busy exploring such a big tank!

[hprmom]

Thanks hprmom! And I appreciate all the helpful advice u gave me It will be fun to see what the hermies do with the sand! I think for the most part they will be busy exploring such a big tank!

Yes, they will!! Mine actually didn't start digging in earnest until they had been in the tank 5 or 6 weeks. I guess once they got the lay of the land they decided to extend their explorations underground as suddenly there are holes everywhere and hardly a crab to be seen, LOL. Looking forward to your updates!

[Kermie16]

Almost done putting the decorations in the tank! Not rushing it since we had to wait for the silicone on our decor to dry. We added our shell shack and also our below sub level glass tunnel which we will add some moss at the bottom for the hermies^_^
Here are a few different views:
This is our glass tunnel going down below sub level

Here is a view from the opening

This is our shell shack

And this is the view long ways in front of the bubblers looking lengthwise down the tat

Hope u enjoyed the pics!!

[hprmom]

I couldn't tell, but is your glass tunnel located where you can see it from the outside? 'Cause that would be super cool, to see a crab underground! Pics look great.

[Kermie16]

Yes! We wanted to be able to peek in on them a little So I dug through the sub and placed one side of the glass tunnel up against the glass of the tat so there is a maybe a 1-2 inch strip going all the way down to the bottom. The rest is totally covered in sub

[aussieJJDude]

Thats totally cool! What did you make that glass tunnel out of? And also, that shells shop! Love it. I really need to redecorate.

[Kermie16]

Thats totally cool! What did you make that glass tunnel out of? And also, that shells shop! Love it. I really need to redecorate.

Thanks!! The tunnel is a glass vase. I'm going to try and nestle the vase into another slightly larger one kind of like was recommended for the pools, in case I have to take out the vase, the sand around it is left un disturbed. Will see how that works out. The shell shack is a make up organizer. I purchased some acrylic cake pop sticks, hot glued the centers to keep them stable then silicone glued the sticks to secure them. Also just had some extra little decorative shells so used them for the shell shack and to make a walkway for the hermies in the tunnel We are all excited to watch the hermies start exploring their new tat but still have to wait until more molters come up so poor Chime doesn't feel lonely.

[hprmom]

Oh, so the tunnel is vertical, or angled down? Now I'm seeing it! That explains how you can put one glass inside another as you're thinking about and still take one out. Super cool. And acrylic pop sticks, who knew such a thing existed! I'm loving your ideas. I'm having recurring mold problems, working on figuring it out but think I might need to come up with "secondary" decor so I can swap things out as I need to remove and clean them.

[Kermie16]

Oh, so the tunnel is vertical, or angled down? Now I'm seeing it! That explains how you can put one glass inside another as you're thinking about and still take one out. Super cool. And acrylic pop sticks, who knew such a thing existed! I'm loving your ideas. I'm having recurring mold problems, working on figuring it out but think I might need to come up with "secondary" decor so I can swap things out as I need to remove and clean them.

Ugh! Sorry about that, hprmom! Mold sucks. I have done the same as you. I have back up stuff in case I need to swap stuff out. The fan also helped reduce the mold in our tank by increasing airflow (lengthwise) in tank! Good luck! I just got my bigger base today. It's a bit bigger than I wanted but it will make taking out the tunnel easier to take out to clean:)

[Kermie16]

I think we may be done with a lot of the major stuff for the tank! I finally nestled the glass tunnel with a larger one.

Here is a pic from the opening of the tunnel.

And here is the whole tat so far!

Hope u enjoyed the pics!! Will be exciting when the molters come up to move them
Into the new tat:) Chime right now is the only molter up and he I think will love the new
Tat the most with all of the climbing room!! Gotta love Spidey crab!!

[hprmom]

Looking good! I think I have that same fan. I like the lighting effect, too; what kind of lights do you have up? I love how you glued tiny shells in a pattern to all the smooth surfaces for them to grip and climb on.