The Beginning: Crab Setup!!

[siva]

Oh my gosh I forgot about that, did you ever find that missing crab? Are you sure it's not in the filter?

They freaking love it. Two of them seemed to pick their favorite spots right out front right away and are often sitting there..both in most spots right near the water. The other one is usually hiding. I don't have fish in there..my water is SO shallow. It's like 2 gallons stretched across the front of a 20 long..so yeah about an inch or two at the most in some spots deep. I haven't even figured out a good filter solution yet. The ones I had planned on using either don't fit or ruin the natural look.

Did you see my new dart frog? Now I gotta do a vivarium for him! It's sooo cute.

 

[Welsh]

I didn't no I pulled my room apart and there was no sign, the filter was the first thing I checked. My sister is convinced the male ate her and my boyfriend asked if she'd climbed the curtains, I was like... she's a crab not a shark or spider man, their a bunch of crazy people haha

I don't know how much water I have, I'll have to measure it when I add it back it must be about 2 gallons so the same as yours, but in a smaller tank haha

I have an aquaflow filter; its quite small so it might be easy to hide in your tank. It looks like this...Google Image Result for http://www.tribesmart.com/products/large/superfish-aqua-flow-50-dual-action-internal-filter-new-design_www.amazon.co.uk_4fb32478fa19a69f0ea6f979a3b3259a.jpg

I'm sure they must come in different sizes, for tanks. lol

I haven't seen your dart frog, they are so cute. lol Got to do another? Is that really a bad thing? haha

 

[Welsh]

I could have sworn I put pics up yesterday maybe they didn't submit properly, or were deleted anyway....I'll try again, in the hope I was extremely tired and they just didn't send lol.

Well....my project didn't go according to plan; just as I thought, so I ended up spending most of the night picking and cutting out all the silicone and sand I then re-siliconed and added gravel instead of sand, as I found out silicone and sand really don't work well together;or at least not in my case lol

I thought it looked quite alright but then my mother turned around and told me it looked "naff"; even though I didn't ask her opinion and she was on the phone haha but it serves its purpose, as a wall for my precious; but not yet bought crabs, to climb Anyway here are the pics of my "naff" divided wall
This was the finished outcome, after everything had dried. Pretty rubbish!


This is the finished re-done wall I don't know which one is worse haha


I filled the water side today and found out it no longer holds water very well so I'm going to have re-seal, when I find motivation haha

Also... I've been looking for substrates and have been getting rather confused by the whole process; theres so many different one's to choose from haha Anyway... at the moment I have sphagnum moss, calci sand; 100% digestable and thats where my progress stops, I've come across Eco Earth coconut substrate and I have no idea which one it is, earth or coco fiber? maybe both? and then theres the orchid bark, do I really need it? lol

So many questions

 

[siva]

What is naff? lol I think it looks great! Eco earth coconut substrate is the coco-fiber. Yes, unfortunately the bark seems to be really necesary..I had to pay to have it shipped and everything But you really only need to buy one good size bag once probably.

Yeah, I feel your pain, my water has leaked back into my lower ground level. Sigh. I've only got like an inch with all my plants sticking out and everything. Not sure what I'm gonna do!

 

[Turtle power]

What is naff? lol I think it looks great! Eco earth coconut substrate is the coco-fiber. Yes, unfortunately the bark seems to be really necesary..I had to pay to have it shipped and everything But you really only need to buy one good size bag once probably.

Yeah, I feel your pain, my water has leaked back into my lower ground level. Sigh. I've only got like an inch with all my plants sticking out and everything. Not sure what I'm gonna do!

I have 3 turtles had them for around 6 months. I went to my local aquatics and they had some vampire crabs there ace i want a few, there is land and basking areas in my tank and plenty calcium in the water due to the turtles needing it too. But the only thing holding me back from getting the crabs is i dont know ther temperament. Well they attack my turtles or should theu get along??

 

[siva]

Well they do need actual land, and not just a basking dock. Their "land" area needs to be made up of a mix of natural substrates..it can't be something that's plastic or foam.

No, unfortunately turtles and crabs would not be a great mix. These crabs are quite small and fragile, and would be one quick bite for your turts.

 

[Welsh]

What is naff? lol I think it looks great! Eco earth coconut substrate is the coco-fiber. Yes, unfortunately the bark seems to be really necesary..I had to pay to have it shipped and everything But you really only need to buy one good size bag once probably.

Yeah, I feel your pain, my water has leaked back into my lower ground level. Sigh. I've only got like an inch with all my plants sticking out and everything. Not sure what I'm gonna do!

Naff pretty much means stupid or lame,etc lol

Well last night I ordered:

A standard block of Sphagnum moss
8 litres worth of Eco Earth Coconut fibre.
2.5kg of calci sand
5 litres of Orchid Bark.

All for (what I seem to think) is a bargain price of £21 -$35, delivery included

You reckon that will be enough, for my small land area?

Can't you re-seal with silicone? I've done that loads of times from last night, to today and water still seems to seep from it I'm lucky though, mines nowhere near as complex as yours seems to be haha

 

[siva]

Well it does not look naff then!

Now that was a good deal!

Well it's not actually the plexi that's leaking. I build up the wall on the shorter side with rock, and it's the rocks that could use some more silicone. Problem is the crabs are already in there...sigh LOL I might just leave it this low. I don't know. No way I can fit a filter in like this though. And I'm realizing that their poops aren't exactly tiny...

OH..we need sprintail cultures! I haven't been able to get any yet and mold is growing on my dry side. Not sure if that's going to cause probs..eek. Springtails are supposed to eat the mold so this doesn't happen.

 

[Welsh]

Haha, aww thanks

I thought it was a good deal but i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, so wasn't sure haha

Yeah the crabs are dirty little things, I only had 2 and they made a right mess for me to clean up haha I was going to use sand for the water side but that put me right off lol.

Wouldn't woodlice do the same? I couldn't put those things in my tank; i struggle to keep the crabs in there haha I really hope I don't get mold, I thought the coconut fibre stuff was supposed to prevent that?

 

[siva]

Yeah right, you are too the sharpest! I don't know but, if it has "lice" in it's name, I'd just rather it stay away LOL No I don't think so..I knew mold was likely..for some reason I didn't expect it so fast though

 

[Welsh]

Haha yeah they are creepy little things, I found some crawling out of my driftwood;that was outside, the other day really not nice lol You've got me worrying now and I haven't even got the substrate yet haha. How does it happen anyway, just the humidity along with crab waste and food?

 

[siva]

I don't think the waste and food really even factor into. I remove any uneaten food so I know that's not it. I had this experience before with a much simpler palu I did for my fiddler crabs..it's just the humidity. In my build thread adeem just said it's normal in the beginning and fine and won't hurt the crabs so I wouldn't worry.

Ok that just freaked me out..lol...boil that driftwood!

 

[Welsh]

The driftwood is a weird mopani thing; that my sister picked up for me, I haven't really used it cause there's nothing I can do with it so the lice are welcome to it

When you add all the land substrates, are you supposed to mix them around every so often? like you would sand in an aquarium.

 

[siva]

I used mopani too. You got store bought mopani with lice in it?

I'm not sure about the stirring. I'm gonna ask in my thread too and we'll see if we can get some more input on that.

 

[Welsh]

Me and the boyfriend went for a walk last night, up the local forestry and to my utter devastation came across sphagnum moss, it was like sphagnum moss heaven up there lol I didn't get any because I'm not sure about the alive stuff and what it needs etc but it was actually quite pretty, like tiny stars haha

But on a more serious note.... my "dried" sphagnum moss came today, that isn't so dry;more wet and green than dead and shrivelled I'm not sure if I can still use it as a soil mix thing, so thought i'd ask yooou

 

[siva]

Interesting..I would lay it out in the sun for a while first to dry it out. I don't think it's a problem that it's moist, but it would probably work better if you could dry it out some first.

 

[Welsh]

I think its giving sun tomorrow, so a good few hours should get it dry some but this is welsh weather so it will probably be rain haha

Since this stuff is still green and fresh, would it grow? I think I may add some to my bamboo sticks too, to give a bit of decoration haha

 

[siva]

LOL yes, I live in a very rainy place as well. I'm not sure if it would. Give it a shot if it's pretty. It's ugly dried.

 

[Welsh]

I may as well try some, I've got enough to sink a battleship anyway I've got to get rid of it some how haha

How's your palu holding up?

 

[Welsh]

Well the rest of my substrates turned up today and as I thought.....we had rain. Nonetheless, we are supposed to be having a scorching weekend;well barbecue whether at the least, so that should be enough to dry my moss and coconut fibre but since I am quite impatient; I'm just itching to put it all in the tank now!! haha

When I get the chance to put all the substrates in, do I have to mix them together? I'm OCD and the thought of mixing just doesn't sit well, I want neat layers and what about drainage? should I add some stones under the land part, or does this not matter?

I think that's all for now
Thanks