Post
by Hermias_mom » Fri Jun 09, 2017 11:15 am
If you lived somewhere like Alaska, then I'd definitely say you should consider the 11" high UTH. But if GotButterflies is using a 6" high UTH on her 100 gal glass lid tank (she lives in Florida), then you should be fine with that, I should think. You can insulate to increase heat input into the tank as needed.
I live in Alabama (similar humidity and temperatures to florida about half the time), but my house gets very cold in the winter, so if I were setting up a 55 gallon, I might go with the 11" high UTH if I were purchasing it for my own use on a 55 gallon. I have three small/medium crabs, no large or jumbos yet so it will be a while before I need deeper substrate than ~6". Or I might get two UTHs, one 6" high one for the back, and then if that wasn't enough I could always buy a shorter in length UTH later that was 6" high for one end of the tank. But that's just me.
When you get your humidity/temperature gage, don't forget to check the calibration of the gage. There's a post on how to do that in the care sheets. Inaccurate gages are not healthy for the crabs. I was pleased with how accurate my Acurite gage was when I checked it.
I just rest my Acurite gage in the reptihammock on my second level, and occasionally I check the substrate level with it. If you want to mount it to the wall, you might try using Command strips (from the hardware store, they have a fancy type of Velcro and are removable/don't gunk up the inside of your tank upon removal). Those apply easily, are strong, and if the crabs mess with them, it's not easy for them to get hurt. Or you could use Command hooks if you fashion a loop for the Acurite gage. The Acurite gages come with a large magnet on the back (for mounting on the fridge or something), so I guess you could put a large magnet on the outside of the tank if you have one strong enough to connect with the gage inside through the thickness of the glass. I tried standard fridge magnets outside the tank, and that didn't work. Industrial strength magnets would do the trick no problem, but I decided not to subject my crabs to such a large magnetic field on a continual basis, since I wasn't sure what effect it would have on them, or on my UTH (my tank space is really limited right now), so I chose not to use a magnet outside the tank to mount my Acurite gage.
4PPs and tons of FUN in a 29 gallon!
Hermia(F), Helena(F), Branch(M), and Tiger (M)
RIP Athena