HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi,

I have a new (to me) 72 gallon tank that I'm trying to get set up. I understand that with a larger tank like that, a false bottom is recommended to avoid floods.

So I did all the steps to make my false bottom...put the little risers (made of notched PVC pieces), cut the hard plastic egg crate stuff, layered it with craft mesh and garden weed control stuff and zip-tied the whole thing together. And when I put it in, there are gaps on one side and on the front. I'll add that the tank is a bow front, so it's really hard to cut the egg crate to fit it snugly.

So I'm looking for something that can fill those gaps so my substrate doesn't fall through under the false bottom. I wondered if I could cut pieces of pool noodle into thin-ish strips and use that? How about if I covered it with more of the garden fabric? My concern would be the crabs might try to eat it, but ... I don't know. Would they? If it was under the substrate and covered with fabric?

I want to get this done this weekend, because I'm adopting a couple of new crabs and I need the extra tank room.

Thanks in advance!

I personally don't recommend false bottoms. They take up valuable substrate space. We have even had a member whose crab made its way through the false bottom which led to them tearing the tank apart to get the crab out. Anything that gets put into the tank will get taste tested by the crabs. I have three crabitats. A 100g, and two 75g. I have never had false bottoms. I'm getting ready to move one of my 75g tanks into a 150g tank. I still will never do one. You shouldn't have a problem with flooding if you don't overmist, or if you don't use a humidifier. That's my two cents.

Thanks for that! The Facebook group I'm on highly recommends them, so I've been trying to get one done correctly. Already spent a good bit of money on it, unfortunately (the egg crate thing was $15).

It seems like people who recommend them feel strongly about it, and people who recommend against them feel strongly about that. It's hard to know what to do!

Understand the limitations and what it will actually do, and then decide if it's worth it.

A false bottom will prevent molting crabs from drowning in the event of a flood, give you an easy visual of any standing water, and in theory aerate the substrate a bit more.

What it will not do is prevent bacterial blooms in oversaturated substrate or keep the substrate magically at the right consistancy. We also had a member whose crab got underneath the eggcrate (remember, crabs are strong!) so she had to tear apart a 120 gallon with molters to get him back out.

I personally don't see the point as it is a lot of extra work for not much benefit, and I've had a few floods in my day. For someone else it may be what they need to feel comfortable.

I would think that crabs would chew up and/ or eat a pool noodle. I wouldn't consider it safe in the tank.