They're home!! Getting annoyed at heating though...

[fantasybookworm]

The little ones are home! I was surprised, my two from my classmate are tiny little guys. The one from my neighbor is almost twice their size, I think (and has already bowled one of the little ones over by climbing over him...jerk).

So far so good in general, and they seem to be enjoying exploring their new large home. The one lone crab was in a 10gal with very shallow substrate, nothing to climb & temperature/humidity both too low (70* & 40%). The two little ones from my classmate were in a 5gal with very shallow dry substrate, which I think she told me was calci-sand.

Even though they seem to be enjoying the new tank & seem relatively comfortable (as far as I can tell, lol), I'm still worrying about the temperature and humidity. I'm waiting for my digital thermometer/hygrometer to calibrate, so I still don't know the humidity yet. But I have a different digital thermometer in & it's still saying only 77.7*, which is the highest it's gone so far.

This is kind of what my set up looks like:



The larger lamp has a 150watt CHE, the smaller one has a 100watt CHE. I have since moved both lamps to sit directly on the top, both on the left side (there's nothing up higher on that side, which was what was worrying me & why I didn't want them on the top on the right side, because of the shelf). I covered the right side with some clingwrap to try & help hold in heat. I'm not sure what else I should try for tonight...Will they be okay? Does anyone have ideas for what I can try to get the heat up to the proper temperature? Even if they've been dealing okay with worse temperatures, I want everything to be perfect for them!

[KellyCrabbieLove]

75° is a safe temp and you are at 77.They will be OK while you tinker with the setup.

[fantasybookworm]

Alright, good. I'd forgotten that for some reason and was set on it needing to be 80-85*F. I think I may try a third lamp tomorrow & see if that helps. I have a thermostat to plug them into (leftover from my hedgehog) & it has three outlets, so I guess it can't hurt to try. I like the thermometer that's calibrating humidity right now better anyway, so once that's done in an hour or so, I can take it out & get it set up to see what that one says. I was only going to use that thermometer, but now I think I might be paranoid enough to use them both.

Here's a couple more pictures of the tank set up, from my friend's phone!





I'll try to get my pictures of the little ones up in a bit, but I haven't eaten for almost 12 hours because I've been so busy with them, so I'm going to do that first.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Personally I think a uth is best because you can insulate it to send more heat into the tank. If you use a plug in lamp dimmer you can turn it down if necessary. I have been burned by a heat lamp so they get bad marks in my book.

Do you have a desk lamp that you can sit by the tank and aim straight in? That can give a teeny boost to the temp too. I don't know much about working with heat lamps since they are my nemesis but maybe someone else has some insulation ideas until you get all of the bugs worked out.

Do you have tapatalk? It is an app for the forums here and makes it easy to post pictures from your phone. We all gotta see those babies!

[fantasybookworm]

I may switch to UTHs if this continues to not work...I was just hoping the CHEs would work because I already had most of the stuff on hand. How do you insulate UTHs safely?

I have a small lamp set up & shining into the tank right now, but I'm not sure if it's really helping much or not. I might fiddle around with the lamps more once I've eaten.

I have an old-fashioned wimpy phone, not a smartphone. I should really get a smartphone soon, my friend's been trying to convince me for a few months now. The pictures are on my dad's camera, so I'll have to upload them manually. I'll get them up tonight though!

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Styrofoam sheets from the hardware store duck taped over them.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Oh. How deep is your substrate? Everything looks great. They will love it!!!

[fantasybookworm]

Ooooh, neat! Well, I'll probably keep playing around with the set up more after work tomorrow & keep you guys updated. Hopefully I can get it figured out soon, I have some end-of-semester assignments & finals coming up. I chose a bad time to bring home new pets.

And the substrate is about 7" deep, varies about 1/2 an inch depending on location. I think one of the babies was starting to dig a bit when I pulled him out to show my dad. Hopefully I didn't upset him too much. And thank you! So far they seem pretty interested in it, which makes me happy.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Yay digging. They are going to be so happy.

You could probably put Styrofoam around the back of the tank as long as the lamps can't melt it.

It can keep more heat inside.

[fantasybookworm]

Yeah, I'm thinking I might try to get some styrofoam to try & insulate it better, especially the lid. As long as it's not touching the lamps, it should be fine. I probably should have waited a week or so between getting the tank set up & getting the crabs, but I was too impatient! At any rate, they're better off with how this worked out anyway, considering their previous conditions. I won't be happy until my set up is perfect, but at least it's better than "awful"!

Aside from the heating problems, I decided my shopping list isn't quite done with yet. Now that I have the little ones & can see how big they are, I need to get some more appropriate shells. I have plenty for the bigger to choose from, I think, but I don't have any for the little two because I wasn't expecting them to be this tiny! I'll have to try visiting a couple more craft stores tomorrow or Monday & see what I can find. Especially because one of them is still in a nasty painted shell!

[hermieluv1]

Mid to high 70's is ok, but at least on my case, my crabs do NOTHING except sleep until the temp gets above 80, and especially mid 80's.

[fantasybookworm]

Yeah, I think it was just the thermometer not working. It's been around 83-84* on my usual thermometer. Now I just need to figure out a good method for humidity because that's only about 45% or so.

I posted pictures of the little ones here! - viewtopic.php?f=30&t=103939

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Dollar stores have bags of decorative shells. Most shells are teeny.

[Hans]

If your substrate is damp enough, then I find just mostly closing in the top of the aquarium, even with something simple like cardboard, will make the humidity hang around 80%. I like to get the coco-moss from the pet store, the bricks for $4, add about a half-gallon of water and watch them expand like magic as they soak up the water. Then make a moss pit on one end, that stuff seems to get the humidity a lot higher. And it's easy for them to burrow into it if they are feeling too dry.
Cheers
-Hans

Yeah, I think it was just the thermometer not working. It's been around 83-84* on my usual thermometer. Now I just need to figure out a good method for humidity because that's only about 45% or so.