HCA: Hermit Crab Association

What kind of hoods have you guys found to be the best? I've cracked two different aquariums with excessive heat, and I'd love to have ONE that doesn't freaking crack.

I had purchased some items that I was trying to figure out how to work into my 20g long, and I'm excited to ha e a little extra space/heighth to play with. I figure to buy all new sand, and just change everything out all in one go.

I used a reptile screen top for my tank and put sections of plexiglass over it to control the airflow/humidity. I put any heating elements (I have a night bulb and a day lamp) on the screen and not on the glass. Seems to work just fine!

nerdycrabs wrote:I used a reptile screen top for my tank and put sections of plexiglass over it to control the airflow/humidity. I put any heating elements (I have a night bulb and a day lamp) on the screen and not on the glass. Seems to work just fine!

Do you have pics of yours by chance? I'd love to set mine up similarly since I have a screen top.

I actually LOVE the idea of using a screen and then sheets of plexiglass. I have a screen now, and I've been using damp towels. Don't know why I didn't think of different pieces of plexiglass. Definitely a Facepalm moment!!

What types of lamps do you use? Definitely looking to upgrade.

CupidStunt wrote:I actually LOVE the idea of using a screen and then sheets of plexiglass. I have a screen now, and I've been using damp towels. Don't know why I didn't think of different pieces of plexiglass. Definitely a Facepalm moment!!

What types of lamps do you use? Definitely looking to upgrade.

I'm a big fan of the setup, it's a bit fiddly at first trying to figure out how much of the top to cover with plexiglass and how much to keep just screen, but once you find what works for your tank it's great!

I use a standard tube lighting (like an aquarium/terrarium one) and I picked a full spectrum day bulb that fits the wattage for it. Nothing fancy! That one I have on a 12 hr timer so I don't have to think about it. It produces a little bit of heat, but not much maybe an increase of 5 degrees but I figured it gets hotter during the day out in nature so fluctuation is fine.

The night bulb is by reptitherm, I believe. It's in one of those lamps that you would put a heat bulb in. It provides a slight purpley glow and it increases the heat a bit too, I find that it dries out my moss basket faster when I use it but the humidity stays fine on the ground level. I manually turn it on if I've been messing around in the tank a bunch to help get it back to temp faster or if I want to do some night viewing.

Both are really basic setups with hand me down lamps, anything you find should work just fine!

Giner13 wrote:

nerdycrabs wrote:I used a reptile screen top for my tank and put sections of plexiglass over it to control the airflow/humidity. I put any heating elements (I have a night bulb and a day lamp) on the screen and not on the glass. Seems to work just fine!

Do you have pics of yours by chance? I'd love to set mine up similarly since I have a screen top.

Ah, actually it's real glass! Plexiglass would work just fine too. The green is duct tape because I dropped it while moving and I covered the sharp edges. It is two sheets and I scoot them off the screen or back on, depending on how my numbers look. The black bar at the top is my long day lamp, it sits directly on top of the screen.