HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I replaced my does-absolutely-no-heating ZooMed UTH and bought a nice Ultratherm UTH. It's the full length of my 10gallon tank. So far, it is keeping my tank 5 degrees above room temperature, consistently. This is pretty good most of the time, but now that winter is approaching 5 degrees above room temperature is only going to keep the tank at 73. Granted, it's a bit warmer in the back up against the heater, but still. I'd like the temp overall to be at least 75. I know I've seen pictures of people insulating the heater. I currently have 2 layers of corrugated cardboard with foil on the front covering the back of my tank. But I think I can probably do better.

Before I buy yet more crab supplies, I thought I'd get advice from you all that we know works. So, how do you insulate your Ultratherm UTH to raise it's heating capabilities? Thanks.

I live in Arizona, so temperature is not a problem. I have seen others, though, insulate their tank with Reflectix! They cover the whole back, where the heater is at

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Without Reflectix, my tank with just my Ultratherm UTH was hovering around 75-76°. When my Reflectix arrived from Amazon, I covered the entire back and the sides above the sub. My temp is constantly at 82-86° now.


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Reflectix inside and outside my tank.

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Ditto for us too!! We have reflectix covering the entire backside of our tat insulating our Ultratherm and on both sides of the tat as well to keep the temp between 81-85 degrees. When our power went out with Hurricane Matthew I covered the entire tank with reflectix:)


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Same here I use Reflections. It insulates very well. Living in Pennsylvania it can get pretty cold here but my tank is usually never lower than 80 degrees.

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littletechcrab wrote:Same here I use Reflections. It insulates very well. Living in Pennsylvania it can get pretty cold here but my tank is usually never lower than 80 degrees.

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That should read Reflextix darn auto correct

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I couldn't get ahold of Reflectix because it's a bit pricey, I currently use a layer of aluminum foil, cardboard, and another layer of aluminum foil as insulation. This covers the entire back of the tank.

That should work well!


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I am in the process of upgrading to a larger tank, and am trying to figure out the heating. Is the Reflectix overtop of the UTH mounted on the side?

Yes put the reflectix over the uth. I use clear packing tape to attach both the uth and the refectix and only on the edges of the uth away from the heating element part

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curlysister wrote:I am in the process of upgrading to a larger tank, and am trying to figure out the heating. Is the Reflectix overtop of the UTH mounted on the side?

I have Reflectix over my UTH on the back as well as the rest of the back above the sub. I also have Reflectix on both sides of my tank (without UTH's) above the sub, to keep the sides insulated since my classroom stays very chilly.


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Ive read the reviews and it sounds really good! I might ask my mom if I can get it bcause usually it is 75 degrees in my area.


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Woah I need to get me some of that. Have any of you guys experienced higher crab activity levels when the Temps in your tank stay higher??

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Visual wrote:Woah I need to get me some of that. Have any of you guys experienced higher crab activity levels when the Temps in your tank stay higher??

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Yes, any lower than 80 degrees makes your crabs sluggish. Mid 80s is where most notice the highest amounts of activity.