- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
I've had the tank itch for a few months, but 4000 feet up the mountain in an area with questionable electricity AND wildfires, I really can't justify a salt system, they're just too fragile and dependent.
BUT I think I'm going to do a hermit crab setup. I had some as pets as a kid but could never provide a perfect environement for them, with access to salt water, freshwater and proper filtration. There's a glass place in town, I am thinking about doing a tank with two chambers, salt on one side, fresh on the other, and two sumps, which will be off in a closet, I'll just run some feed and return lines to that. There's not a lot of other critters that you can keep with hermits, they sort of eat everything, but we'll see.
Dimensions will be 2'X2'X9' which gets me 36 cubic feet of space to use. I'm thinking of 3D printing the shapes for the lagoons, then just use rubber liners. That makes it easy to change later. I'll just run rubber hose or something for the feed returns, it doesn't have to be reef style water exchange. Just enough for a bit of a waterfall on the freshwater side and water movement on the salt side.
Here's the concept so far, I'll have to get in to the glass place and get prices. I figure 3/8" tempered for the front and visible side, but regular glass for the back so that I can drill it. I have to do a bunch of research on proper humidity levels and whatnot, but at least it lets me dip my toe back in the water so to speak.
Oh, it's a log/chalet house so wood and timbers is the motif. Being in logging country there are mills all over I can get custom timber from, I'll likely just weld up the steel frame pieces.
BUT I think I'm going to do a hermit crab setup. I had some as pets as a kid but could never provide a perfect environement for them, with access to salt water, freshwater and proper filtration. There's a glass place in town, I am thinking about doing a tank with two chambers, salt on one side, fresh on the other, and two sumps, which will be off in a closet, I'll just run some feed and return lines to that. There's not a lot of other critters that you can keep with hermits, they sort of eat everything, but we'll see.
Dimensions will be 2'X2'X9' which gets me 36 cubic feet of space to use. I'm thinking of 3D printing the shapes for the lagoons, then just use rubber liners. That makes it easy to change later. I'll just run rubber hose or something for the feed returns, it doesn't have to be reef style water exchange. Just enough for a bit of a waterfall on the freshwater side and water movement on the salt side.
Here's the concept so far, I'll have to get in to the glass place and get prices. I figure 3/8" tempered for the front and visible side, but regular glass for the back so that I can drill it. I have to do a bunch of research on proper humidity levels and whatnot, but at least it lets me dip my toe back in the water so to speak.
Oh, it's a log/chalet house so wood and timbers is the motif. Being in logging country there are mills all over I can get custom timber from, I'll likely just weld up the steel frame pieces.
