Tank Set-up

[Richard Shah]

Hey All,
Okay the set-up for the T is complete. I was somewhat following advice from Peter Lacey, which BTW was great advice and many thanks goes out to him, and I ended up doing a little bit of my own thing.
I removed the exo terra background as it was very spacious, and I had an extra pieve of wood bark, so I just put that on top of the hide (also formed from wood bark) as an extra climbing thing.




What do you think??

Also, if the eChque clears by tomorrow then I should probably get the T. Friday; in the likely event it doesn't (I've heard a lot of things about this service from reviews), then I'll be getting Ice Cube, my B. Smithi, on Monday or Tuesday.

Thank you,
Rich.

[Colin D Wilson]

Doesn't look too bad at all Rich, i'd leave the doors open and let it dry out a little for a few days if you can.
Should be about right for when the T arrives then

Colin

[Richard Shah]

Doesn't look too bad at all Rich, i'd leave the doors open and let it dry out a little for a few days if you can.
Should be about right for when the T arrives then

Colin

Thanks! No need for it to dry at all, I sorted the substrate yesterday, had it in a bucket in my room on a shelve, after having squeezed a lot of the water out already, it had all night for other moisture to dry out and half the day before I came home from school.
But, isn't it suppose to be damp for the T.???

Thank you,

Rich!

[Colin D Wilson]

You still getting a smithi?
Brachy's like it on the dryer side, a water bowl will be sufficient, just overflow it a little when the spiders moulting and it'll be fine mate

[Richard Shah]

You still getting a smithi?
Brachy's like it on the dryer side, a water bowl will be sufficient, just overflow it a little when the spiders moulting and it'll be fine mate

I'll take your word for it - thank you.
Yeah I'm STILL getting it lol - I was suppose to get it ages ago ut no one to take in the order. I bought the tank last Sunday and the T last Monday, not realizing it was with an eCheque by PayPal. I was suppose to get it on Thursday but apparently it takes 7-9 days according to PayPal (though stated by most as ten days) - so i couldn't get it. I'm glad now I couldn't though cuz the delivery service screwed up the delivery for the tank, which was also suppose to be for last Thursday.
I should get it this Friday if the eCheque clears tomorrow (ten days after the purchase), if it doesn't, then I'll be getting it Monday or Tuesday!!

Cheers mate.

[Peter Lacey]

Looking good Richard
Looking at your's reminds me of a few things when I set it up. I used 2 pieces of bark, one overlapping the other to give a step effect and just filled any necessary gaps with substrate (stops the crickets hiding in there). That way you could angle your hide a little and achieve the same look as mine. tee-hee. You'd probably need to move the hide forward but that's not a prob because it will give you more floor space on top \o/
Personally I wouldn't leave the cork at the back, despite what ive said previously. It may fall on your T and it will definitely provide a safety zone for your crickets from which they might not leave. The crickets in my CWD enclosure bore holes in the cork and stuck their thumbs on their noses, waggled their fingers and sang "you can't catch me"!

The substrate does look moist and now I see how close your shelf is you'll lose a bit of ventilation. Nothing to worry about though, just no need to moisten your substrate. Remember these tarantula (Smithi's and Rosea) come from desert like environments where it rains very little and therefore they're not happy on moist substrate. If you have a heatmat place it underneath for a day or 2 to help dry it out.

The pix I've attached show how I did mine. You can see lots of other stuff in there, dried moss, leaves etc. My klugi just wrapped them up and made a complete mess of them LMAO

[Richard Shah]

Looking good Richard
Looking at your's reminds me of a few things when I set it up. I used 2 pieces of bark, one overlapping the other to give a step effect and just filled any necessary gaps with substrate (stops the crickets hiding in there). That way you could angle your hide a little and achieve the same look as mine. tee-hee. You'd probably need to move the hide forward but that's not a prob because it will give you more floor space on top \o/
Personally I wouldn't leave the cork at the back, despite what ive said previously. It may fall on your T and it will definitely provide a safety zone for your crickets from which they might not leave. The crickets in my CWD enclosure bore holes in the cork and stuck their thumbs on their noses, waggled their fingers and sang "you can't catch me"!

The substrate does look moist and now I see how close your shelf is you'll lose a bit of ventilation. Nothing to worry about though, just no need to moisten your substrate. Remember these tarantula (Smithi's and Rosea) come from desert like environments where it rains very little and therefore they're not happy on moist substrate. If you have a heatmat place it underneath for a day or 2 to help dry it out.

The pix I've attached show how I did mine. You can see lots of other stuff in there, dried moss, leaves etc. My klugi just wrapped them up and made a complete mess of them LMAO

Yeah crickets are pesky little annoyances! I didn't think of a step idea, I might do that tomorrow. The angled hide is okay but I prefer the way I set it out now, definitely when I convert tomoz to the stepping idea I will obviously fill the gaps with a bit of substrate, but I don't wanna use to much, I thought I'd have wayy too much substrate but it turned out to be enough to work with, not too little or too big a quanitity - unless you wanna do something extra like this; I suppose I could use more vermiculite on the wood bark though, since I have more than one and a half bags of it??? About more floor space on top, there will be more when I put the second piece of cork bark flat on the other piece, but I do not want to reduce the ground space cuz right now it is about 40 ground (outside the hide, plenty inside though):60 cork bark (%).
I can't wait for my crickets to be hunted by Ice Cube - the B Smithi T.!
I cannot tell if it looks moist lol - but quite kl for me that it is! I have no heat mat, but it'll dry slowly throughout the following days and I will not moisten it till I really think it is necessary.
Lmao - I was going to buy decorative items, but for the reason that you experienced, I didn't bother (I knew T.s like to rearrange things a lot). Also, I'd just spent more than £70... lol.

Cheers Peter!

[Peter Lacey]

np Richard
Just please please please let us see your T when it finally arrives, the wait is killing me

[Richard Shah]

np Richard
Just please please please let us see your T when it finally arrives, the wait is killing me

Lol do you know how much I have been anticipating the arrival of this T.??? If it's killing you then it's slowly and painfully killing me!
Had a look on my PayPal account, and it says this; (Expected Clearing Date: 28 Mar. 200. I don't think I'll get it till early next week - PayPal are really irratating with this service - 7-9 days?!?!?! Ten + is more precise... well at least I figured how to set things up FULLY with them now.

[Peter Lacey]

best not to send an echeque, simple transfer is same day. Infact the payments I get from my gaming clan arrive within minutes!

[Richard Shah]

best not to send an echeque, simple transfer is same day. Infact the payments I get from my gaming clan arrive within minutes!

Well, I know now!

[Richard Shah]

Update

Alright I sorted the second piece of wood bark, take a look;







I wanted to place the bowl in the upper left-hand corner, but for a tarantula with a legspan of 6cm, do you think it'll be too much of a walk for it?
I was also thinking in the bottom left-hand corner or even the right-hand corner, but that may block access to the top of the wood bark.
Any suggestions?

[Kate Arbon]

Looking good Rich I think wherever you choose to put the waterdish will be ok. She will probably hardly ever use it anyway (except to fill it with dirt, if it's anything like mine), but I'm sure she'll be able to find it if she wants to.

[Richard Shah]

Looking good Rich I think wherever you choose to put the waterdish will be ok. She will probably hardly ever use it anyway (except to fill it with dirt, if it's anything like mine), but I'm sure she'll be able to find it if she wants to.

Thanks Kate! I'll take your advice about the water dish, hopefully mine is a she and will not have a tendency to fill the dish with dirt!!
BTW, good luck with the breeding Kate!!! I don't think I could do it, with having to serparate the spiderlings into all the different film pots (or other small container) then having to take care of all of them; seems a lot of work!!! May you have a lot of slings however... I find it interesting how when they hatch, they run as fast as possible to not get eaten!!

[Peter Lacey]

Hey, that's looking good Richard. considering you're putting this underneath a shelf with no access to the top I'd suggest putting the water dish in the front right or left corner although tbh it really doesnt matter. Like the way you've used vermiculite up the top.