10 gal aquarium as hatcher...do you see problems? UPDATE:SUCCESS!!

[haTHOR]

EDITED to say we have a chick out, and four more pipped, and it's only day 19--see my final setup in the pics in later posts. this original post shows my "in progress" attempts, which i improved upon.
*******************************************

been watching it all day. temp steady at 99, humidity at 70% or thereabouts. 75 watt bulb over glass.

these are plate glass squares (2 of them) over thetop, fitting flush. should i leave a crack between them so fresh air can get in?

want to lockdown into this tomorrow...so that the kids and i can see them better than in the hovabator.

ending up changing the setup so that the eggs have more space and the reservoir takes up less room, and covering the reservoir with hardware cloth, below.

 

[Judy]

That sounds a little warm to me, and yes, they need fresh air.

 

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

Quote:
I am also hatching in a 10 gallon aquarium but this is my first time. I noticed that the temperature moves up or down along with the room temperature so I put paper for a little insulation around the back and both sides. This still leaves the front and top with glass for viewing. I also loose a lot of the humidity when I keep the top glass cracked so I have been laying a light towel over the crack thinking that the fresh air can still get in but the humidity does not all escape. Good Luck!

 

[chickieboy]

it will work someone did this earlier on the site and had a good hatch so good luck

 

[gootziecat]

Did you have the plate glass squares cut to fit the aquarium?

 

[haTHOR]

no, they were both 8x10 size so i just laid them on top. they fit completely flush with the top of the aquarium and made a seal (not in the inner lip, of course), but were bigger all the way around. today once i moved the whole shebang onto the kitchen counter so we could all see the hatch, i had husband take one piece downstairs to grind down so we didn't have sharp edges poking out all around, as the 8x10 rectangles more than covered the top of the aquarium and thus there were sharp edges all around. so now it's closer to actually fitting, and i taped down the edges so baby doesn't open the top and grab a chick or worse.

as an update, we had one hatch already and have four additional pips, all of which are progressing. temp and humidity have stayed very steady! 75 watt bulb, couple of kids' books so i can lower or raise the bulb apparatus as needed (if the room gets cooler or warmer, but i honestly have only needed to do this a few times--just like my hovabator, it has stayed steady 95% of the time.) sponges on one side, three thermoometers just to be sure, and a hygrometer...plate glass for the top (leave small crack so fresh air can get in), drawer liner paper in the bottom. no additional insulation was needed.

this has been such a joy to be able to see EVERYTHING together as a family--i recommend it highly! i did run it for a full day, making changes and tweaking the sponge system, etc, to get it running perfect and steady.

 

[haTHOR]

6 babies successfully hatched from the 10 eggs viable at lockdown (1 quitter, 1 infertile) with this aquarium hatching method. so far--we are on day 20 for two eggs, days 19 and 18 for the other remaining unhatched two.