my new tank

[andruboz]

its a 50 gal. rubbermaid filled 6 inches deep sitting in the bathtub of my unfinished bathroom. it serves as a spacious and semi comfortable deathrow for the crayfish about to meet their Fahaka executioner.

dont think it was designed to hold water, but seems to be working well now. and if it does break, its in the tub. it will soon become my favorite tank for maintainence because i can fill it from the sink with a 6' piece of pvc pipe and i can gravel vac it straight into the toilet.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Are you coing to keep those guys in it forever?

[andruboz]

it is the second bathroom in the house.
not having a wife or mother to complain about it, makes the situation a little easier than most around here have it. and if its the welfare of the crayfish thats a concern, the puff gets one a day, so those guys will be lucky to spend 3 weeks in it before a new batch shows up.
will probably also use it as a snail farm.

[andruboz]

was going to post this as a seperate message, but what the heck.

i hearby state [in forest gump's accent] "i'm not a smart man."

when i set this thing up, i grabbed a tub of large pebble type gravel i have been removing from other tanks while replacing it with a sandy-er substrate. top 5 inches in the tub were dry and the bottom 5 were still wet.. and about 2 weeks old.
we are talking the mother of all toxic anerobic gravel here.

i had a 2 foot air-wand bubbler i thought would keep the tank aerated, but the left-over pump i had to run it, is louder than sin, so i figured i could turn it off at night to get some sleep.

the guy at the store said they ship crayfish about 200 in a 2 gallon bag and most live. little oxygen required.

monday night there is one dead and the gravel stunk.
so i did about a 50% water change and took out a third of the gravel.

today i came home and 5 [the small ones are the first to suffer] of the remaining 18 crayfish were so lethargic, i could easily pick them up. not dead yet. but not looking good.
fed one to the puffer and moved four to other tanks.

removed another 40% of the gravel and did an 80 percent water change.

so what i have learned so far.
1. anerobic gravel is not 'cycled' gravel.
2. without proper cycling, this is not really an functioning aquarium, just a holding tank that will require huge daily water changes.
3. an airwand is no replacement for a filter system. but should probably be left on 24/7.
4. i should probably pull the rest of the bad gravel

if all else fails the crayfish can go back in my other tanks.
i noticed the firemouth having a pretty good time flaring on a small crayfish who dared bother him.

i resolve to learn from my mistakes. y'all can too i guess.