5 gal for Loby

[Japola44]

My boyfriend got me a blue crayfish for the holidays, so I don't really have a home for him, it was a suprise. He is in my 55 gal right now and got out of the section i divided off for him, but he is fine. My bichir runs away from him not the other way around lol. In any case, I was told its best to get him in another tank. I was thinking of getting the Marineland 5 gal corner Eclipse tank. Is 5 gals going to be big enough? I am fine with getting a 10 and buying all the filters and lights seperate(i want to plant it). I just thought the 5 would be nice cuz i was going to put it in my bathroom on the counter. Mostly cuz my parents don't want any tanks outside of my bedroom, and my room is pretty full with the 20 and the 55 lol.

Any one have a blue caryfish tank.
Ideas are welcomed!
TIA

 

[Toirtis]

SerLunbox is keeping a good-sized blue cray in a 5.5 gallon tank....and if the tank were for your cray alone, it should be just fine.

 

[Japola44]

fantastic I'll be getting it tomorrow then!

I read they eat plants...so far i think mine has only eaten a leaf or two off my java ferns. Do you think he will devour the plants in his new tank, or will he just keep them from getting to crazy? I will probably get a 10watt CF the little spiral ones, so about 2wpg. I'm gonna go check how many lumens it is first though I might just use a normal incandcest, i know not the best but...

 

[Toirtis]

Plants should be mostly fine, especially if they grow quickly enough. Remember to have a good, close-fitting top, as crays love to slip out and go wandering. As far as the little spiral CFs go, go 13-15 watt....a single one will give you 925-980 lumens, and some 5 gallon tank canopies will hold two....quite a lot of lumens to bring you up to a highish light tank.

 

[Japola44]

my only concern is i would rather not get CO2 for that small of a tank... i found a 9watt bulb with 550 lumens and 6500k
I was told that in NO bulbs its about 50 lumens to a watt. So if the bulb was a NO it would be 11watts. So just over 2wpg. I don't want to go much higher than that.

 

[Japola44]

haha i just looked over at my tank and he was munching on a plant. When i moved closer to get a better look he literally flipped off the driftwood into its opening. Quite the character. I never thought much of crayfish, but this guy is really fun to watch. im very pleased with the fellow. just thought i would share.

 

[Toirtis]

I have several 5 gallon planted tanks with a single 13-15W Spiral CF (about 960 lumens) with no CO2 and magnificent plant growth.

 

[Japola44]

then ill go with that! thanks.

just out of curiousity, how many tanks do you have?

 

[Toirtis]

65 at last count, although half are 10g or smaller.

 

[Japola44]

wow.
oop just saw ur tank count in your sig lol my bad

 

[Japola44]

Just thought i would keep u folks updated. I got the 5 gal today. I set it up and now i will patently wait for it to cycle, the worst part of fish tank owning. I found some ammonia with our cleaning supplies... would it be faster to do a pure ammonia cycle, if so how much ammonia?

 

[Toirtis]

First be sure that the ammonia you have is not sudsing ammonia.

 

[Japola44]

Just checked it is sudsing. The only other thing of ammonia we have is lemon scented, don't think that would work either. Just for future reference what would be the rule of thumb on how much ammonia you use?