Cray hunting noob with a 20

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Okarlplasst

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 19, 2013
Messages
3
Location
Northern California
Hi there!

I introduced myself over yonder

Anyways, working on getting the tank set up. Put it on my homemade stand, rinsed the pool filter sand and have a bit of cloudiness. Correct me if I'm wrong but that should settle down. If it doesn't I'll siphon it out and refill with something to soften the hitting of the sand to lessen it, it does look clearer already (unless wishful imagination) Running my sponge filters because I had one hanging out in a bucket for a couple weeks on my porch to get a little preemptive cycle going (if I'm lucky). Also tank is only half full to make sure it settles evenly since my apartment has carpet.

So, onwards to questions. I'm hoping to pick up some plants today, preferably nitrate/ammonia hogs like some hornwort or that the greater duckweed I put in there would actually grow. I do not have a source of pure ammonia so I let some fish food rot when I was playing with a bucket for fun. I know that many are against fish-in cycling, but how long would I have to wait before adding a small crayfish? Was hoping to go catch one in my creek tomorrow and use plants along with the sponges. I've heard crays are messy but would it really have that much of a problem if it's full of plants and the cray itself is small? Would be doing 15% water changes weekly, maybe a 10% every 3-5 days for the first two weeks.

And uh, here is a picture of my work in progress. It's not pretty but that's because this is a work in progress. I made little loops of airline tubing with a check valve to keep duckweed from playing in the bubbles until it dies since they allegedly don't like movement of water.

Edit: The duckweed that I did put in there is only 3 clusters, I know I will need more plants than that.
 

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Did you rinse your sand several times ? It settles faster if you rinse and dump what doesn't immediately settle several times
 
Filled the bucket up about 10 times, stirring heavily and dumping out water. Was pretty close to clear when I tossed it in. Stirred it up quite heavily when I added my water though.
 
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