Niko's Reef Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Was wondering if anyone on here keeps stingrays? If so, wanted to see what else you have housed with them, and what size of a tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Like most sharks they need LOTS of swimming space and especially LOTS of open sand, aquascaping needs to be very minimalistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 What is the minimum of gallons? Was told 125g, but I dont think that's enough. I was thinking 200g. Can u keep fish or corals in the same tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I would think you'd want the widest and longest tank you could handle. 6x3 would be the smallest I'd go. 8x4 or even 10x4 would be even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 Not familiar with dimensions. How many gallons would that equate to? I thought u had to do live rock 1.5 how many gallons u have? Does that not pertain to this? I know they need a lot of sand and space to roam, but I thought live rock was an essential. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wesreyn Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Not familiar with dimensions. How many gallons would that equate to? I thought u had to do live rock 1.5 how many gallons u have? Does that not pertain to this? I know they need a lot of sand and space to roam, but I thought live rock was an essential. The 1.5 per gallon rule is such a myth. Kinda like the watts per gallon for lighting. I've never used that much rock. I use maybe .75 pounds per gallon without ever having a problem. You may need more if you are way over stocked. You can always stuff as much rock in your sump as possible to give you more room in your display. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I did quite a bit of research on them a while back. The tank footprint is more important than volume for longterm survival, most successful stories I read were 4 x 8 or larger. Depth isn't especially important so you can theoretically get a way with much lower DT volume and a large footprint. You have roughly 7.5 gallons of water per cubic foot. Multiply the dimensions of the water and then multiply by 7.48 for the actual volume. So a 4 x 8 x 2 ft tank would be 64 cubic feet. Multiplied by 7.48 would be 479 gallons. You can keep the live rock in the sump to keep the DT clear. I've seen a lot of tanks with some live rock in them, but I think it's a risk since they can damage their disc if it is really sharp like a lot of live rock is. Holey rock would probably be a lot better then much of the sharp live rock out there. Stock selection was probably the single most important factor for initial survival, in both species selection and health. There's only a few species that are even remotely suitable. Blue Spotted (not ribbontail), cortez, and yellow seem to be the only suitable and hardy enough for a home tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Yikes. That's way bigger then I'm wanting. I was thinking more like a 200g. Looks like I need to focus on another species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 I agree that the tank footprint is the most important thing for rays. Your basic ray like the California Ray gets about 10" across so your standard 18" wide tank isn't big enough. You need a min of 180g and a min width of 24". Shallow tanks make good ray homes because they are wide and long rather than high. You also want to keep a good 4" of sand in there for the rays to be able to fully bury themselves and look for food. Live rock can be a hazard to them, but I've seen pillars being utilized with success. Rock stacks with a 3-5" base, going straight up to the top of the water. I think it looks pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 I can do 180. I was planning on at least 200. Somebody had mentioned 496, and that's way over what I'm looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Sorry, I was just doing the math on a 4'x8' tank which is absurdly large for most homes. Didn't mean to suggest you must have a 500 gallon tank or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko's Reef Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 No problem Jestep. I just didn't really understand the conversion to gallons, and you explained it thoroughly to me. My wife is cool with this all, but I don't think she would be that cool with a 500g tank. Lol. Stingrays are actually both of our desires. I've been looking at 200 on up, that are wide. Thought I had 1 in Dallas, but somebody beat me to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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