skynoch

All my pup tanks are filled right now so when Mom (in the foreground) gave birth this time I was on holidays in Mexico and all the pups made a break into the main tank from a floating tank I had. I did lose two over the time I was there since I took my feedings down from when I was away but now that I'm home I upped the feedings and have kept them in there with no problems since. The little guys are feeding on the mess left from the bigger fish feeding and seem to be doing well. The little guy in the middle is about a 7-8" pup.

When dripping with chloramine you would either use a filter rated for chloramine so I would use a sediment,carbon and then a chloramine for the 3rd stage or you could use a dosing system with prime. I've got some links for flowmeters and dosing systems that I have if you need it. If your really handy you could ditch your hot water tank and install a tankless hot water system. Depending on location of everything it would run you around 1500 to 2200 to do it yourself. Drip may be easier lol.

How come your not using a heated drip system?

UFA farm stores have them also.

Congrats on the rectics, not that common to see then breed so hopefully people can pick up some pointers on these rays from you.

Small rays I use a rubbermaid container like Kyle large rays I use a rubber fishing net. I've done both with pups, kept them in a floating bin and moved them into a new tank depending on tank space available. Do either right after birth.

Usually if they are playing in the bubbles it will be up and down the whole water column if they are at the top the whole time there is usually a ammonia or oxygen problem.

Hey Kyle good to see you back, hope your gonna get yourself back into rays soon. I used two coats of Zavlar on mine but then used a trowel coat with it to place my tiles on after. I tried Zavlar to glue the acrylic window on but woould use silicone next time I think. Silicone won't stick to the zavlar as well as it will the epoxy paints. Zavlar can also be tricky to work with especially if you are building a big tank you are going to walk around in as it stays tacky forever or until water is applied or you expose it to UV light. The good thing about it is it is really flexible and self healing. I would like to try a smaller tank with epoxy to see which one I like more to work with.

Epoxy paints or Zavlar.

These are a great hybrid. Will look fantastic as they grow and will continue to look good once they are old.

They're probably way too big for your tank now and need to sell/trade them to me. They look great, hopefully I'll find some one day.

Something must have spooked your ray as I've never seen one try to use it's stinger as a kill method. Wrong place, wrong time for the pleco sorry to here about it. I just lost the tig you traded me to some rays gone wild also.

That's great Trevor. You will probably have to seperate the pups until they start to eat and get a little bigger if you haven't all ready.

If your planning a stingray in the future I would reccomend at least 3' deep. My tank is 8' deep and I have no problem seeing to the back of it.

Wow you must be doing something right. Ya your going to need aq huge tank for what you got going on.

Nice otorongo it looks just like your females mother did. Good to see your able to keep such a mixed community together.

What type of fish do you want to keep. Saltwater will require a different build than some freshwater builds when it comes to the waterproofing. I have built a 2200 gallon plywood tank and can give you alot of pointers along the way. If you like monster freshwater fish like arrows or stingrays than I would reccomend a 8 x 5 x 40 inch tank. If you are looking at smaller fish then do not go as deep. As far as filtration goes I would go with a ultima filter or a sand filter with a bio tower, if your budget can go bigger I can help there too. For a 8 foot by 40 inch high piece of acrylic you would need it 1.25 inches thick and that cost me around $1700 and it is crystal clear.

You need to up your waterchanges as well as your water is breaking down causing your ph to lower and then filling with new tap water will cause a big ph bounce. You also may not have enough biomedia for your bioload and that is why your ammonia lowers after awhile.

Wow she is huge. Looks like a new milestone in a few days!

If you have kept your water quality up then any new water you add will only benefit the rays. I would put your existing water from your 180 into a clean garbage can as big as you can and fill with as much new water as possible to keep your temp the same as your current 55 gallon tank. I would then put in half your 55 gallon into the 180 gallon and then slowly refill the 55 to acclimate your rays in case of any ph changes ect... Once the 55 is refilled you can take half the water back out and put it in the 180 and then move the rays and the rest of the water in the 180. If you need to top it off use the water in the garbage can. I would then leave the lights off and cover the tank for half a day to a day checking on them occasionally and testing water occasionally. During this whole process you shouldn't need to shut off your filters (keep them in the 55) if the intakes are low enough (if they are over halfway up drop them down). If you use the old filters and move the rays this way you shouldn't have to worry about your tank recycling. Your for sure right about the new water being better in fact you should be able to use 100% new pretreated water if your temp and ph are the same. The big problem is most people don't keep up on thier tank maintenance so big water changes tend to raise the ph back up to the tap level around here. So are you talking about the actual move your about the water quality etc? If you are talking about the move I have 8 rays and am by no means an expert but what works for me is using a laundry basket. When I moved my 20" female motoro to my 400 gallon I used a laundry basket and worked really well. What I did was had a BIG rubbermaid container (which was big enough for the laundry basket to fit in) with about 8" inches of water in it. Then I took the laundry tub and put it into the aquarium on it's side. Then I gently guided her unto the side of the laundry basket and then tip it right side up and lifted her out. Then I just placed the laundry basket in the rubbermaid and off I went. Then I slowly added water into the rubbermaid to make sure she was acclimated to the chemistry of the new tank. Once that was done I just lifted the laundry basket out and then placed it into the aquarium and tipped it on it's side so she could swim out. I have done this now quite a few times when moving my other motoros and when moving my retics but I used smaller launder basket with the retics. Scott is the real expert but I thought I would put my two cents in I've used the laundry baskets, rubbermaid bins and rubber nets which all work good depending on what the circumstance is but I've found with big rays the rubbernets are the easiest for tanks, for ponds the baskets work well. Is your female the one that was having some problems? She should be outgrowing your male soon. Hopefully the bigger tank will relax her a little more.

Time for another bigger tank. I haven't decided on the dimensions but I think I will go 10' x 4' x 30" and then I am going to sell my 230 and 180 and just have the two big tanks in the basement plus my 150 and 90 in a spare bedroom. I already got the okay from my BOSS! LOL 10' x 4' would be a great size for everything. You got a great boss

Man they must be getting bigger, you are right the tank doesn't look as big anymore. Looks great Trevor

Great looking ray. The big spots are amazing with the bd crosses

lol the key to doing it was to do it before the girlfriend moved in.

Brett with shine aquatics has the nicest system so far I've seen for this type of setup.