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Starting Member
 
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Last Login: 11/29/2012 10:11:51 PM
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Hello. I am thinking about setting up a 120 gallon tank to house a teacup stingray, an 8 inch pimodella catfish, and an oscar or two. I will be using a canister filter. The main problem is lowering the hardness, as the local water here is very hard, and for some reason the RO water our LFS sells is also very hard even though it is supposed to be pure water.
I heard you can put peat moss in the filter to lower the hardness. However if I use this method the GH will jump sharply then plummet when the moss begins to take effect on the new water when I do a water change. This would not be good for the fish.
In addition to this, do I just dump a clump of moss in the filter and let it soften the water? How much do I put in? Where can I get peat moss?
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Moderator
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Hello. I am thinking about setting up a 120 gallon tank to house a teacup stingray, an 8 inch pimodella catfish, and an oscar or two.
Before you spend money on this system, be sure to buy a book. Richard Ross' book from Barrons is very good, as is the Gonella and Axelrod one from Interpet. Both will cost you no more than about $10. There's no excuse at all for not owning one or other of these books. Stingrays are incredibly expensive pets, and you will be sinking something into the thousands of dollars over the lifetime of such a pet, assuming it's kept properly and for its full life-span. As such, $10 for a book is nothing. Quite frankly, if you're not prepared to spend $10 on a dedicated and trusted book on stingrays, then you shouldn't be keeping stingrays at all.
I mention this because you've already done two things wrong. Firstly you've talked about an aquarium in terms of gallonage, and secondly, you've listed tankmates. Anyone keeping stingrays for the first time *must* understand that surface area of the bottom of the tank is crucial, and also that adding tankmates is very unwise. Can you keep stingrays with other fish? Sure. Is it a good idea? No, because it makes what are already difficult-to-keep fish even more difficult to keep.
There is, I hope you realise, no such thing as a teacup stingray. It's a trade name applied to a variety of baby stingrays. Usually they're Potamotrygon orbignyi (formerly known as Potamotrygon reticulatus), but there's absolutely no reason to assume that's the case until you've confirmed it. Potamotrygon orbignyi gets to a disc width of about 14 inches in length, making it one of the smallest freshwater stingrays. The rule of thumb when building a tank for stingrays is to ensure that the tank is at least twice the disc width from front to back, and at least four times, and preferably six times, the disc width from left to right. In this case that means your tank must be at least 28 inches from front to back and not less than 56 inches from left to right, and preferably 84 inches from left to right. Depth isn't crucial, though you do want to maximum water volume you can get because that buffers against water quality and water chemistry variation. A decent sized sump is also extremely useful. Go look at your 120 gallon aquarium. Does it match these requirements? If not, it's time to go shopping some more.
I will be using a canister filter.
"A" filter may not be up to the job. As with any predatory fish, you need massive amounts of biological filtration to cope with their protein-rich diet. You'd be unwise to have less than 8 times the volume of the tank in turnover per hour. Whilst there are some giant canister filters that will do the job, you may decide to go with a marine-style trickle or wet/dry filter that operates via an overflow, sump, and a pump that then sends the water back up to the tank.
The main problem is lowering the hardness, as the local water here is very hard, and for some reason the RO water our LFS sells is also very hard even though it is supposed to be pure water.
Unless you have naturally soft, nitrate-free water out of the kitchen tap at home, then you need to buy your own RO filter. Note that domestic water softeners used to remove limescale from tap water *will not* work, and merely replace carbonate hardness with sodium salts, which is not what you need here. Water chemistry itself is actually not that big of a deal, and stingrays will do fine in moderately hard, slightly basic water, up to around 10 degrees dH, pH 7.5. In any case, your issue isn't with water chemistry but water quality. Unless your aquarium has very low nitrate levels, i.e., far below 20 mg/l and preferably below 5 mg/l, your stingrays won't live for very long. They are acutely sensitive to nitrate. Regular, substantial water changes with zero-nitrate water are essential.
I heard you can put peat moss in the filter to lower the hardness. However if I use this method the GH will jump sharply then plummet when the moss begins to take effect on the new water when I do a water change. This would not be good for the fish.
Don't do this. Softening water with peat is very difficult to [a] do in volume and [b] do consistently. It's fun to play around with peat in very small tanks with things like killifish, but peat has no place in a stingray aquarium. You need to soften the water with an RO filter, and then buffer the pH using an appropriate Amazon salt mix.
In addition to this, do I just dump a clump of moss in the filter and let it soften the water? How much do I put in? Where can I get peat moss.
Don't, just don't.
Hope this helps. Cheers, Neale
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i agree with neale on just about everything he said.
if youre purchasing rays from the store, watch behavior.
ask an employee if its possible for the rays to be fed while youre there.
youre gonna want a ray thats not emaciated, but not too chubby either.
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| Agreed. Behavior is an issue in a pet store. Usually a large chain one like pet co. Try a LFS for best results
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When you go to your local fish store. Talk to the people there to make sure they know what they are talking about. Read as much info as you can on this type of fish so you know what you are truly getting into.
Mr. Miracle Grow” for aquarium plants Help those in our hobby to exceed beyond their expectations.  Logistical Aquatic Engineer
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