Placement of a shark and stingray tank

[Funston07]

Welcome to R2R!!! Rays and sharks are cool but the thing I dislike about them is the maintenance.

 

[Paulie069]

Welcome aboard r2r so cool shark tank nice good luck with your adventure in reefing

 

[Max The New reefer]

Welcome aboard r2r so cool shark tank nice good luck with your adventure in reefing

Thx!

 

[Max The New reefer]

Welcome to R2R!!! Rays and sharks are cool but the thing I dislike about them is the maintenance.

Thx!

 

[ScubaFish802]

 

[Max The New reefer]

Redacted

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I'M REALLY SMART
I've had a stroke of genius, so I see 500 gallon scratched acrilic aquariums for 50 bucks, what I do is I cut one down and make it a low tank! It is cheap and looks alot better then a steel tub!

Yeah, don't do that. Not only will it look ugly, for 50 bucks it undoubtedly has severe damage and/or is leaking badly. The tools required to cut likely 1" acrylic are expensive and specialized, and by the time you cut it the actually volume would have dropped by at least half. Not a good idea.
How about you get your dad on the thread so we can tell him what's needed?

 

[Max The New reefer]

Yeah, don't do that. Not only will it look ugly, for 50 bucks it undoubtedly has severe damage and/or is leaking badly. The tools required to cut likely 1" acrylic are expensive and specialized, and by the time you cut it the actually volume would have dropped by at least half. Not a good idea.
How about you get your dad on the thread so we can tell him what's needed?

he has been checking out the thread, he's right next to me, It's just my account, what's up? also you have a point and it's a stretch on the price, what's needed? also Nice pfp

 

[Mr_Knightley]

he has been checking out the thread, he's right next to me, It's just my account, what's up? also you have a point and it's a stretch on the price, what's needed? also Nice pfp

What is needed would be the tools to cleanly and safely cut acrylic (you don't want to use a normal saw, it can chip the acrylic really badly) and access to a tank. I'm not sure if I understand correctly, did you find this tank already or were you talking in a more hypothetical sense? If you've already found it then I would assume it's got quite a lot of damage that the seller may not be telling you about. Resealing acrylic tanks isn't really possible without completely taking it apart, so I would be wary getting one (especially such a large one) used. The equipment needed to move a tank that large (several hundred pounds no doubt) would be either expensive to buy or you would have to rent it from a local store. Then there's the issue of cutting perfectly straight across all four sides, and the fact that by cutting it the tank would be reduced in size by more than half. 500g tanks are usually long as well, which is not ideal for sharks or rays at all. Then comes the issue that sharks and rays are just about as sensitive as you can get, they can't be medicated with copper and are sensitive to formalin-like products I think. Meaning you can't treat sharks or rays for common diseases very easily or effectively. And the care required for such animals is a lot for someone who has only just started reefkeeping. Personally, I would say get a something like 90g-120g tank and get some cool, predatory fish for it. I know where you can get flounders, if you are interested in that. Another thing to keep in mind is that rays are very reclusive. They won't be swimming around all the time like you see at aquariums, they'll be buried in the sand out of sight. Unless you are very dedicated, it would be very easy to let them slip into neglect. And that would really suck for animals that cost upwards of $300 each.
I know that you said you won't be doing this for a while, so in the meantime make a list! Make a list of everything you want/need, do research and after, say, 6 months if you still want to try then do it.
I wish you good luck! I really want to see you succeed with this, do your research and make a list and I think you will.
God bless!

 

[Max The New reefer]

What is needed would be the tools to cleanly and safely cut acrylic (you don't want to use a normal saw, it can chip the acrylic really badly) and access to a tank. I'm not sure if I understand correctly, did you find this tank already or were you talking in a more hypothetical sense? If you've already found it then I would assume it's got quite a lot of damage that the seller may not be telling you about. Resealing acrylic tanks isn't really possible without completely taking it apart, so I would be wary getting one (especially such a large one) used. The equipment needed to move a tank that large (several hundred pounds no doubt) would be either expensive to buy or you would have to rent it from a local store. Then there's the issue of cutting perfectly straight across all four sides, and the fact that by cutting it the tank would be reduced in size by more than half. 500g tanks are usually long as well, which is not ideal for sharks or rays at all. Then comes the issue that sharks and rays are just about as sensitive as you can get, they can't be medicated with copper and are sensitive to formalin-like products I think. Meaning you can't treat sharks or rays for common diseases very easily or effectively. And the care required for such animals is a lot for someone who has only just started reefkeeping. Personally, I would say get a something like 90g-120g tank and get some cool, predatory fish for it. I know where you can get flounders, if you are interested in that. Another thing to keep in mind is that rays are very reclusive. They won't be swimming around all the time like you see at aquariums, they'll be buried in the sand out of sight. Unless you are very dedicated, it would be very easy to let them slip into neglect. And that would really suck for animals that cost upwards of $300 each.
I know that you said you won't be doing this for a while, so in the meantime make a list! Make a list of everything you want/need, do research and after, say, 6 months if you still want to try then do it.
I wish you good luck! I really want to see you succeed with this, do your research and make a list and I think you will.
God bless!

The reason I wanted to do it is my dad has the equitment for it, But a tank that would look good enough would be more then my pond style tub, I'm definitly gonna taking my time with it, It will be probably upwards of a year before I do it and another 6 months before I purchase any fish, I do have alot more to learn about these amazing animals, and I am excited, I have already made a list of live stock and some of the equitment, Thank you for the help!

 

[Max The New reefer]

Hello Everybody I have some questions again, so what ray should I get? I want a very small species that is under 250 dollars, here are the canidates currently, I would love some recommendations!
Cortez Ray
Chilean round ray
Hallers ray
any others I should consider?

 

[Mr_Knightley]

The Cortez ray seems ideal of those three you posted, both due to size and prettier patterning.

 

[Max The New reefer]

The Cortez ray seems ideal of those three you posted, both due to size and prettier patterning.

there the main canidate, also heard there the hardiest

 

[Max The New reefer]

ok, so my dad said that I can't have a lagoon tank because heating will be a large energy bill, how could I insulate it or combat the heating price

 

[maceto]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

ok, so my dad said that I can't have a lagoon tank because heating will be a large energy bill, how could I insulate it or combat the heating price

If you can't have a lagoon, you most likely can't have rays sadly. They need a lot of horizontal space in both directions to be happy, keeping them in the typical tank dimensions would deprive them of habitat to explore/live in. anything over I would say 100 gallons is going to have a rather large energy bill, especially considering that you want such a large skimmer and overpowered equipment. If you plan to just do a fish only tank you may get by with lower bill costs, but if you plan to have any type of powerful reef lighting then it would drive up monthly power consumption a good bit. Saltwater is pretty draining of power anyways though

 

[Max The New reefer]

If you can't have a lagoon, you most likely can't have rays sadly. They need a lot of horizontal space in both directions to be happy, keeping them in the typical tank dimensions would deprive them of habitat to explore/live in. anything over I would say 100 gallons is going to have a rather large energy bill, especially considering that you want such a large skimmer and overpowered equipment. If you plan to just do a fish only tank you may get by with lower bill costs, but if you plan to have any type of powerful reef lighting then it would drive up monthly power consumption a good bit. Saltwater is pretty draining of power anyways though

I'm doing the most basic of basic lighting, the only things that get plugged in is a skimmer a pump and a heater, the only thing is I need some insulation in the tank, I don't know how to do that

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I'm doing the most basic of basic lighting, the only things that get plugged in is a skimmer a pump and a heater, the only thing is I need some insulation in the tank, I don't know how to do that

I'm not sure if you can really insulate a tank any other way than having it in a room near the middle of the house, where temps are more stable. Other than that there's nothing off the top of my head that would look good at all, nor would work in the long run. As long as you're houses' internal temps are stable most of the year you should be good!
Also, do you have any access to RODI water for top off/mixing new water?

 

[Max The New reefer]

I'm not sure if you can really insulate a tank any other way than having it in a room near the middle of the house, where temps are more stable. Other than that there's nothing off the top of my head that would look good at all, nor would work in the long run. As long as you're houses' internal temps are stable most of the year you should be good!
Also, do you have any access to RODI water for top off/mixing new water?

I have top off water, and salt for mixing, I've been getting the premix from the aquarium store though

 

[Max The New reefer]

I'm not sure if you can really insulate a tank any other way than having it in a room near the middle of the house, where temps are more stable. Other than that there's nothing off the top of my head that would look good at all, nor would work in the long run. As long as you're houses' internal temps are stable most of the year you should be good!
Also, do you have any access to RODI water for top off/mixing new water?

could I just do declorinated water for the top off?