Death curl -- Pics? Signs?

[SimonL]

I've imported D. sabina before and found they did better in marine or near marine tanks. You must remember unlike the South Am. rays who have had millions of years to adapt to freshwater, the "freshwater" population of Atlantics rays is relatively recent. They don't have anywhere near the efficiency in dealing with freshwater in their systems, and consequently produce enormous amounts of urea. Each Atlantic is the equivalent of half a dozen "normal" stingrays, making cycling and maintaining water quality in anyting but a enormous tank very difficult.

Also, tanks don't just "cycle" and then are good to go, they must adjust to the levels of waste present. So if you cycle a tank with a dozen feeders, the biological filter is cycled, but only to handle the dozen small fish. Dropping a filthy stingray into the tank forces the filter to catch up, which may take weeks. The tank could have been cycled for years, but it would still be forced to adjust with the addition of the ray.

How big is the tank? And what is the salinity?

 

[PinkLady]

Lots of live rock, fluidized sand bed and/or a large bio tower work wonders.

I don't put live rock in there because it's an open floor where she needs her space. I don't want anything that she can cut herself on since she's already nicked herself on the filter intakes more than once. I don't know what the other two you mentioned are, please elaborate so I can look into it.

Simon, I have another thread on this forum titled something like "Atlantic Stingrays -- D. sabina -- anyone keep them?" that has all the specs on what I've got set up.

 

[Gshock]

I don't put live rock in there because it's an open floor where she needs her space. I don't want anything that she can cut herself on since she's already nicked herself on the filter intakes more than once. I don't know what the other two you mentioned are, please elaborate so I can look into it.

Simon, I have another thread on this forum titled something like "Atlantic Stingrays -- D. sabina -- anyone keep them?" that has all the specs on what I've got set up.

You can stick the live rock in your sump, if you use a sump.

 

[Zoodiver]

Fluidized sand bed is a simple hang on the back type thing for a lot of tanks. It's a tube of sand, water is forced in the bottom and comes out the top. The movement keeps the sand stirred up -creating a nice place for all that good bacteria to grow for you. A bio tower is a simple tube/box/tower that is full of a media with surface area (bioballs, biobarrels, live rock, plastic pot scrubbers etc...). Water flows in the top, and out the bottom via gravity. Same idea, surface area for bacteria to grow - helping keep your bioload in check.

A basic fluidized sandbed:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2648/Fluidized-Biofilter

Biotower and bioballs:

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2622/Biofilter-Tanks

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2639/Bio-Barrels



Another method of using bio-media is a degas tower like this. I like these, and use them when I can.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/3681/Degassing-Columns

You can see one of mine in the background on a 750 gallon grow out pool.

 

[PinkLady]

Wow, thanks a TON for the info. What kind of tank is that? Where do you get those? I like that way better than a solid glass setup.

 

[Zoodiver]

That pic is of my quarantine room at the Como Zoo in St Paul, MN as I was building their new Amazon exhibit a few years back. The grey tanks are PVC with acrylic windows (custom made by Aqualogic). I used Red Sea canister fitler set ups on them with mag drive pumps from Aquatic Eco. The big pool in the back is one from Aquatic Eco as well. I wanna say it was a 750 gallon or so. Just ran a basic sandfilter feeding into the degas tower.


http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/953/Portable-Tanks

 

[MonsterMinis]

Glad to see a few people w/ more knowledge step up

I suggested amquel because I'm assueming there isn't a viable "cycled tank" to move the ray into and by useing Amquel and regular heavy water changes it will maintain a acceptable level for the system to cycle. Yes I should have pointed out it would likely prolong the cycleing process itself. But with how sensitive some species like rays can be safety for the ray was number 1 priority. I'm also not sure how madison water is but just outside Oshkosh where I am as stated about 1 hour away. The water needs to be treated. It's pitouey, crap.

I think what Zoo is suggesting is more bio media? I know thats what I would swap the ammo chips out with. 2 racks of bio one of mechanical. You said you where upgradeing the tank size very soon here. Imo you can't over filter a tank, you can over do the water turbulance. but never over filter. Once you decide on a filter size.. go one size bigger.

 

[PinkLady]

I'm actually about 8 minutes outside Madison in Cross Plains. My house used to be the fire station until they built a new one, and I have my own well water source. I use straight up tap water and it has no chlorine or anything in it -- just a bit hard with calcium due to not having a water softener. Unfortunately I can't add one due to how the building was reconstructed when my landlord bought it and turned the garage half into his business offices -- the central water main is behind their primary wall and can't be accessed without destroying it. I do use AmQuel and it doesn't help much from what I can tell.

The 2 filters on the back are strictly bio now. They have established sponges that have been in there for months and I just added the bioballs I saved from the canister. What do you mean by mechanical? Is that just the things in the canister that physically strain materials out of the water (the black wire floss, white pillow floss, carbon, etc)?

 

[Zoodiver]

Mechanical is anything pulling particals out of the water... the kind of filter you want to wash / clean out as if gets dirty. Ironically, a mechanical filter works best right before you have to clean it - so don't keep it too clean, you'll miss out on the full ability of it

 

[PinkLady]

Awesome, got it. Well if I just remove the ammo-chips, then the canister is pretty much strictly mechanical as it is. What are some super-fine materials that will strain out even the smallest particles?

I e-mailed Aqua Logic about their PVC tanks. I'm totally in love with that idea. It's damn near identical to my snake cages that I have from Animal Plastics -- black PVC with clear acrylic locking front doors. I like the look of that for a ray tank vs. solid glass, and I can just build my own stand for it. Plus I can get a custom size with more width than tends to be available for glass tanks. I wanted something that's like 72"L x 48"W x 24"H but can't find any glass aquariums like that. The more open floor space, the better, so major thanks for sharing that.