Hi. I'm new on here and have a Q

[2bfishy]

Hi. I apologize for this long post but I'm new on here and don't know how to navigate on this site. I am new to monster fish keeping and have a lot of questions. I am interested in keeping freshwater stingrays, iridescent shark and tiger shovel nose catfish in an indoor pond in my basement . I recently set up an indoor pond in my basement that is in the process of cycling. I have no idea where to start from here.

Thank you

 

[Bertie07]

Hi and welcome, what is the size of the pond. After it ha finished cycling you can start adding fish, with the rays I would add them quite big as they can be very delicate when young and won't be able to compete with the other fish, I would then add the iridescent sharks, if you can it would be best to rescue these from someone with two small a tank but it's up to you, after that you can add the TSN make sure he is the smallest as he will grow the quickest. Feed them pellets and cut up prices of fish and shrimp. Make sure you quarentine your fish!

 

[2bfishy]

Hi Bertie, and thank you. I am so happy to be here! I am new to monster fish keeping. I have only kept hardy nano fish and tanks on and off for 15 years, so I am a complete newbie when it comes to keeping monster fish!
My pond is a round 118" x 39.4" koi show tank that holds around 1200 gallons. I have it set on insulation board on a concrete floor in my basement. It has been filled with water and set up for about a week. I read on here that some people use these or intex swimming pools as ponds. For filtration for a pond like this, I read on here that many forum members recommend a pool sand filter pump for filtration when keeping sharks and rays and so I am using a 2150 gallon pool sand filter pump. I cut out 1.5" holes for the intake and return in the tank to accommodate the 1.5" pool hoses and strainers that came with the sand filter pump and so far it has been running for a couple of days.

I plan on letting it run for the rest of the week or so to check for leaks and to keep track of evaporation so I can determine how often I need to top off the tank. After a week then I plan to add some red tail tin foil barbs to help cycle the tank. Once my tank is cycled and established, I am open to rescuing an iridescent shark or two that have grown too big for their tank. Same goes for rays and tiger shovel nose catfish.

I am thinking of adding a bacteria supplement to get things going like Seachem stability or Microbactert 7. Would you recommend that I add a bacteria starter to get things cycling faster since its 1200 gallons of water? Also, with the sand filter pump should I be running the filter nonstop or only at intervals say every 4 hours or so?

 

[dan518]

Hi, sounds an exciting project, if you go to the sub forum setup and filtration there is a lot of information on fishless cycling.
What is your filtration, heating, setup?
How are you planning your water changes
All things that need to be tip top for your planned stock and lots of really knowledgeable people on here who can help you get the best out of your pond.

 

[justarn]

Sounds fun, consider a pump for wc's as it's the basement, pump it straight out to your garden.
Refills will be the pita on 1200g, takes 2hrs to put 80% back into my 300g weekly, definitely consider an auto drip system and add a float switch to a pump to feed your garden plants.

 

[2bfishy]

Hi Dan,

My filtration so far is a 2150 gallon pool sand filter pump. My plan will be to backwash the pump once per week and do the water change each time after backwashing. Since it is a round 1200 gallon pond I am following the suggestion on MFK that when dealing with such a large volume of water that in winter to heat the room, not the tank so there are no heaters in the tank. In the summer I won't need to heat the room at all. Also I have the exterior of the pond wrapped in foil insulation to retain the heat.

 

[2bfishy]

I also will be adding additional filtration like a canister filter or pond filter if the pool sand filter isn't able to handle the large bioload from the sharks and rays. I'm not going to know until I have some big fish in there! Lol

 

[2bfishy]

My dream stock tank so far is as follows:

- Iridescent shark
- Bala shark
- Motoro and/ or hystrix sting rays
- Silver arowana
- Tiger shovel nose catfish or Tigrinus
- Striped Raphael catfish
- Spotted Raphael catfish
- Tire track eel
- Fire eel
- Severum and geophagus cichlids
- Red tail tinfoil barbs

I would like some kind of ornamental pleco too, but I read that they can't be kept with rays because they suck the slime off the ray. What do you think of this stock list? Are they all compatible or is there anything that I should add / or remove from this list?

 

[2bfishy]

Hi Justin,
I agree dealing with a 1200 gallon can be a PITA. It takes me over 5 hours to fill the tank from my tap ( I'm on well water thank god!), and 3 hours to drain with a sump pump! Lol

 

[Bertie07]

Your plan sounds like it should work great, the stock sounds fine but the hystrix stingrays aren’t the best for beginners and it would be better if you go two motoros, try to get the timfoils, cichlids and eels big as they will be eaten by the other fish if they are to small. The filtration seems like it will be fine but I would also do a bog filter, it helps keep nitrates low and acts as a backup filter. Can you post some pics of the pond as I would love to see it