New guy making his intro

[asomeone]

Good evening all. I am making my debut into the world of more...exotic pets with a motoro stingray. After about a year of gathering supplies/money/etc I have finally handbuilt everything I think I need to house a stingray. I have reasearched time and time again but theres nothing like some good ol advice from avid keepers. I built a 350 gallon tank, custom lighting, 150 gallon custom sump with built in dual side algae scrubber, and multiple raspberry pi monitoring systems. I am extremely excited to finally fill this tank up and begin the cycling process while i stock the tank with plants. I am utilizing filtration media to kickstart the cycling process from an active 85 gallon tank. I am planning to move a small school of 5 tetras into the tank while i plant it with hardy plants such as amazon swords and wisteria. I will not purchase the ray until the tank is fully cycled (obviously). As I want the ray to have as much open tank space as possible I will only be stocking background plants to cover the rear of the tank with a couple java moss mats attached to rear wall of the tank. Substrate will be gravel for 1/4 rear to support rooting and the rest will be sand. I have drilled dual drains into the tank. One will feed my algae scrubber, and one will feed directly into the sump which is a majority of bioballs and foam pads. Purigen may be added to my final chemical chamber but I have yet to decide that. I have dual return pumps rated at 600gph each, 2 500gph circulation pumps. My lighting as far as I have been able to measure with my meters is about 70w on a timer planning to be set 8 hours during daylight.
The ray, for the moment is my only planned inhabitant, I have thoughts to add tank mates but only once the ray is completely settled and I learn its mannerisms.
Any thoughts, suggestions, comments are greatly appreciated. I am very excited to be apart of this forum and own my first ray.

 

[pacu mom]

Welcome! We'd love to see pictures of your tank.

 

[asomeone]

Welcome! We'd love to see pictures of your tank.

unfortunately since it is yet to be set up and is still in my workshop I dont want to post photos until I have it cycling and pretty.

 

[tlindsey]

Welcome aboard

 

[BMac91]

unfortunately since it is yet to be set up and is still in my workshop I dont want to post photos until I have it cycling and pretty.

But work-in-progress photos are sometimes the best photos!

 

[asomeone]

But work-in-progress photos are sometimes the best photos!

noooo I'm self conscious until everything is perfect. Once its all up and running I will post my process and be happy to answer any questions regarding any of it. I would assume my computing monitoring system would be the "high point" 2 weeks until its up and running!

 

[asomeone]

Just looking for advice at this point. Based on the information I've given, does it seem sufficient?

 

[MrsE88]

You would likely get some good advice posting in the ray forum. They could tell you if there is anything else needed or not. I think your setup sounds awesome and I can’t wait to see pictures!

 

[Gourami Swami]

Sounds like a cool setup.
I would put way more than 5 tetras in to get the cycle going in a 500 gallon system. 5 tetras won't produce enough ammonia to grow your bacteria.

 

[millerkid519]

Being a ray keeper I would scrap the plans for any plants on the bottom. They will be ripped out as fat as you can plant them unless they are fixed to a piece of driftwood

What are you dimensions of your 350? In
my opinion it might end up a little cramped for a motoro depending on if it is male or female. I would look for a marble motoro or hystrix

As for the cycle you will need alot more then 5 tetras. The amount of ammonia that is produced by a fresh water ray is huge. My thoughts on cycling is that you should add your existing media and dose with pure ammonia or cut up a fillet of fish and leave it in the tank for a week or so for a source of ammonia.

As for your pumps I would aim for a higher turnover rate. About 2500gph.