Oh Lordy...Have I Done It Now?

[shookONES]

I've buried my head in books for the past few days and came to realize something about my love for this hobby. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I Love Rays. Although Asian Arowanas got me into the hobby, stingrays are what fascinated me to keep pushing.

My love my 210g. Come Monday, it will house its first ray. However, thinking down the road, I think it might be finally time to undertake a project I've been considering since Michael was MFKs notorious "hoarder". That's right...a Pearls of Paradise pond.

I'm not sure how to logically place my thoughts within a single thread, but I think I'll post up my rough sketch of the project, then list any possible problems I expect to encounter.

First order of business is pond placement. My basement has concrete floors. Since I'm in NJ, winter cold will present my first problem. I'm thinking of building a wooden floor essentially that would rest under the tank. I also thought about using styrofoam. Any opinions?

Next up is filtration. I'm not sure whether I will opt for the 6 or 8 footer, but my plans to filter either are similar.I'm going to create a large wet/dry and place it on a table and have a large pump pump UP and let gravity do its thing. My question here is, how many gallons of bioballs would I need to filter this much water? I'd like to avoid using an aquarium and go the rubbermaid route to ease some costs here. I also may use an FX5 to increase some flow and mechanical filtration.

Heating. Well, I'm clueless hear. Instinct tells me to slap on half a dozen Ebo Jagers haha, but that's not practical.

Evaporation is another issue. We have a dehumidifyer in my basement now that does a great job. I'd imagine it would be alright with this tank? Any ways to combat mold and other humidity related problems?

That's it for now.

 

[johnptc]

sounds like a great first step....

 

[csx4236]

Use styrofoam between your concrete floor and the bottom of your pond, I would use a plastic pond instead of the pearls of paradise ones seen alot of them leak, as for heating get a 1500watt heater and your fine, your going to need something like 30 gallons worth of bio-balls and a filter pad to catch the small debri before it trickles over the balls. Good luck and yeah a dehumidifier is very important.

 

[Bogwoodbruce]

What ray are you thinking of? I think that Motoros and pearls are quite nice.

 

[beex215]

that filter sketch looks great and simple

 

[Greenaveli]

This sounds like its gonna be good....

 

[shookONES]

Use styrofoam between your concrete floor and the bottom of your pond, I would use a plastic pond instead of the pearls of paradise ones seen alot of them leak, as for heating get a 1500watt heater and your fine, your going to need something like 30 gallons worth of bio-balls and a filter pad to catch the small debri before it trickles over the balls. Good luck and yeah a dehumidifier is very important.

What type of pond do you recommend? Also, any shot I could swing by your place and check out your setups sometime in the near future?

As for rays, I think my budget will only allow for motoros at this point, but that's fine with me. They're probably one of the most attractive, IMO. Peru Flowers are where I'd like to end up, though.