whats the point of running a BB tank with Rays?? is its so you can always see and appriciate the Ray?? because my guy is always burried in my sand!! im sure it makes him more happy being able to hid and play in the sand but geez i never get to see him lol but he is new to my tank (3days) he can from a gravel rock tank so he was never able to burry himself so is this just cuz he is new and just getting comfortable with his new surroundings??? plus i cant get him to eat yet from what i have seen he is a Motoro and he is 9 inches DIA. im going with a larger tank in a few weeks and woundering if i should go bare bottom or is it better to keep sand to make him more happy??? sorry for creating a debate if one occurs!! thanks and yes have searched!!
Rays + sand or Bare Bottom?
- Thread starter slednex11
- Start date
eventually if he/she is happy and healthy they will slowly stop burying themselves. I like bare bottom for the "clean look".. If he is not eating after 3 days and it is a motoro i would be concerned. What have you tried feeding? Is the tank established (cycled)?
If you would have posted this 2 weeks ago I would have told you sand/small gravel without a doubt, but last since then I have went bare bottom and painted the bottom black. I won't ever put substrate in my ray tank again. Much cleaner look and easier maintenance.
Just as Keep said about them settling in and not burying themselves can/does also apply to bare bottom. Once they settle in they no longer will miss the substrate.
Just as Keep said about them settling in and not burying themselves can/does also apply to bare bottom. Once they settle in they no longer will miss the substrate.
Weirdly I am running a temporary tank whilst my old one went to make room for the larger tank to be built and I am running bare and I really do not like the "clean" look.
ALSO imo it doesnt look as clean as every day you can see some muck caught in an eddy caused by the flow.
This tank is only 4ft and is maturing 2 large eheims plus an FX5 so you really cant say the muck is collecting due to lack of turnover or filtration.
For info:
PH is 7.5, ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate rises to 15 ppm and then gets knocked back to "trace" with virtually 0 nitrate w/c and nitragon on tank (only overnight) KH and GH are on the hard side (these were running on my 5X2X2 for over 10 years with cleaning every 3 months in cycle - bit like triggers broom!)
ALSO imo it doesnt look as clean as every day you can see some muck caught in an eddy caused by the flow.
This tank is only 4ft and is maturing 2 large eheims plus an FX5 so you really cant say the muck is collecting due to lack of turnover or filtration.
For info:
PH is 7.5, ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate rises to 15 ppm and then gets knocked back to "trace" with virtually 0 nitrate w/c and nitragon on tank (only overnight) KH and GH are on the hard side (these were running on my 5X2X2 for over 10 years with cleaning every 3 months in cycle - bit like triggers broom!)
I never have waste or debris floating around on the bottom, but I also keep two Koralia 4's (1200gph) pointed towards the bottom. Between them and the rays constantly moving it tends to help the filtration pull it out.
thanks guys, got home tonight from work and with the lights been being off for a few hours my ray was out and about cruzin the tank so dropped him some silversides and M Shrimp and he shoved my TSN outta the way for the food ha ha and my water P are 7.5PH --- 0 Nitrite ----5-10 Nitrate and goes to a trace with a 50% weekly WC
Bare bottom is the way to go. I had sand but....lost some rays because of that. It holds alot of crap and defunks your water. Like they said once they settle in their pretty set.
Florencebigfish;4155195; said:
What does "defunk" mean?
Did you lose the rays due to impacted sand building up gas pockets or bacteria?
I am going to try a thin layer of natural river sand but I like the idea of koralias firing at it to keep clean.
Don't rays like to dig around in the sand? If the purpose of going bare bottom is simply for the ease of maintenance but the rays prefer and enjoy a sand bottom, I would design the system to work with the sand just for the rays enjoyment. I am always for keeping the animals as happy as possible and making there environment as close to wild as possible.