Would A California Ray Work With My Stock?

[Deep Blue Sea]

I just completely repositioned all the live rock in my 215g FOWLR today so that its mainly all up against the sides leaving a 4'x2' area in the middle of my tank thats totally bare. I was thinking about getting a California Ray and since it says the minimum tank size for one is 75g's on a few websites I checked out I think I have the room I'm just wondering will it work with my stocklist.

Currently I have
2x Epaulette sharks 12"-14"
2x Banded Catsharks 7"
1x Parrotfish 9"
and some small dither fish

I may be getting a large grouper as well around 10" if that would be a problem for the stingray

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

???

 

[craig]

your tank is too small.

 

[nonstophoops]

your tank is too small.

I have to agree here. You are quite overstocked already and should not be adding anymore fish. If you plan on keeping all the sharks you have, you better start planning/buying/making something in the neighborhood of 800 gallons or more. You are going to have 4 sharks that are over 3 feet and depending on the parrot you have there will be another couple feet. Huge fish, huge waste, need a huge tank with some crazy good filtration.

I would not add anymore fish and would be looking at getting rid of some soon if you can't get them bigger accomodations.

You also can't add the grouper, because it will eat your dither fish.

What are your water parameters like on this tank? filtration? how often are you doing water changes?

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

I have to agree here. You are quite overstocked already and should not be adding anymore fish. If you plan on keeping all the sharks you have, you better start planning/buying/making something in the neighborhood of 800 gallons or more. You are going to have 4 sharks that are over 3 feet and depending on the parrot you have there will be another couple feet. Huge fish, huge waste, need a huge tank with some crazy good filtration.

I would not add anymore fish and would be looking at getting rid of some soon if you can't get them bigger accomodations.

You also can't add the grouper, because it will eat your dither fish.

What are your water parameters like on this tank? filtration? how often are you doing water changes?

in 3-6 months I'll be making a 1.5 thousand gallon tank, as for the being overstocked, there looks to be plenty of room for the fish to swim and the water parameters are all at or close to 0.

The grouper couldn't eat the dithers because they're too fast (squirrelfish) I had a 6" Miniatus and he didn't do anything to them.

For filtration I have 40 or 45 gallon sump with filled with about 20lbs of refugium rubble and chaeto along with another 300+lbs of live rock in the actual tank. I also have to Koralia Magnum 7's each rated for 2,800 GPH to keep most debris off the bottom

 

[nonstophoops]

in 3-6 months I'll be making a 1.5 thousand gallon tank, as for the being overstocked, there looks to be plenty of room for the fish to swim and the water parameters are all at or close to 0.

The grouper couldn't eat the dithers because they're too fast (squirrelfish) I had a 6" Miniatus and he didn't do anything to them.

For filtration I have 40 or 45 gallon sump with filled with about 20lbs of refugium rubble and chaeto along with another 300+lbs of live rock in the actual tank. I also have to Koralia Magnum 7's each rated for 2,800 GPH to keep most debris off the bottom

I am glad you are making a monster tank for them, should be amazing.

For now, there really isn't plenty of space to swim around for the sharks. You have about 3.5 feet of shark for a 4 x 2 foot area. That is very very little space. 300 lbs of rock too! Wow! I don't know how you are fitting all that rock into a foot of space on either end.

Your nitrates are 0? You must do some massive water changes my friend. And frequent too.

As for the squirrels, they will be living a life of major stress when a 10" grouper is trying to get a hold of them all the time. It is only a matter of time in my opinion unless your squirrels are quite large(then not dither fish at all, but contributing to the bioload.)

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

I am glad you are making a monster tank for them, should be amazing.

For now, there really isn't plenty of space to swim around for the sharks. You have about 3.5 feet of shark for a 4 x 2 foot area. That is very very little space. 300 lbs of rock too! Wow! I don't know how you are fitting all that rock into a foot of space on either end.

Your nitrates are 0? You must do some massive water changes my friend. And frequent too.

As for the squirrels, they will be living a life of major stress when a 10" grouper is trying to get a hold of them all the time. It is only a matter of time in my opinion unless your squirrels are quite large(then not dither fish at all, but contributing to the bioload.)

They sharks actually have 6 feet of swimming space because where I stacked the rock I made sure there was a good sized tunnel around the back of the live rock. I do small water changes every week but nothing serious I think its just the live rock doing its job.

And yeah it was challenging but I was able to stack the rock up on both sides, it helps to keep the sun out and my fish seem to like it better.

But alright so I shouldn't get the stingray yet, I still however will look for one fish that swims around the top-mid section of the tank because everything is always near the bottom.

 

[FLESHY]

They sharks actually have 6 feet of swimming space because where I stacked the rock I made sure there was a good sized tunnel around the back of the live rock. I do small water changes every week but nothing serious I think its just the live rock doing its job.

And yeah it was challenging but I was able to stack the rock up on both sides, it helps to keep the sun out and my fish seem to like it better.

But alright so I shouldn't get the stingray yet, I still however will look for one fish that swims around the top-mid section of the tank because everything is always near the bottom.

First, this is the wrong place to post this thread...why not post it in with the sharks and rays? You have other posts in there...and that place is patrolled by people who really dont come in here that know what they are talking about better than we do in that regard.

Live rock, under no circumstances, will remove nitrate from your tank.

The tank looks good. Id still be interested to see you do some h2o testing, in a video.

I would say that there wasnt enough open room for your stingray to be happy.

Your squirrel fish are not fast enough to avoid a grouper's short burst speed. Remember that groupers are still around because they are successful predators. They have evolved so that sooner or later, that burst wins. Expect to lose a few fish if they can fit into the mouth, or even come close to being able to.

 

[Deep Blue Sea]

First, this is the wrong place to post this thread...why not post it in with the sharks and rays? You have other posts in there...and that place is patrolled by people who really dont come in here that know what they are talking about better than we do in that regard.

Live rock, under no circumstances, will remove nitrate from your tank.

The tank looks good. Id still be interested to see you do some h2o testing, in a video.

I would say that there wasnt enough open room for your stingray to be happy.

Your squirrel fish are not fast enough to avoid a grouper's short burst speed. Remember that groupers are still around because they are successful predators. They have evolved so that sooner or later, that burst wins. Expect to lose a few fish if they can fit into the mouth, or even come close to being able to.

I was hoping you or Nonstophoops would chime in, and sure I'll try to get a testing video up soon. Also, I know live rock doesn't remove nitrates from tanks but the algae and organisms on it can absorb it or it can be denitrified by bacteria living on the rocks

 

[nonstophoops]

I was hoping you or Nonstophoops would chime in, and sure I'll try to get a testing video up soon. Also, I know live rock doesn't remove nitrates from tanks but the algae and organisms on it can absorb it or it can be denitrified by bacteria living on the rocks

I must agree with Fleshy here, first off. I have kept one shark, and while I have done a lot of research, I do not have the experience of many of the people in the sharks and rays section.

Some, not much is denitrified by the live rock. In a system like this there is just no way that the rock would be doing it all. Too much nitrate to be processed.

I am sure the sharks enjoy those tunnels, just be careful and make sure everything is very secure. When I had my Bamboo Shark it decide one week that it wanted to flip rocks over. It would stick its head under the rock and lift up really fast throwing the rock in the "air". If one of your sharks tries this on a rock stack you will end up with lots of dead sharks and I do not want to see that happen. So be cautious.