1,000 Gallon Ray Pool

[heymickey94]

Hi everybody I am looking into setting up a 1,000 gallon ray pool. I know that this sounds very expensive and unrealistic, but I have been doing a lot of research and I think that I can have everything all setup for Christmas, that is my goal. The pool will be 9' x 2'4"= 1,000 gallons-the pool is a Tough high-density polyethylene tank. The pool itself will only cost me $251, that is the cheap part.

Now for the expensive part filtration-for filtration I have decided that a pond filter of some sort is needed,something along the lines of a couple of these:http/www.petsolutions.com/Pondmaster-2000-Filter+I25002200+C50.aspx-at $61.99 each and I think I need 2 of them plus the bio foam block and the poly pad I don't think that is a bad price. Each of those is suitable for ponds up to 2,000 gallons and have 700gph so together with both of them they will be suitable for a 4,000 gallon pond and have 1,400 gph.

Heating:3 VISI-THERM HEATERS 300 WATT should do I will have heater guards on all of them. Together the heaters will cost $60

Substrate: I have decided to go bare bottom for this tank.

Together the grand total is:
$251 pool
$61.99 filter 1
$61.99 filter 2
$14.99 BIO-FOAM BLOCKS 4 PACK
$5.99 PONDMASTER POLY PAD
$60 2 heaters
$100 things that I haven't added
grand total:$555.96

If anybody has any comments/suggestions please let me know, anything they think that I should do different, etc. Thank you

 

[GobyMaster]

That'll be nice! Be sure to post some pictures when you get the chance!

Now, I'm no expert, but I've always believed that it isn't very good for the stingrays to have a bare-bottom tank. In the wild, when stingrays, either freshwater or saltwater, get freaked out because of a sudden movement, they dive for cover under sand. Personally, I think that it is cruel to give a naturally burrowing animal no substrate to burrow. It's like keeping a fire-eel in an aquarium with nothing. People just wouldn't do it. Now, please don't think I'm harping on you, I'm just giving you my 20¢ about the substrates (I know, I know, this is probably going to start a big war between who thinks that sand is good or bad). Now, before I go reccommending something for someone, I think I should double-check. Would volcanit work for a ray tank? Or would it be too shark or rough?? I'm unsure, so I don't know (that's like stating the obvious there ).

So, let me get this straight: Are you going to build the pool, because I know that you can order smaller metal-frame pools from Target or something that are 10x3' and only cost about $100, so that could really dent the price there. If you still want to build one, I reccommend you go Shark and Ray Central: DIY Ray Pools division, or contact Brendan, who is the head at SRC. Even though Sharks and Ray Central is a primarily marine fish forum, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help you with this.

Good luck setting up the pool! What type of rays do you plan on keeping? Want any other fish?
GobyMaster

 

[CAC]

Well if its only going to be 2' 4" wide then it wont work, thats only 28"...The lengths great, but go for a width of atleast 32, and preferable 36". This will allow you to get some of the bigger (often cheaper) species like motoro, which also work out as being the hardiest too.
For you filter question: 1400gph is not enough water movement for a tank of that size. Remember, 5x the volume of the tank, even if the company says it will be ok for a tank of X gallons, its best to go for a turnover of 5x per hour, or more. You will need filters moving 5000gph.

 

[mark7616]

Also a pool of only 28" isnt a pool. it would be more like 10x5 if your doing a ray pond.

 

[cane76]

circle pool 9ft across and 28" deep?

 

[mark7616]

circle pool 9ft across and 28" deep?

Ahh could very well be.

 

[cane76]

he only gave 2 dimensions so the chances are good
that size pool would have a decent amount of space for a few rays

 

[T1KARMANN]

the trouble with indoor pools is the condensation best add another $500 for a de-humidefier

 

[heymickey94]

Sorry about the dimensions, yes it is a 9' x 9' x 2'4" high circle. How many rays do you think I could keep in this? I was thinking of hystrix, reticuleated, marbled motoros and flowers. As for the substrate, I have seen many people keep rays on barebottom tanks, so I think it will be okay, do you guys feel like I should add a few bags of pool filter sand? I'm not building the pool, I am buying it. What do you recommend for filtration? I also know that I have a dehumidefier lying around somewhere. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[mark7616]

bare bottom will be fine. Where in the world are you.

 

[CFC]

I wouldnt keep any of the gentler ray species like flowers and orbygini's (retics) with motoros, i made that mistake and my big female motoro ate half the disc of a smaller orbygini right in front of me as i watched, it was a savage and unprovoked attack and masses of damage was done in seconds before i could grab a net.

With the bigger tanks you can sacrifice water turn over for filter volume, a pool with a filter that holds 5% the volume of the water in biological media can have a slower flow rate of say twice the volume per hour rather than 5 per hour through a smaller filter, so for 1000 gallons you are looking at having 50 gallons of biological media in your filter/sump.

 

[CAC]

Ok so its got a diameter of 9 foot and a depth of 28", I see now.
That would be a great sized pond but like CFC has said be careful with the species of rays.
Even if the water flow isnt great, but theres lots of filter volume, a large flow would be good anyway because rays and many other fish that would be suitable for that size tank would want reasonable currents...

 

[heymickey94]

Ok thanks for all of the help. I wont have any motoros in the pool because I would rather have the other rays. I'm in the USA. Ok so you all think that I should have a 50 gallon sump, that sounds small doesn't it? How would I make a sump with no overflows? And how would I do it if I can't put a sump underneath the pool, can I put it beside the pool? Thanks

 

[CFC]

No the sump will need to be larger but you will need at least 50 gallons of bio media in the sump, the biological filtration stage of the sump is just one section. The sump needs to have the minimum volume of the level of water above the over flow, in most case this is roughly the top 2 inches of water which in your case gives you around 80 gallons of water the sump must be able to hold in the event of a powercut.

The sump can go anywhere you like (apart from above the pool), you just make your pipework longer to reach it.

 

[heymickey94]

Ok thanks, does anyone have any links to good sites for making a freshwater sump, on a large scale like this? ThanksAlso how would I make a sump without overflows, thanks.