90 gallon planted discus/motoro ray tank (CO2 injected)

[Blake]

This is a work in progress, but it's coming along.

The main concern I had with this tank was to leave enough room on the bottom for the ray to swim without slamming into plants . The ray obviously needs plenty of free, open space on the bottom of the tank to move around, which makes planting somewhat of a challenge.

My solution was to elevate many of the plants above the bottom and have them growing inside/out of the driftwood itself. I've drilled/chiseled out parts of the wood, filled them with dirt/substrate, and planted the plants directly in those bores. The Anubias, of course, is simply attached to the rocks/wood with monofilament fishing line and is not potted like some of the swords. I'll remove the line once their roots take hold a bit better.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/tank1.jpg

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/tank2.jpg

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/tank3.jpg

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/tank4.jpg

This photo kinda shows what I was after in terms of the "open space" on the bottom of the tank.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/tank5.jpg

If anyone is wondering, that big rock on top of the driftwood is there to keep it front floating up to the top of the tank. It's not quite waterlogged yet. :D

[calihawker]

Very nice Blake! Welcome to SD!

[Sharkbait]

Hi Blake,

You're taking on quite the challenge! Best of luck to you.

Can I ask what you have stocked in there? It seems that with the ray, the loaches, the discus...you'll be needing an upgrade in no time.

[Blake]

Thanks guys.

Sharkbait, I currently have about 10 discus in there (the majority are 3-4 inches with a few smaller than that and two larger, one of which is a wild blue).

Plus the motoro ray (6 inches), the loaches, some hatchets and a few plecos (two GNs, a Royal and some other L variant). The loaches are still small.

I also have a large Ctenopoma acutirostre in there that needs to be fished out ASAP.

Not all of the current residents of this tank are going to stay around much longer. Some will be moved to another tank soon.

Here's the sump. I also hooked up a small UV sterilizer from an old tank just because it wasn't being used. It's pretty small, but whatever. I'm not sure how much good it'll do, but it won't hurt anything.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt85/JulesGabrielVerne/sump.jpg


The CO2 system is pretty simple. It's just a tank, a beer regulator and a powerhead for chopping up the bubbles. Simple but effective.

[yikesjason]

looks really nice. Be very careful with that co2 system. You don't want to loss all of those expensive fish to an end of tank dump. If I were you I would look into upgrading that system to something a bit more stable.

[Blake]

Yeah, I agree completely.

I'm going to upgrade the CO2 system shortly and make it more fail-safe. The current system was not meant for the longterm.

[hedut]

what happen if that stone fall down? that will be night mare:p:p:p:p. nice set up anyway

[philip69285]

Bigger tank in the near future I hope with a sand substrate? Rays can hurt themselves on gravel and get very very very large and need a lot of space. Dunno your plan for the cute little guy right now. But it is a very nice tank otherwise. Just be careful and watch the ray with the gravel.

[Blake]

Hedut, the rock won't fall. That was a concern of mine as well, but it is tightly wedged into place. I could pull the entire piece of wood out of the tank and shake it upside down and the rock would not move. It's tightly secured.

Philip, I hear you about the substrate. I was on the fence about the gravel for that very reason until I checked out the Amazonia exhibit at the Smithsonian Nation Zoo for the first time in ages. In the large discus/ray exhibit the substrate is all gravel and all the motros of various sizes seemed to be doing fine.

Nonetheless, it I start to see damage to or abrasions on the ray's disk I will take action quickly. So far there haven't been any problems.

[DiscusFreakaZoid]

Ray with Discus gives me new idea:) what type of ray is that and how big do they get

[Lytehouse]

Very nice.

What is your other tank?

[mareshow]

love it :D i will mention that motoros get HUGE like 30" plus disc size i think youre going to need an upgrade ASAP lol, if you want a ray that doesnt grow as large try a Reticulated Ray, they only grow to be about 12" usually, a little better for aquariums. You probably already knew that but just thought i'd mention it

[Blake]

DiscusFreakaZoid, like mareshow said, motoros get pretty huge (not manta ray huge, but the big guys at the National Zoo here in DC are easily 30 inches).

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the ray once it starts to really grow, but I'm thinking it will involve a massive tank building/engineering project of some sort...

Lytehouse, I have a number of other tanks in my house. Saltwater and Africans and soon an indoor pond for growing out plants. I also have BBs for spare and smaller discus.

[calihawker]

Ray with Discus gives me new idea:) what type of ray is that and how big do they get

Yeah, me too. I'm scaling down on the planted thing for now. I have a nice big tank for it and have always loved rays.

[mareshow]

i've been doing a lot of ray research and there are three smaller types of rays, P. hystrix, P. scobinae, and P. reticulata these are the ones that dont grow larger that 14" discs but keep in mind they also have a tail that is that length as well. minimum tank foot print for these guys i would suggest nothing smaller than 48"x24" and that's BARE minimum(uncomfortable frankly), i'm putting mine in a 72"x24". and that's with almost nothing to hinder them on the floor, that motoro hes got is going to need a foot print of at least 8'x4' when fully grown, they are monstrous lol. But yeah i'm getting two reticulatas and they will be very comfortable in a 72"x24", 24" is the minimum width though, just keep that in mind, like arowanas they need room to turn or else they'll get deformed. They also NEED sand, if you keep them on a coarse gravel like that for very long it will damage their tender underbelly and kill them in the long run, you need a quartz based sand that is very fine (the finer the better :) ) Silica based is too scratchy and again will damage their belly. they also wont accept flake or pellet foods so get used to frozen and live, i'm going to try and ween mine to Eddies Seafood Mix which i think they should take, when i get them i'll let you know. oh yeah and if you want plants lol good luck, they'll rip em up every second they get a chance... yeah if you want to know more info send me a pm and i'll give you a bunch of great links on FW stingrays that will really make your head spin :)

[Blake]

That motoro ray accepts both flake and pellet foods.

In fact, when I feed the tank flake food he swims up to the surface so he can eat the flakes near the surface. He doesn't even wait for the food to hit the bottom. That frightened a few of the discus at first but they seem to be used to it now. When I drop pellets in the tank he waits until a bunch of them are floating near the side of the tank and then swims up and covers them with his disk to "trap" and eat them. It's pretty cool to see.

But normally I just feed him a frozen seafood medley from the supermarket. It costs about $5 and consists of shrimp, scallop and squid.

[mareshow]

hmmm i'm shocked i've never heard of a ray accepting flake or pellet foods nice work :)

[Sharkbait]

I would love to have a Discus/Ray tank. My 90 gallon is way to small for what I want to do though right now and upgrading is WAYYY down the line. Eventually, I'd like to setup my 90 gallon into a salt tank and upgrade to a CIRCULAR tank for discus and a ray. I think the standard gallon for these is in or around 125-130 gallons. Would this be enough to accomodate both species (about 8-10 adult discus)? I figure with the curved glass, it would give the illusion of an endless swimming space for the inhabitants.

http://www.uniqueaquariumdesigns.co.uk/vishal/Circula%201.jpg
(photo from uniqueaquariumdesigns)

What do you think?

[mareshow]

hmmm whats the foot print? size of the tank doesnt matter as much as the foot print, a 120 gallon thats 72x18 is too small because its too narrow where as a 120 gallon thats 72 x 24 but shorter isnt, as for a circular tank it better have a diameter of like 6' minimum lol

[Sharkbait]

The tank shown is 48" L, 48" W, 28" H. Doesn't make it to 72...too small :( Is this even too small for the three species you listed mareshow?

[mareshow]

yes, unfortunately it is a little too small, for those three species i would suggest nothing smaller than a 60x24x24, it gives a larger foot print which then allows the ray more movement, and a happy ray is one that can get lots of exercise :) if the tank was actually 48"x48" it would not, but given the cylinder shape you are losing about a quarter of the foot print so unfortunately its too small, :( it would be really pretty though when they are still tea cup rays lol. the reason why you would want to go bigger is because like discus, rays represent a monstrous bio load and produce a crapload of ammonia, so the larger the footprint means the bio load is more spread out thus not as deadly if something were to happen. like when my tank is set up i'm going to use three XP4s for filtration. its going to be tricky because i dont want to wash the discus away but i think i can make it work :) i should also mention that if that were a cube it would be perfect lol

[ChloroPhil]

Wow, that's one hell of a filter!