SRobider

Hello All!

I'm new here and hope to become a regular.
Anyway, I purchased a small fresh water sting ray from our local petstore. The pH there is around 6.4-6.5, so I got some ph 6.5 powder for our tank. Now, after a week of trying to treat our water, it's still stuck at 6.8. We have tried peat moss in the filter too and it doesn't seem to help. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? We are anxious to bring him home but can't until the water is right!

Thanks for any advice!

Many Blessings,
SRobider

Jay

Hi SRobider, and welcome to our froum!!

IMO you are a little over concerned about the pH. The fish will adjust so long as you introduce it into your tank properly. You might want to read the sticky article on introducing fish into the tank. A pH of 6.8 is just fine.

Having said that...

We really should look at your tank paramaters to be sure all is well there.

You are going to find that using pH altering chemicals is like a dog chasing its tail, he almost gets it and then it slips away. Conventional wisdom is work with your tap water unless you absolutely need to make adjustments, which is rare or species tank driven.

Watch out for the barb in that guys tail, it is toxic!

Regards,
Jay

Tommy Gun

At one time, I had an opportunity to purchase a very large, very short tank that would have been perfect for a stingray. I did the research and found that the more important factors were substrate and footprint of the tank. The water Ph, like Jay suggests, was an issue, but more of a constant Ph on the neutral to acid side was more recommended than a spacific Ph level.

Another consideration was the equipment involved with keeping rays. Your goal should be to have the largest tank you can get, and then get one bigger. It will help with the ray's health and ability to move freely and feed more easily. Tank mates should be kept to large fish as well such as arowanas and oscars (native to the amazon river biotope) and catfish can become a problem as they like to 'suck' on the rays slime coat, opening the fish up to serious infections. (Pleco would be the most common offender)

The filtration should definetly be over done and then increased a little more. Water changes are going to be big and frequent as they are not capable of dealing with even slightly high nitrites and nitrates. Another interesting problem, or concern rather, is that the water needs to be heated but the heater cannot be inside the tank with the ray as they burn very easily and will usually come in contact with any submersable heaters that are kept in the tank (I was thinking this would be a good reason for a sump system to be used in freshwater).

I think if you can cover all of these bases, and like Jay says, can acclimate the ray correctly, Ph stability would be much more of a concern than one spacific Ph number.

SRobider

Thank you so much for the advice. The guys at the pet store didn't say anything about the heater. I'm so glad I asked about this... I would hate to hurt the little guy!
I'm going to do another full check of the tank this weekend and get another heater. I'll let ya'll know how that goes

Thanks again !

Many Blessings,
SRobi