# Thinking of s stingray... Need sand or is gravel okay?



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

alright, im thinking of getting a stingray, lfs has one for cheap. right now i have 3\8 gravel substrate. it this okay for a stingray or do i need to get sand? i would kind of like to keep this substrate it is easy to keep clean and looks very natural..


----------



## oscared15 (Feb 3, 2006)

:nod: don't know much about sting rays myself, I'd like to find out about them, there kinda expensive though


----------



## Juggalo (Mar 1, 2006)

shocker45 said:


> alright, im thinking of getting a stingray, lfs has one for cheap. right now i have 3\8 gravel substrate. it this okay for a stingray or do i need to get sand? i would kind of like to keep this substrate it is easy to keep clean and looks very natural..


stingrays are very cool, but hard to keep from what i read. Study up and do as much research on them as possible before diving into it!!! Hey what happened to your 10 RBP's?? I see you had all 10 die this weekend--do you know what happened?


----------



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

my friend spilt taquila in my tank. 36 hours later. all dead. even after a water change. search the piranha discussion forums for more details. i could have killed him.


----------



## dracofish (Jul 13, 2003)

Here's a link to my general guide to Stingray care.


----------



## Juggalo (Mar 1, 2006)

shocker45 said:


> my friend spilt taquila in my tank. 36 hours later. all dead. even after a water change. search the piranha discussion forums for more details. i could have killed him.


I would have knocked him out for sure!!! I'm sorry man, that really sucks bad!!!


----------



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

nice guide. thanks. so is gravel okay or no?

and personally i find gravel would have be better than sand. with sand u never stir it up. so stuff would fall in and rot and cause ammonia build ups. with gravel u are stirring it up, vacuuming out everything with every water change. iuno. i always thought gravel would be cleaner than sand.


----------



## JD7.62 (Apr 7, 2005)

I think sand is easier to clean then gravel. With sand, especially if you have a power head, all the crap piles up in a corner and you can easily syphon it out. Also with rays you dont have to worry about anything getting trapped under the sand because they are constantly blowing through it and stirring it up. Plus sand looks 10x better!


----------



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

thats true, but wont crap and stuff go into the sand itself and u wont be able to see if unless u stir it up.. i would be combining it with a messy fish. so i dont know if it would be a good idea. it does look better but i found it a lot more difficult to maintain.


----------



## JD7.62 (Apr 7, 2005)

Not really because unlike gravel sand is almost like a solid since the grains are so small and the crap wont fall down the gaps. If it does though rays are always sifting and blowing through the sand so the ray itself will do a good job of keeping things stirred up.

Go with black estes marine sand (ray safe) and I garuntee you that you and your ray will be happier!


----------



## oscar119 (Nov 26, 2005)

I would say sand as well only because the typically like to hide in the sand...


----------

