How to setup and maintain a shark tank?

[Gooli]

I am looking to get some advice from experienced people on how to set up a shark tank and how to maintain it.

I will be setting up something about 8 to 10 feet long. Would like to keep one or two small black tips, horn shark, cat shark, epaulette.

thanks!

[Bmgrocks]

I'm assuming you keep and maintain a 180g SPS tank?

[hotrodolds]

BIG no on the black tips, they get HUGE and require an obscene amount of room to establish a good swim pattern. At 8-10' long you can swing everything else on that list for a while provided there decent width to the tank.

Also know that if you are doing horn sharks get calis not port jacksons unless you are capable of keeping the water below 72 tops. Doing that would then exclude eppies and cat sharks.

Horns grow about 2-3" a year so starting small it will be a while before they will get to their 3.5-4' mark as adults. Recommended minimum is 13x5 and 950g for a single adult Cali horn.

one eppie would be good to go for life in a 10x5 or so.

sharkraycentral.com has some really good info availible however its not very active. Monsterfishkeepers.com is very active and has a variety of huge tank build threads.

[Gooli]

thanks very much. I could keep a small 2-3 foot black tip for a while and then take him out when he is big right?

i want sharks that swim around - not sit all day :)

what would you do for filtration?

[hotrodolds]

well what are you going to do when you take him out? I suppose you could make steaks with your $1000 shark but thats about it. Aquariums and Zoos pretty much already have what they want and you are going to have some serious work to do finding a baby man eater a home.

Best bet for a swimmer are the smooth hound sharks. They still require a ton of room but not nearly as much as black tip. Much cheaper to and have that real shark look to them. They arent requiem sharks, but swim 75-90% percent of the time.

Run the biggest skimmer you can find.

Black tips are notorious for rubbing their noses raw if kept in a rectangular tank. The best thing you can do for one even if its only 3' is a huge cylinder or oval tank. Black tips hit sexual maturity and 5' within 4 or 5 years so that 3' will be 5' very quickly. Figure a 3' is already about 2years old.

[hotrodolds]

not trying to rain on your parade at all man, as id like to someday keep a trio of port jacksons.

Good luck though and keep us posted on what you do.

[Gooli]

thanks - you're a lot of help - i appreciate your honesty

[crsaz]

If you want a shark that is very active and yet stays "small" get a bonnet head the are like mini hammer heads and stay around or under 4 feet I believe. a bonnet head would be ok in a 10 to 12 foot round tank around 1500-2500 gallons. thats as close as your gonna get to a blacktip or other active sharks without running 10's of thousands of gallons

[Hocky]

I am looking at doing a shark / ray tank, too, and am trying to decide on dimensions. I would like to keep 1-2 rays (currently have a round ray) and 1-2 smaller reef type sharks. Would a tank that is 8' long x 2' wide x 20" high be adequate? I plan for this tank will be complete empty, only a sand bottom. No rocks or anything taking up sand space.

[crsaz]

no you will need atleast 48 inches of width minimum. how do you expect to keep a 30-40 inch animal in a 24 inch wide tank.but with an 8x4x2 you should be ok with a round ray and a bamboo

[terimar]

Smoothhounds are a Mediterranean species which also should be kept at cooler temps than true tropical species.

[DamnPepShrimp]

Is sand a must for a shark/ray tank? I know a couple people keep sharks in a BB system. I am considering turning my 210g into a shark/ray grow out system, but my tank is currently BB.

[karaim]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14326479#post14326479 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DamnPepShrimp
Is sand a must for a shark/ray tank? I know a couple people keep sharks in a BB system. I am considering turning my 210g into a shark/ray grow out system, but my tank is currently BB.

DPS, sharks are nice, but are you really giving up that easily on the other fish?

[DamnPepShrimp]

I may not have a choice. I have a healthy wrasse, but my emperor is swimming in the dead. I don't think he is going to make it. I'm very tired of dealing with all these diseases. Its crazy. I look at it as rather then giving up on the hobby, I could atleast have a nice tank.