HOB Filters and Hystrix Growth?

From what i've seen and heard they mature around 10-11"..I'm pretty sure they grow slowly compared to most other rays...

Only reason I see not to use HOBs is because most of them won't be able to keep up with the amount of waste rays put out. There are some pretty good ones I have seen out there, not the crap walmart sells, with enough of them I am sure they could keep up with a couple small-medium rays.

MY qt tank is usually either 40 breeder or 75 gallon. I've had 16" ray on a 40 breeder with 2 AC 70's or a single AC110 and 2 sponge filters to keep up. The key is flow and bio media size. I wouldn't do it as a permanent solutions, but for temporary grow out or qt tank, they will work just fine.

Stan

Yes, that was me. I have ray tanks only filtered by Emperor filters with no canister. My point was, as John noted, that with the amount of bio you need for rays it's east to under-filter a ray tank with HOB filters and I don't want to give less experienced ray keepers the idea that you can skimp on filtration.

But one of my Emperor-filtered tanks has a nice pair of Hystrix.

As mentioned good ray filtration is lots of extra water volume and bio media. HOBs are good for mechanical and that is about hit. Even the biggest ones that say they are for 100 plus gallon tanks are too small. Just because it has a high flow rate does not mean you are over filtering your tank. You could turn you water over 20 times an hour with a mechanical filter and it will do you no good unless you have to bio media to support the flow rate.

They're definitely slower than my other rays (Motoro and Henlei). But not infinitely slow as some reports I've seen. Mine were around 5" when I got them in Jan 2010 and are probably 9" or so now.

how about the other smaller rays like the retics? what are their growth rates like?