Best filter setup for rays

[DB junkie]

I feel sorry for you guys that have to tear all your filters apart to clean to scrubbies once they fill up with gunk.

Same scenario with tearing apart canisters to clean the mechanical, and then there's the joy of priming canisters.

Moving bed filters or bio reactors are the way to go...... Just ask the people producing the majority of CB blacks here......

Not only do you not really ever have to clean them (aside from cracking a valve) but the less efficieent older BB are knocked off the media allowing new young more productive bacteria to grow. Why have a BB retirement home full of old crap in your filter when you can have spartans?

A 55 gallon reactor is capable of processing several lbs of food per day efficiently.

Would you go buy a brand new Shelby GT 500 and stick a Quadrajet on it? Our rays will benefit if we as keepers evolve with the technology in our hobby.

 

[ShadowStryder]

Not to debate or derail Al, you were the first I expected to jab at us sump users. But to clarify something. I dont have a bunch of gunk in or below my scrubbies, I have pre filters in my Overflow boxes and 100 micron socks that catch anything before it reaches the scrubbies. My scrubbies are now freefloating and are allowed to tumble as the water circulates. I also have polishing pads which catch all debris in the FX5s and only need to be rinsed a few times a year. Dont know why you would tear them clompletely down. Havent had to in 3 years.
So no gunk in my filters......

 

[PeteLockwood]

My 4 year old Mazda 6 gets me from A to B just the same as that Shelby would. Difference is, it was a lot cheaper, it's quieter and it costs less to run. It might not make heads turn but my dogs are just happy on the back seat as they would be in the Shelby.

I don't have a ridiculously oversized filter and I've only taken the scrubbies out for a quick shake in tank water twice in 18 months. Took maybe 10 minutes while I was waiting for the tank to fill while doing a water change.

 

[johno27]

No gunk here either, a 100 micron filter sock doesn't really let anything by and if it did it would settle in the filter sock chamber not on the scrubbies. I do like reactors though and almost went with one but having to have an air pump and my lack of experience with them made me go with a wet dry.

 

[Chasintail]

Could you guys let me know where to find bulk scrubbies? When I get my 300gl tank, I'm gonna need a bunch

 

[T1KARMANN]

im not into using the sponges

i use jap mat in the 1st compartment that overflows to the 2nd thats filled with bio balls then that overflows to the main compartment which has 100l of eheim efimech and 100l of eheim substrate pro with 75l of k1 media which moves about like a moving bed filter

i strip down the jap mat and bio balls and clean every 6 months

i also have a massive sand filter that can take care of a 50,000 gal pond sump size is 6x2x2 and turn over of 66,000 lph but you lose some from head height

best to turn the tank over 10 or more times per hour

i dont bother with the socks as the jap mat grabs all that crap and you should have some gunk its called good bacteria

at the end of the day its what works best for you

but if you have a sump thats good for the tank why would anyone need a fx5 if its to polish the water then your sumps not working right if its to add more flow then you you dont have the right flow going throw the sump

 

[DB junkie]

To each his own.....

I went with reactors for the simple fact that I plan on never needing to upgrade and I know once all my rays are full grown I may be hucking several pounds of food in there a couple times a day. I know my reactors will handle this.

If you have socks catching your dead bacteria somehow in the middle of all your scrubbies that's great... I couldn't figure out how to.

My Mazda 6 broke down in the middle of winter 3 states away from home with my newborn children in the back seat NOT gonna happen again.....

 

[brich999]

Lol and this is why I love mfk. Sump= mazda6. Bioreactor= shelby? Lol

 

[killerfahaka]

"My Mazda 6 broke down in the middle of winter 3 states away from home with my newborn children in the back seat NOT gonna happen again....."


love it...

 

[yesjenks]

May seem like a silly question (I'm new here), do any of you run carbon in your sumps on a ray tank?

Don't mean to high jack the thread.