Aquaripure Flter Question
- Thread starter ZZ5150
- Start date
All in all if u keep ur rays in a 125G with the best pumps it may work at first..
But as they size up.. and if u have more den 4 rays in a tank..
U r asking for trouble.. Key point is the volume of water..
They have high metabolic rates and will discharge a ton of ammonia before u know it..
So consider the size of the tank first.. as long as u get a good filtration for bio & mechanical..
I think u r on the safe side.. Hope this helps..
But as they size up.. and if u have more den 4 rays in a tank..
U r asking for trouble.. Key point is the volume of water..
They have high metabolic rates and will discharge a ton of ammonia before u know it..
So consider the size of the tank first.. as long as u get a good filtration for bio & mechanical..
I think u r on the safe side.. Hope this helps..
I use one and it's the only biological filter in my tank. I have 2 hystrix and a few other fish in the tank. The only other filters in the tank are purely mechanical: the floss pad in the first chamber where the overflow is and a sponge on the mag pump input. I have actually cycled this tank with Aquaripure and never had any issues with ammonia or nitrites. So I can vouch that the filter works as well or better than any other bio filter I have used in the past (bio-balls and canisters). Both the balls and canisters turn into nitrate factories pretty quickly and this is once reason why I'm not using either anymore.
Nitrates were a different issue. For whatever reason I had a lot of issues with getting the filter to lower nitrates. I can't say that it didn't work completely, but it wasn't 0. In fact I could maintain the nitrate level at 20 with monthly water changes - not too bad, but again far from 0. The owner of aquaripure was extremely helpful and have been working with me diligently through this whole process, however my tank seems to be different from most others he has worked with; probably because of the rays.
I started reading about the denitrification process starting with inorganic chemistry and moving into microbiology and finally got it to remove nitrates consistently. At this point I'm 3 weeks into my water change schedule and the nitrates are about 10 and falling. Basically, since denitrifying bacteria prospers under anoxic conditions, I had to maintain a specific ORP range of the effluent. That value is about -170 to -250mv and I balance feeding and flow to maintain that value. Anything higher than -170mv and there is too much oxygen in the water and bacteria dies, anything higher than -250mv and the filter starts producing excessive amounts of H2S. There is always some H2S in the effluent (usually under 1PPM), but I have never registered any in the tank.
I have taken a lot of time to validate that this thing works, even if measuring hourly.
Nitrates were a different issue. For whatever reason I had a lot of issues with getting the filter to lower nitrates. I can't say that it didn't work completely, but it wasn't 0. In fact I could maintain the nitrate level at 20 with monthly water changes - not too bad, but again far from 0. The owner of aquaripure was extremely helpful and have been working with me diligently through this whole process, however my tank seems to be different from most others he has worked with; probably because of the rays.
I started reading about the denitrification process starting with inorganic chemistry and moving into microbiology and finally got it to remove nitrates consistently. At this point I'm 3 weeks into my water change schedule and the nitrates are about 10 and falling. Basically, since denitrifying bacteria prospers under anoxic conditions, I had to maintain a specific ORP range of the effluent. That value is about -170 to -250mv and I balance feeding and flow to maintain that value. Anything higher than -170mv and there is too much oxygen in the water and bacteria dies, anything higher than -250mv and the filter starts producing excessive amounts of H2S. There is always some H2S in the effluent (usually under 1PPM), but I have never registered any in the tank.
I have taken a lot of time to validate that this thing works, even if measuring hourly.
As per the post above, I tried vodka dosing a nitrate reactor, whilst I got the effluent to zero nitrate I found it too unreliable so I changed to a 30 gal per day timed drip to waste and added pothos, I now keep my nitrates below 20ppm and the tank is simple...this only works if you have an overflow to drain.
I agree that carbon based filters are PITA if operated in manual mode. You can automate the whole thing, but it's not cheap. As far as autodrip, it doesn't work for everyone either. My tap water for instance contains nitrates in excess of what I have in the tank and I have problems with dripping RO/DI water. It took me a while to get the right mix of buffers to get the same ph and Kh everytime in my 30G water change bucket. It's close to impossible to match the same type of precision with drip as it's a product of evaporated and removed water - at least I don't feel comfortable with this process.
I'm not married to either approach, but to me it's easier to inject nutrient, then try to fine tune and calculate the buffering capacity of varying degrees of evaporated and replaced water, but it's a personal opinion.
I'm not married to either approach, but to me it's easier to inject nutrient, then try to fine tune and calculate the buffering capacity of varying degrees of evaporated and replaced water, but it's a personal opinion.
What do i need to run in my Fx5 with an aquaripure large filter. I have a 180gal with a 14" silver aro, 2- 8" peacock bass, a 6" lenticulata pike, and a 6" motoro. JUST A GROWOUT