Drip system questions

[Firemedic1633]

A little back story first....I recently had a new 350 gallon setup with sump and everything built. I ended up breaking down my 220 and moving the fish to the new tank..I kept as much water as I could but the water was all I brought over to the new tank. I also purchased the tetra live bacteria to be safe to make sure adding the tons of new water wouldn't start a cycle over. The fish and rays have been fine and it's been almost 2 months. The media though in the sump was brand new on account of my last tank was ran with canister filters and they were sold with the 220.
I plan on setting up a continuous drip system that runs through an RO system and drips 40gallons per day.
My question is this....how long should I wait to install the drip system? I'm concerned not enough bacteria is built up in the media to handle the constant changing of water.
Also I have a pretty heavy bio load with rays/ datnoids/SD. Is 40 gpd enough or to much to change? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[tomojsg]

you can set up the r/o and drip once the tank is fully cycled.
check your water parameters every other day and once it's
cycled you can go ahead and install the system. i would
increase the gpd to 50g gpd for a complete turn over rate
of the tank per week/7 days but if you plan on doing wc on
top of the 40gpd it should be fine.

 

[Fish Eat Fish]

^^^ correct

Once your params are good and stable you are ready to go.

 

[SandNukka15]

I dont trust tetra brand....i would get seachem stability ....u add that in everyday for a week.....i would use the drip and stability just add a little extra it wont harm the fish....

Ive used this meathod when i set up my 600 and 270s on drips

 

[JK47]

you can set up the r/o and drip once the tank is fully cycled.
check your water parameters every other day and once it's
cycled you can go ahead and install the system. i would
increase the gpd to 50g gpd for a complete turn over rate
of the tank per week/7 days but if you plan on doing wc on
top of the 40gpd it should be fine.

We should be careful suggesting an RO drip to members. RO is not needed for drip and if one were to run an RO drip only it would kill off their stock. Chlorine and chlorimine removal are very different than reverse osmosis.

 

[Woefulrelic]

If your total system is 350 gallons you will be changing around 50% of the old volume to new water a week if the system is set up well. If the sump adds more volume then it may be less sufficient. I would say if you are eliminating water changes you would want to drip more. I have a similar volume and drip 72 gallons a day currently, and am equipped to double that if and when needed. You can play with this drip calc if you want to get some rough numbers. http://www.angelfish.net/DripSystemcalc.php

RO is unnecessary for this application, a HMA filter would be a better fit. http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ would be the place I'd start. I have well water so I don't have a need to prefilter my water, but other guys on here can help more. I've also heard filter guys are very easy to talk with, they would be a very solid source for information.

As for when to install it, I probably wouldn't wait.

 

[monkeybike]

We should be careful suggesting an RO drip to members. RO is not needed for drip and if one were to run an RO drip only it would kill off their stock. Chlorine and chlorimine removal are very different than reverse osmosis.

I too, thought RO is a bad choice. I just run the filter guys carbon drip 40.

 

[tomojsg]

We should be careful suggesting an RO drip to members. RO is not needed for drip and if one were to run an RO drip only it would kill off their stock. Chlorine and chlorimine removal are very different than reverse osmosis.

he said hes setting up the drip through the r/o i didn suggest it lol xD

 

[Firemedic1633]

I said RO but it's the carbon drip 40 from the filter guys...I purchased everything and have it waiting.. as far as the live bacteria...I used that Tetra and it seemed to work good bc the fish and rays have been fine

 

[SandNukka15]

When u said RO i figured u were talking about a carbon filter but yes a carbon filter is what u need.

I got mine from them as well

Like the guys said i would increase the drip unless u actually plan on doing water changes manually as well......im running the same 40gpd drip in a 270 about 240 gallons of water filled and ill be increasing my drip per day as well once stock grows.....

All depends on stock