This should create some Chaos!
Manual water changes...either you love them or you despise them. I love it 99% of the time,except the 1 % when I am on holidays and need someone else to step in and do it.
Manual water changes are relaxing and the hands on keeps my equipment working and fish healthy. It's also less expensive and more reliable in my opinion because you actually take old water out and put new water in not mix new water with tank water and have to rely on filters keeping stuff from entering. I have no fancy things to filter this out,no fancy things to do that,no meters reading this..... Just a sump with media,uv sterilizer and manual water changes! My setup doesn't look like the Frankstein of filtration and hasn't done me wrong.
It's always been manual water changes and simple filtration for me and I have NEVER lost a stingray for mysterious reasons with this method. Pups or adults! I have lots of rays and currently stand at 14 with more on the way. I have only lost 3 pups due to the adults chewing on them before I could get to them,2 wild caughts died way back in the day that were basically dead when I got them and couldn't be saved and 2 cb juveniles died due to me overdosing on copper while treating wc big clown loaches as I had no safe med list for rays at the time. That's it that's all and I could explain every one. That was easy!
Nobody tells you or wants to tell you how many rays they have lost but I have seen,read on forums and know through other people that adult rays are being lost and even entire batches of pups being lost and the tanks are all on drips. Just coincidence? Probably not! Why do people want to over look the drips or maybe their overkill as maybe being the culprit? Maybe it's because they are so wound up in the convience part that they overlook what could be the simple reason for their mysterious ray deaths. If drips and all the contraptions that you have hooked up aren't the reason then why don't I lose rays mysteriously with simple filtration and manual water changes? Better fish keeper or Maybe it's because I pay more attention to my rays? Maybe ,maybe not. I know lots of ray keepers in my area and the majority of them are on drips or have been on drips in the past and they have all lost pups and adults for mysterious reasons. They blame the water quality coming in the house, parasites, breeding stress(maybe the odd time but that's usually neglect and not paying attention to get the ray moved or divided), even the food they fed gets blamed. But never have I heard someone say "Hey, maybe it's my drip and crazy frankenstein filtration". Keep it simple and you will be fine! KISS METHOD. Throw a pump in the tank(bigger the pump the faster the water change, I use a laguna 900) to remove the water and use a python to fill it back up, not long at all and no wasted water using the python to drain it. Make sure you use a water conditioner like seachem prime.
Almost forgot...Not to mention it's almost not fesible to do a drip system if you are putting your tanks in a finished basement. What happens when your tanks are no where near plumbing or drains? Who wants to spend the money to chop up their basement and buy equipment to run water to the tank and then run a drain line back to the laundy room. Drips=higher water bill(yes I have to pay for water ),higher powerbill(heaters run more unless you are using a mix valve),higher maintenance cost and it's also just one more thing that can break down,leak,flood your basement or maybe the reason why your rays are dying?
Do you DRIP WATER CHANGE your toilet?
No, you FLUSH it with new water.
To each his own but manual water changes and simple filtration for me. Tanks are cleaner,rays are healthy and breeding so something must be right with the KISS method.
Hey I can hear the crickets as my tanks are so quite!
