? for those of you using ceramic rings for your ray tanks

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DB junkie

DB junkie

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Jan 27, 2007
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I was curious how you guys using ceramic rings as bio for your rays gauge how much is needed???

Can you tell me how much rings you have for how many rays? Is there a rough calculation of any sort?

A lb/10 gallons gonna surfice for heavily stocked ray tanks?

Thanks guys....... Still pulling my hair out trying to figure out filtration for my big tank. :irked:
 
To be honest i never calculated anything..:screwy: I just knew having rays i'd need loads of bio so i loaded up.. Not to mention i also run a FB300 Fluidized Bed Filter in my sump also..
I have 2x FX5's with rings in all 3 trays, and also 10-15 gallons of rings in my sump.
 
Just Toby;4970827; said:
+1 on above

Just add as much bio media as you can cram in.
Click to expand...

I've got a lot of room. Cost is the prohibitive factor here.....

I guess I should just throw the whole planning thing out the window try to do it right the first time and the whole opinion/advice thing's been a joke.

Guess I'll just build/buy now and ask questions later. :confused:
 
Sorry, I did not mean to sound flippant.

We all know that rays need a lot of biological filtration and ceramic rings are pretty good but expensive. I do not think you will find a calc and manufacturers will make massive claims but add that you need to buy as much product as possible.


Therefore I adapt my answer, given the extra info of cost, to buy as much as you can fit and afford to do so. You might want to look at k1 as a bulking out addition as it is pretty good & they use it for big koi filters and its not expensive. I like ceramics and use them in my filters but it would cost over £1000 to fill my sump with it.

I think a bucket full would do a wonderful job and just rinse it out in tank water every 6 months....I do pretty much the same.


I hope I did not offend or annoy:D
 
i'm not stingray people.. but i wanna be.. lol. i watch this forum because i love the pics of the rays and i learn as i go along. and one of these days i may actually end up with rays.. ya never know.

but i know a little about bio-filtration. i don't think anyone can answer your question DB. in my 2 FX5's i have the top two baskets filled with ceramic rings. and it's ENOUGH for the bio-load in my tank. it could be more than i need, but as long as my ammonia and nitrite stay at zero and my nitrates stay above zero i have enough bio-filtration.

since rays are poopy monsters, my best guess would be to double that to start.. each of the FX5 trays holds about a 1/2 gallon bucket of ceramic rings.. so figure about a 3 gallon bucket of ceramic rings to start.. and then buy more if you feel the need.

or if after the water is cycled properly and the rays are in the tank and you are still getting ammonia readings and are having to do large water changes to keep the ammonia under control. then you need to add more ceramic rings. at this point, if it was me, i would put another 3 gallon bucket of rings in.. or i would buy 10 gallons of bio-balls to add to the bio-filtration.

that is the best advise i can offer as far as knowing how much bio-filtration. i don't know if that helps. or if you think i'm just brushing you off also. i doubt anyone can give you specific amounts, and with rays i don't think minimums are the way to go.
 
I agree with above but bacteria does adjust to the bio load...a white cloud mountain minnow would cause low colonisation on one tray of rings but 4 full grown rays would cause total crowding on the same area.


Bacteria adapts to the space given, we only run in to trouble where the space is 100% saturated By bacteria with bio load in excess of what it can handle or there is not enough available oxygen to support the bacteria. Therefore an excess of media and good flow / oxygen exchange allows sufficient bacteria to multiply to accept the bio load.

Your post is 100% correct though IMO
 
There has to be a point where you're wasting money though......

K1 is sold by amount of food fed/day. You'd think the people making the rings would have similar ways of suggesting the needed amount. Just wanted to get roughly half what I need in rings as there will be K1 in the system as well.

FX5 talk doesn't help any.... lol. I'm cluelesss about the size of thier media trays. Never ran one, have no intentions of ever running one.
 
no add as many as possible i like using them.

their also are much better bio media you can use that has alot higher surface areas though.much more expensive but maybe worth the investment
 
well with my total 350gallonage i use 10lbs of extra large rings, but could use 10more lbs lol dont know about how much one would know...
 
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