? for those of you using ceramic rings for your ray tanks
- Thread starter DB junkie
- Start date
DB junkie;4971806; said:
my frame of reference was my FX5's and/OR a bucket. that is what i have, that is what i can relate to. sumps come in all different sizes, and shapes, so you can't say "i put 10 of these in here and it's good".
but if you're not actually asking a question and looking for someone to agree with what you've already decided to do then we are all wasting our time.
Morledzep;4972402; said:
Like I said, K1 is sold based on amounts of food fed. I can't seem to find any similar specs from any of the ring manufacturers. I figured with all the ring users out there maybe someone has run across this before when building thier filtration. I can say I put 3 ft2 of K1 in a sump of any shape and size. Rings are sold by the lb. Maybe it takes 20lbs of rings/lb fed. Maybe more, maybe less. That is why I have asked for advice in this matter.
sponger_2;4972196; said:
I've only seen Kaldness sold by the cubic foot. I'm going to do ceramic rings for several reasons. The sump will be empty due to the lower flowrates required by bio reactors, therefore the reactor will be driven by a smaller pump in the sump. IF I have rings in the sump I can easily transfer the rings to other filters to seed new tanks, Rings will be much easier to support in the event of a power outtage. I already have 12v water pumps.
I'd NEVER put anything in the overflows. It seems silly to me to have a bunch of bio filtration in front of mechanical. That stuff would be filled with crap in a couple weeks. I can't stand how much crap accumulates on bioballs/scrubbies that are in a sump AFTER mechanical, though most is just broken down plant matter, but still, conventional sumps are a pain to pull everything apart and clean. With bags of rings it would be easy to grab one and rinse it or toss it in the back of an ac 110.
DB junkie;4970884; said: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.
No need to fill a sump up all in one go
My sump is 6x2x2 I just put all the media I had in the sump then added more when I had some spare cash and time
I think k1 being sold based on feeds per day is just good marketing for people that want a formulae to work from. Different fish excrete different amounts of waste. K1, I believe was brought to the Market for koi keepers which are cold water and have a totally different bio load output and also the bacteria behave very differently in. A cold climate pond.
Bacteria will be effective at different amounts based on variations of ph...low ph, lower activity, higher temps can have greater activity but then the ability for oxygen to dissolve depletes as the temp rises, greater aeration will support more activity as does a moving bed of k1, older blocked O2 will also have a different effectiveness therefore a formulae can only be VERY loose at best.
You do not seem to want to accept that there is no guideline on ceramic rings despite what we are telling you. My advice (use it if you wish) is to bung as much k1 and or ceramic rings as you can afford or have room for...too much is always best as there is room for redundancy and room for increase as the rays grow and exert more bio load.
Bacteria will be effective at different amounts based on variations of ph...low ph, lower activity, higher temps can have greater activity but then the ability for oxygen to dissolve depletes as the temp rises, greater aeration will support more activity as does a moving bed of k1, older blocked O2 will also have a different effectiveness therefore a formulae can only be VERY loose at best.
You do not seem to want to accept that there is no guideline on ceramic rings despite what we are telling you. My advice (use it if you wish) is to bung as much k1 and or ceramic rings as you can afford or have room for...too much is always best as there is room for redundancy and room for increase as the rays grow and exert more bio load.
Just Toby;4973522; said:
All I was asking for is exactly what the title says......
An example would be-
I have 6 rays around a foot in a 300 gallon tank. I use 40 lbs of rings.
I was simply looking for examples of what people are using. I don't know how getting answers like this turned into pulling teeth but it seems now I am being accused multiple times of not wanting to listen to anyone when all I asked is a simple question that no one wants to answer or provide examples of thier setups
Mods feel free to close this as it seems the horse that is being beaten is now mush.
At this point I'll just build what I feel is adequate and we'll leave it at that. I'll keep what I build a secret so that way the next guy wondering about this topic can go through all this fun. Wondering is always better then knowing if enough is enough, that way enough is never enough.
I'll officially quit asking about filtration now.....
I don't know much about the K1 media, but I do know it's surface area isn't that great. It has 260 sqft of exposed surface area per cubic foot of media. Regular bio balls are at about 100 sqft, and pot scrubbers are at 370. Another thing, K1 is buoyant, and needs to be continuously agitated and kept in motion for biological filtration. That would make for a very loud sump!
Ceramic is my choice. 1 liter of Seachem Matrix for example, has the surface area of 170 liters of bio balls! Me personally, I had about 50-60lbs of generic rings in my 400g. This tank housed a lot of very large cichla and other fish. Never saw one bit of ammonia. Did I have enough rings? Yes, definitely. Did I have too many? Maybe, but it's not easy to tell unless you start taking media out and test your water levels daily.
Ceramic is my choice. 1 liter of Seachem Matrix for example, has the surface area of 170 liters of bio balls! Me personally, I had about 50-60lbs of generic rings in my 400g. This tank housed a lot of very large cichla and other fish. Never saw one bit of ammonia. Did I have enough rings? Yes, definitely. Did I have too many? Maybe, but it's not easy to tell unless you start taking media out and test your water levels daily.
