Looking for Stingray tank filter advice

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DB junkie

DB junkie

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Jan 27, 2007
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Would like to hear some advice from the experienced keepers in regards to filtration for a bunch of rays......

Many of you know I aquired a decent sized tanks a couple of years ago and now that I'm finally done with the movin process of my crap and my girl's crap it's getting time to put ducks in a row to set this thing up.

The tank is 10X4X2.5. I have like 2' under the stand. IF the thing wasn't going into a basement and didn't have a ginormous canopy on it I could have more room but I will have litterally a couple inches between the top of the canopy and the joists. However I do have a room (6X10) that I can dedicate to filtration.

Here's the kicker..... I fix cars for a living. I'm far from rich, nor do I have any desire to buy turn key filtration. Half the fun for me is building my own so I will be building this filtration system.

My current Marble pond filtration is a 150 gallon rubbermaid tub with (2) 1'x2'x3' tall bio towers filled with pot scrubbies..... All that is free game on this system.

Here's what I've aquired so far to use in the system....... (5) 55 gallon acrylic tanks, and 4 brand new plastic 55 gallon drums. I also have a 8x2x2 acrylic tank that I could use as the main sump but am torn between sump for big tank or a much needed upgrade for "Mr Nibblez" my 3' Hawaii Dragon.

My goal is obviously to handle the bio load of the tank most importantly, but secondly I would like to be able to easily change and clean the mechanical media as I find this to be one of the most important parts of the filtration system. IF it's a pain to change then it doesn't get done nearly as often as it would if I could swap it in a few minutes and clean it in less then a couple hours. My current system uses 3 grades of pad and requires me to powerwash for over an hour to clean. Really hate flippin filter socks inside out to clean as those are ran on my growout tanks. Was thinking the polyweld filter socks would be much easier to clean.

I want to keep the cost of building the entire system under 4 digits and I don't have a pump yet.

Planning on keeping 9 rays in this thing along with a few fish.

Let's hear what you guys would do......

I have a rough idea on what I'd like to do but as I've found over the last several years whatever I build I find flaws with in no time. I'm sick of not doing it right the 1st time so that's why I'm asking for advice.... Maybe several minds working together can build something that would actually be difficult to improve.

Thanks you in advance to those offering advice, I really appreciate it as I've been pulling my hair out for several months trying to figure out a system I could call myself happy with and I'm at my wits end. Time is running out, I'm sick of the $62/mo I've been paying for storage and now that I have a house big enough for the tank there is no excuse why it shouldn't be filled with water..... Except that I can't make up my mind on filtration.
 
u ever thought about the bio reactor?

my tank has been zero maintenence since the day i set up the bio reactor. all i have to do is swap out my filterpadding about once every 5 days. i just throw out the padding after every use. i use a roll about every 6 months (about $80 bucks a roll). the rest takes care of its self... every time i check my reactor (about every 3 months) everything is sparkleing clean

on my insane sized tank ill be getting in the future, i will be doing the exact same setup just on a larger scale. i dont think there is any easyier way to do it
 
vamptrev;4790363; said:
u ever thought about the bio reactor?

my tank has been zero maintenence since the day i set up the bio reactor. all i have to do is swap out my filterpadding about once every 5 days. i just throw out the padding after every use. i use a roll about every 6 months (about $80 bucks a roll). the rest takes care of its self... every time i check my reactor (about every 3 months) everything is sparkleing clean

on my insane sized tank ill be getting in the future, i will be doing the exact same setup just on a larger scale. i dont think there is any easyier way to do it
Click to expand...

Allready planning on one. One of the 55 gallon drums will get 4 cubic feet of Kaldness.... Figure I don't plan on feeding anymore then 5 lbs/day so that should cover this "growwout" tank. Someday when I own a house I'lll build a real tank.

Was also planning on using the acrylic 55s as mechanical filter heads.... Half dozen socks per tank, gradually go smaller microns per tank.

Figured use 1 55 for bio rings, and maybe a 55 drum for jap mat.

Also planning on a big HPS fed planted pond.

That might do it...... :ROFL:

:screwy:
 
Hey Allan I talked to Trevor (vamptrev) about my plans for my DIY bio reactor is using another 5 gallon bucket. I based it off of my saltwater bio pellet reactor and his design. I also would like to hear your thoughts and anyone elses. First I would run a tube down the middle with water exits at the bottem of the tube. I also would like to run it with a 500-700 gph pump. Too big too small? Then I would like to place a tray about a inch off of the bottem of the bucket. With drilled holes and I would place three circle airator disks under the tray with cut outs for them to fit flush. Then with the drain or return, I would just place another piece of pvc tubing and use gravity to drain it back into my sump. I think this plan sounds great and will be efficient. With a powerful air pump feeding those airator discs I think the bio pellets should tumble very well. Just a thought about a cheap small bio pellet reactor that should fit great under your tank.

Trevor
 
That is a big tank but really small for 9 full grown rays in my opinion. My next tank will be 8x4x2 just for a pearl and a marble....


Many people seem to keep a much higher density than me but that will need a huge food budget let alone a brilliant filter and a lot of water changes.

Ask t1 how much he spends per month on food for his 1000gal tank, also ask him the energy costs....
 
I'm using a pool sand filter for mechanical and a 55 gallon garbage can (heavy duty) bio reactor with 4 cubic feet of kaldness and have no issues with bio in my 2200 gallon tank that houses 12 full grown rays. All I do is backwash the sand filter once a day and like trev said the bioreactor is sparkling clean. I do think I will add a sock filter to the system so I can filter even further down for when I take pictures. My tank is 8' deep and with the current setup I still have no problems seeing to the back ( when I get off my but and clean the acrylic).
 
The current sizes are 20" 17" 15" 11" 10" (4) @ 8-9". They all might not even make it in there. I won't be renting forever. IF own a house and things change. I'll only be limited by what I can justify. I have never counted on this tank being the permenant home for all these rays. It will be a growout that hopefully lasts a year or 2.

Maybe I'll pull an epic fail on the filtration, kinda like this thread did. Maybe it'll work. Maybe I'm contemp[lating a different genre of filtration based on a lower flowrate providing a lower operating cost. Maybe there's so many "maybes" that I just confuse myself.

Time will tell. I may be forced to selll it all to come up with $ to buy a house...... Who knows.

This thread was supposed to be a collective brainstorm on what it would take to make it work. NOT will it work.
 
I would use the 55 gallon drums only, I have a vision of a 4 holes cut in the top of one drum that you could hang sock filters in with pvc drop pipes inside of each sock. I love sock filters over any other mechanical filter I have used. Connect this drum to the bottom side of the next drum where each drum has the inlet on the bottom side and the outlet about 6 inches from the top. All three of the drums can be setup bio reator style with the tops cut out. Use a nice size pump to feed the first drum and let the last drum flow back to the tank. The only problems would be sealing the pipe connections and raising the drums up on a platform so the water level in the drums matches the water level in the tank so nothing can overflow. If you could pull that off you could probably get by with monthly water changes! Well maybe not that long LOL!
 
I think use say 55 gallon acrylic tanks to put the socks in.... 1 tank for 200 micron socks (4-6 socks/tank), 1 tank for 100 micron socks, and a third tank for polishing with say polyfill.

I kinda wanted to save the drums for an attempt at vortex chambers. Use 1 for each of the 4 drains, then go to the sock chambers.
 
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