Looking for Stingray tank filter advice

[Just Toby]

Don't take it personally or negatively, the forum is a collection of peoples thoughts and inputs and my comments are meant to help. As I said, it was only my opinion that you are highly stocked.

There is no reason for any of them not to make it to full size.

I think you are well on the way to the solution and do not forget that you simply need a large surface area for bacteria, how you do it is up to you and there is not a wrong answer.

You can improve the filter by adding some airstones in the bottom to help feed the bactria with oxygen and agitate the media, this could signicantly reduce the area needed as long as reliable.

I would then focus my attention on making large water changes simple to do as these will be the life blood of the system, if you make them easy then it takes the ball ache out of the job thus making them more regular and less likely to slip. (i.e. tap inlet or auto real hose near the tank and an easy route to waste)

 

[Just Toby]

Don't take it personally or negatively, the forum is a collection of peoples thoughts and inputs and my comments are meant to help. As I said, it was only my opinion that you are highly stocked.

There is no reason for any of them not to make it to full size.

I think you are well on the way to the solution and do not forget that you simply need a large surface area for bacteria, how you do it is up to you and there is not a wrong answer.

You can improve the filter by adding some airstones in the bottom to help feed the bactria with oxygen and agitate the media, this could signicantly reduce the area needed as long as reliable.

I would then focus my attention on making large water changes simple to do as these will be the life blood of the system, if you make them easy then it takes the ball ache out of the job thus making them more regular and less likely to slip. (i.e. tap inlet or auto real hose near the tank and an easy route to waste)

 

[DB junkie]

I understand Toby. Maybe I'm not being specific enough and that is some of the confusion. I meant some of them may not even make it into the big tank becasue they may not outgrow the current tank they are in before I upgrade again. Given how aggressive the adults are at feeding time I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping them all together. By the time the little ones are big enough to keep with the big ones I may have a house bought.

You're right, there's no reason they shouldn't make it to full size. I'd be worried about cramming 9 Motoros or 9 Leos or 9 of any of the larger species in a 10x4, but I have Marbles. They don't exactly get huge. My 13 year old 15-16 inch male kinda leads me to believe they stay smaller then many species of rays.

Waterchange aspect is covered. I've kept rays for a while now. I'm pretty familiar with drip systems. I ran around 200 gallons of new water a day through my old pond back when I lived in my PH hell house (8.6+). I've also been playing around with plant filters and IF they are not doing thier job I'll simply turn the drip systeem up.

I've been aerating bio since the current filter's conception several years ago.

IF a 10x4 footprint is to small for what I have currently then great.... Nice to know it now while I can still change it.

I'm doing nothing more then trying to improve on what I have cause I feel there's a LOT of room for improvement. All I want is a budget filtration system that I can pick apart and NOT find any real improvements I could make to it. I want to take a little break from worrying about what I could be doing to improve things. I want peace of mind after I'm done building.

 

[Tor-Eriik]

I follow this thread with big eyes as im going to build something between 500-1000 gallon tank in the future, and i dont wanna make the mistakes your trying to avoid dbjunkie, nice thread.. Photos tell more than 1000 words people, atleast for me, as im not into the technical english talk(Im from Norway). Im thinking of a Big Fluidized bed filter aside of a desent sump + plants.

 

[Just Toby]

You are right about the Marbles but I think your marble must be a male at that size, I am expecting my female to get bigger than that although it would be good if she does not.

I get your other points

 

[DB junkie]

Yes the 13 year old is a male..... The biggest female is allready 20" and is probobly 5 years younger. I will be very suprised if I'm able to get her past the 2' mark.

I'd love to post a bunch of pics, BUT without a plan there's no attack. Without an attack there's no victory. No plan means no progress, and of course results in no pics.

I'm glad there's a few people following and contributing. I appreciate that.

Maybe I should post up some pics of exactly what it is I have to work with at the moment, the space I have to use, and the filtration system currently being used and the flaws I've found with it.

I'll be the first to admit that considering the amount of $ spent on livestock I should be ashamed of what I rely on for filtration. I believe my fish deserve much better.

My main stumbling block is simple as this..... IS vortex/settling chambers feasable on a ray tank or do I just forget the whole idea? My gut feeling is that it is gonna take a long time to perfect the idea, mainly because I am having so much trouble finding reliable information in regards to this kind of filtration on a tank so small and limited on space. Could it work? I'm sure. But it may take months to get the bugs worked out. Might just have to put that settling/vortex plan on hold and do some sock chambers, to submerged media sump with a branch off to a reactor then finish at a planted sump.

 

[Just Toby]

I think you could get the vortex to work but if you have a filter sock they seem to catch the worst stuff and then it's just down to the bio work.

I can see the benefit of the vortex though.

 

[DB junkie]

I think you could get the vortex to work but if you have a filter sock they seem to catch the worst stuff and then it's just down to the bio work.

I can see the benefit of the vortex though.

Believe me.... IF I can find a way around spraying myself in the face with fish poop propelled by a pressure washer for several hours while washing media I'd love to find one. In the winter I fire my pressure washer up, jump in the shower and blast myself in the face with fish poop. Not a good time.

I know a settling/vortex chamber isn't going to take the place of socks, BUT IF I can cut down on the washings by sending most of the big poop down the drain with a crack of a valve daily on the bottom of a settling chamber I'd much rather go that route then rely entirely on mechanical media physically removing the poop. I think the less poop that ever even contacts the mechanical media the better off you are. Even if the settling/vortex chamber only removes 1/3 of the solid waste, that's still 1/3 longer in the time span between dreaded media washings.

My reason for asking about this style of filtration and assuming it either doesn't work or is flawed is becasue it seems absolutely rediculous NOT to be using this filtration method. Seems silly to me to have the power to put poop down a drain with opening a valve rather then manually removing it, and NOT doing it.

So either it doesn't work, takes up too much room, or we just haven't evolved enough to recognize the benefit, OR too scared to stray from what we know works.

 

[wing888]

I've been looking into one of these, don't know if any one have experience of these?


http://www.dankoi.com/Multi-Cyclone-Solids-Remover/Multi-Cyclone-Solids-Remover-p-1367.html


Looks good and I'm looking into putting in one before my bead filter.

 

[skynoch]

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 would also go this way for what you had or something similar. I would use the drums over the tanks because you would be able to use 7" x 32" filter socks which are more common and cheaper and would also last longer.