Since Stingrays are heavy eaters and produce a lot of waste, I’m debating between a continuous drip system (30% daily change) or just running a massive 100-gallon sump with K1 moving bed media. For those keeping multiple rays in a large footprint tank, which method have you found more stable for keeping Nitrates consistently below 10ppm?
Managing high Bio-load: Drip system vs. Massive Sump for rays?
- Thread starter marinkitagawa
- Start date
The moving bed filter will help with Nitrites but not much with Nitrates.
The biological process produces nitrate as the end product. That means the K1 produces, not removes, nitrate.
I have twin joined 40gal sumps with wet dry towers and bioballs on my 500gal 10’x3’ footprint. When I had my group of 4 well fed adult rays I was doing a single 450gal/week to keep my nitrates around 20-30. Part of my challenge is our source water has 10ppm of nitrates present.
Others here who have kept rays long term plumbed in a continuous drip change system to their set ups. The clear benefit of a drip is, once you are familiar with the stable bioload of your system, you can dial in the daily volume to target a specific nitrate number.
Do you have rays already or planning phase?
What is the footprint of your tank?
What type of rats are you keeping?
I sold my group last year. Here’s a vid;
I have twin joined 40gal sumps with wet dry towers and bioballs on my 500gal 10’x3’ footprint. When I had my group of 4 well fed adult rays I was doing a single 450gal/week to keep my nitrates around 20-30. Part of my challenge is our source water has 10ppm of nitrates present.
Others here who have kept rays long term plumbed in a continuous drip change system to their set ups. The clear benefit of a drip is, once you are familiar with the stable bioload of your system, you can dial in the daily volume to target a specific nitrate number.
Do you have rays already or planning phase?
What is the footprint of your tank?
What type of rats are you keeping?
I sold my group last year. Here’s a vid;
Both… 100 gallon is not a massive sump sadly.. when i kept rays in a 500g i had dual sumps of 90 and 55 gal and dripped as much as 10 gallons an hour into the system at times. Average of 6-8gph. There were 3-4 rays in the tank. My nitrates were set between 10-20ppm. The drip amounts depend on ur stocks and bio. My “general” rule of thumb is around 1 gph per 100 gallons for starters then go up or down from there through water testing and stock/bio load.
Agree with both a massive sump and a drip system. Something to consider is adding terrestrial plants like Pothos and Monstera to the tank and/or sump to consume nitrogenous waste. Terrestrial plants will consume ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate, depending on what's available.
My fishroom is on a (semi-) automated drip system: basically I turn the water on and drip water into all of the tanks (in a zone) for as long as I like (usually 10-15 minutes). Water overflows into a central drain and out into my yard / garden. In addition to daily drip water changes, for large and heavily stocked tanks, when I have some extra time, I just add some dechlor and turn on a hose for as long as I like to further dilute nitrates.
My fishroom is on a (semi-) automated drip system: basically I turn the water on and drip water into all of the tanks (in a zone) for as long as I like (usually 10-15 minutes). Water overflows into a central drain and out into my yard / garden. In addition to daily drip water changes, for large and heavily stocked tanks, when I have some extra time, I just add some dechlor and turn on a hose for as long as I like to further dilute nitrates.