Ray Filtration Question

[tanglovers]

Hi All,

I have been fascinated with freshwater rays for a few years now. I am a big saltwater enthusiast and maintain a very large reef system currently that comprises of mostly SPS corals. I also am a clownfish breeder as well so very familiar with various filtration setups and the importance of water changes

I am at the beginning stages of potentially doin a ray setup. I am thinking about doing a large foot print but fairly short.

1) How tall of a tank would you recommend? I am thinking in the 14-16" range.

Next onto the filtration. What would be the best possible filtration for a ray system? Are canister filters preferred to wet drys? In my saltwater setups I do large sumps with protein skimmers, obviously these are not used in freshwater. If a wetdry filter, any rough idea how many bioballs should be utilized? I would not want any hang on back equipment and would plan on running a sump to keep the display tank clean looking.

Any suggestions would be great.

Scott

 

[killarbb]

DIY wet dry, and forget the bio balls, use pot scrubbies

 

[tanglovers]

Good to know about the pot scrubbies.

Next question. How much volume (gallons) of wet dry media per gallon of system? For example lets say 10 gallons of wet/dry media (bioballs/pot scrubbies) would be adequate for how many gallons of system (200 gallon system)?

Also what do you think about UV sterilizers? Good idea to have?

Thanks!

 

[tanglovers]

Is there a general rule for how many gallons of wet dry media per gallons of system? For example somethi along the lines of 10 gallons of wet dry media for 200 gallons or something like that?

Also I have heard some good thins about UV Sterilizers. I imagine this would be an asset to a stingray setup?

 

[Nic]

tank should be 24" tall min.... as far as sumps ive done several wet drys but am now more partial to the submerged media sumps and filter socks... i recomend these over a wet dry.... i had i think like 20L of media when i shut my last system down... new one is planned on about 75lbs of media lol... more bio the better.... there is alot of debate on what is better this worked alot better for me... i increased my bio to 10x of what scrubbies or bio balls in a trickle system would ahve given me...

 

[DB junkie]

So am I understanding this correctly, submerged media is 10 times better than wet/dry media?

 

[Nic]

So am I understanding this correctly, submerged media is 10 times better than wet/dry media?

when i added up all the surface area i had it was almost 10x of what a trickle set up would have been... also the media can not dry out during a water change or power outage....just MO

 

[ShadowStryder]

when i added up all the surface area i had it was almost 10x of what a trickle set up would have been... also the media can not dry out during a water change or power outage....just MO

Is the difference between the two just that the Bio Media is submerged versus the water trickling through. Or is there more two iit.
The reason I ask is I am getting ready to set up one with a 55 as the sump and would like to know the difference.
Or if you can point me in the right direction for a read I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[Zoodiver]

I prefer submerged bio media if at all possible.

 

[DB junkie]

I still don't understand how submerged can have 10 times the surface area of a wet dry. Can we have some elaboration on this? I'm not partial to one way over the other, but 10 times is a significant advantage that I'd really like to be able to understand and justify.

Nic, help us understand...