Hey all! So we used to have rays and discus a handful of years ago, and I spent a lot of time (and money...not sure which I spent more of
trying to keep the pH down and the water soft-ish (our water here is super hard). There's a lot that's changed in the fish hobby since we had them, and a lot of people doing DIY ponds/filters/etc that I had never heard of before (which I absolutely love)! I'm trying to take advantage of all this new knowledge and come up with a better way of doing things this time around. The tank that we used before (a 380 gallon) had a large sump, and I used some (a ton, lol) softener pillows in it, and had driftwood in the tank to help a little, too. But this time around I'm planning on doing a pond that'll be around 600-800 gallons, and will need a much larger filter (and probably something completely different, since it'll be on the floor and we won't have gravity working on our side).
Which leads me to my question! I'm wondering....with so many of you having gianormous ponds and tanks, (assuming some of you have hard water and high pH) how do you control that for your rays, especially with all the water changes that are needed? Any tricks you've come across, or products that you like or find helpful? Or do you find that with so many captive bred rays now that they have adjusted a bit to harder water? Once our rays were acclimated I always felt that they were pretty hardy, but with a water volume at least double what I'm used to working with, I want to be sure that I've got a game plan!
I don't have the rays yet (hoping Trev can help me out with that sooner than later
), and when I get the pups I'll be starting them out in a 'regular' type of aquarium to keep tabs on them for a bit...but I'll be starting the pond build asap (as soon as we finalize our plans for it), and I just want to be sure that the filter we end up using will suit our needs as best as it can before we build it, so we don't have to make any post build modifications. Not fun. 
Thanks so much for taking the time to read all that!
trying to keep the pH down and the water soft-ish (our water here is super hard). There's a lot that's changed in the fish hobby since we had them, and a lot of people doing DIY ponds/filters/etc that I had never heard of before (which I absolutely love)! I'm trying to take advantage of all this new knowledge and come up with a better way of doing things this time around. The tank that we used before (a 380 gallon) had a large sump, and I used some (a ton, lol) softener pillows in it, and had driftwood in the tank to help a little, too. But this time around I'm planning on doing a pond that'll be around 600-800 gallons, and will need a much larger filter (and probably something completely different, since it'll be on the floor and we won't have gravity working on our side). Which leads me to my question! I'm wondering....with so many of you having gianormous ponds and tanks, (assuming some of you have hard water and high pH) how do you control that for your rays, especially with all the water changes that are needed? Any tricks you've come across, or products that you like or find helpful? Or do you find that with so many captive bred rays now that they have adjusted a bit to harder water? Once our rays were acclimated I always felt that they were pretty hardy, but with a water volume at least double what I'm used to working with, I want to be sure that I've got a game plan!
I don't have the rays yet (hoping Trev can help me out with that sooner than later
), and when I get the pups I'll be starting them out in a 'regular' type of aquarium to keep tabs on them for a bit...but I'll be starting the pond build asap (as soon as we finalize our plans for it), and I just want to be sure that the filter we end up using will suit our needs as best as it can before we build it, so we don't have to make any post build modifications. Not fun. Thanks so much for taking the time to read all that!
