Stingray tank filter discussion

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
So anyone want to speculate on the overabundance of dead bio in hard to clean places being a breeding ground for bad bacteria????

Or do bacterial infections just randomly pop up on all ray keepers? OR are these things directly related?
 
do you have your scrubbies set up from the bottom or do they go all the way to the bottom? one thing i have been thinking to clean that dead area for me is that laundry snake thing i have been seeing so many commercials on that gets into the hard to reach places in your dryer vent to get the lent out.. slide it under it all and wet dry vac it out or even just use suction with the connection and no vac would work as well.
 
As long as detritus is not allowed to fill the spaces or pores of your media, 'bad' bacterial will not populate it. This is one reason why I really like fluidized beds. The constant air movement keeps the media in suspension and any dead beneficial bacteria will just sluff off and move along; later being picked up by your mechanical media again. The nice thing about having 'too much' surface area is that if your ammonia load grows, so does your bacteria! If you give it space to spread, it will. You already have mature media which essentially means you have seeded your media with the beneficial bacteria. It's much easier to establish new bacteria from previously established bio-media.
 
Good info here- thanks everyone. I think the detritus build up or dead area material is bad. In a marine tank this material is known to leach phosphates back into the tank and needs to be kept clean and vacuumed regularly. This would be the same for freshwater. A good way to monitor your bio filtration is by using submerged plant matter. I.E stick the roots of a pothos or ivy into the water column. They will take out excess nitrates/phosphates etc that leach back into the system. When the plants stop growing-you have reached equilibrium with your biofiltration.
 
My return pump is set up directly under my scrubbies so I can only imagine the area below the eggcrate they sit on (maybe 1.5"-2") has a fairly strong current and doesn't allow for much to settle. I think if anything the large amount of bio area if left uncleaned could lead to excess nitrates. I don't really see how any negative bacteria could colonize this area unless you are introducing them to the system in the first place.

I don't think you can ever have too much bio
 
Maybe I just have an over active imagination.....
 
Maybe a small tweek to your sump will keep the mulm from settling. It is my understanding that diffrent types of good bactieria prefer to inhabit diffrent typs of media so having a diverse filter system could be a good thing.

Good topic !
 
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