would a stingray be a nice addition?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
turkeyboy85;2157923; said:
you only want about an inch of sand covering the bottem.... if that.. if it is bigger then that rays cant sift through it enough to "clean" the tank. I have never had a amonia problem from not cleaning the sand, the rays seem to do a good enough job of stiring it up themselves but dont put more then an inch in
so what your saying is that the rays do enough with stirring it around that i dont have to worry about syphoning crap off the bottom of the tank? id probably do only a few bags of sand then, make a thin layer..... enough for some play room.
 
and by thin i mean about the thickness of a standard wooden pencil. whats that about a quarter inch or so. would that be enough?
 
exactly, most of the time the rays end up moving all the sand away from one edge of the tank from climbing walls but, I just put it back when i do a water change
 
turkeyboy85;2157941; said:
exactly, most of the time the rays end up moving all the sand away from one edge of the tank from climbing walls but, I just put it back when i do a water change
so about a quarter inch layer of sand would be good? id figure that theyd be able to stir that up.... and since they move alot i can see why there would not be much problem with that. but if what your saying means that i do not have to syphon stuff off the bottom of the tank i am completely sold lol. even the waste produced by the arowana and the rays? cuz isnt ammonia caused by waste in pockets of substrate?

arowana is plural here. there will be 3
 
You don't suck up that much sand. Just make circular motions with the hose and all the crap that's not sand will spiral up into the hose. Kinda hard to explain but if it's in front of you it's easy to figure out. Like mentioned don't put a lot in or the stuff will end up in the filters and you'll have to stir it up.
 
nitrofish1;2157949; said:
so about a quarter inch layer of sand would be good? id figure that theyd be able to stir that up.... and since they move alot i can see why there would not be much problem with that. but if what your saying means that i do not have to syphon stuff off the bottom of the tank i am completely sold lol. even the waste produced by the arowana and the rays? cuz isnt ammonia caused by waste in pockets of substrate?

arowana is plural here. there will be 3

depends on your filtration system, I have an overflow and a canister filter so anything down on the bottem the canister filter gets, anything that floats the overflow gets, im not saying you wont get some but in my experiance the rays do a good enough job that it cuts it down to a very miniminal amount
 
but im saying wouldnt the rays stir it up enough to where syphoning wouldnt be an issue? i mean i dont mind doing it, but if eliminated thatd be excellent. your sayin just stir up the sand suck up whats floating?
 
isnt in overflow just kinda like only a mechanical filtration system? to where it sucks floating stuff off the top?
 
basicly yea the overflow brings water down into my sump, goes through the media and then gets pumped back into the tank on the other end
 
You WANT to siphon out waste. You get an overabundance in your filtration system and it becomes a nitrate factory. It is much better to clean heavy settled waste out with a siphon than to have it end up in the bio if the mechanical plugs and channels. This way it's harder to put off waterchanges too......if you can SEE the crap at the bottom of the tank. Don't get me wrong if you want to put crap in your filter you can.....I'de rather put my crap out in my beautiful grassy knoll. (The front yard via the siphon hose)
 
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