My mind is always open.... Problem I have is its full. So when I leave it open I'm prone to spilling and dumping. Many thoughts must be kept away from open flames - they seem to just keep blowing up in my face......Keep an open mind!
Already am stocked pretty low on the long term tanks.... Growouts are stocked a little heavier but that's cause they're so small.... Growout is 10 rays from 5 to 9" spread between a 340 and 370 with 350 gallons worth of tanks used as the filtration. My pond is probably around 1600 gallons. There's 4 rays in it.... The 1K gallon rack system has 5 pups and 3 adults.Don't get discouraged. As you know rays waste production is normal fish on steroids lol. The key point brought up earlier is finding a balance or sweet spot.
There is more to it than this but big part of achieving what Ken's doing is proper sizing of bio filter to load.
If surface area is undersized and load too high
biofilm can grow overly thick creating true anaerobic area (smelly) which can lead to problems
If surface area is oversized and load too low
not enough oxygen demand to create anoxic areaFor this reason, it makes sense that raykeepers choose to oversize bio to provide adequate surface area as stock grows.
Stocking density is also something to really think about. The more densely stocked less margin for error, easier to upset balance, and problems snowball more rapidly. Just because rays have the space to move around freely/comfortably may not mean its ideal to have 4 rays in a 500g tank. I only have 6 rays in my 2,000gal system.
With rays this could require something like smaller feeding sessions more frequently spread throughout the day. To minimize spikes during feeding time.
Restrictor plates are for Nascar..... I thought here at MFK the motto was minimum compromise maximum performance.....
I'm here looking for ideas to improve my filtration.... I understand there's different strokes for different folks and everyones situation is different, but I'm simply searching for 1 simple thing...... Improvement. I'll take ANY ideas that could save me mistakes, OR I'll just make them myself and try to learn from them but I'm not interested in calling it "good enough" or throttling it back in any way.....
"I'm gonna give er all she's got captian, till I ain't gots no mooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre" (rays)