Filtering a Store
- Thread starter Vitaliy
- Start date
My point was really about UGFs vs HOB power filters. Evidently I didn't communicate it that well.
Several years ago someone came out with a product that stated you'd never have to change the water again. They gave away a tank and filter if you'd try it. I sat one up in a store. I HATED that tank.
Other than to say that fish develop a tolerance for lousy water over a period of time I have no explanation for the health of the fish at the dirty store. I do know that if you're bringing in new shipments regularly you'll have problems with water parameters that are out of whack. Eventually it'll bite them in the butt.
The speed of the turning biowheels isn't really important. Marineland says they should turn though. The garbage on the gravel eventually turns inert. It just looks terrible.
Several years ago someone came out with a product that stated you'd never have to change the water again. They gave away a tank and filter if you'd try it. I sat one up in a store. I HATED that tank.
Other than to say that fish develop a tolerance for lousy water over a period of time I have no explanation for the health of the fish at the dirty store. I do know that if you're bringing in new shipments regularly you'll have problems with water parameters that are out of whack. Eventually it'll bite them in the butt.
The speed of the turning biowheels isn't really important. Marineland says they should turn though. The garbage on the gravel eventually turns inert. It just looks terrible.
My friends LFS runs sumps on banks of tanks on every sump he also runs a UV I will try and get some pictures but not going over there till the end of the week then he runs a trickle filter and a FX% on the 12ft main tank that I have put on here before.
Does this mean you're a proponent of central systems? OR are you just offering to get drawings of the systems?
Up to the point of reading this thread, I was sold on one common filter system. Now I see the importance of separating the systems and of several isolated tanks entirely.
I have no problem with connected systems, we run about 150 tanks off of one 100 gallon bio ball chamber, 6 UV sterilizers, 2 pumps, and a sand bed. I think it works fine, you just have to be careful what is going on in the tanks and watch out for diseases.
Careful? Careful is what you tell your kid when you say don't run with scissors. You don't tell them to work with hazardous chemicals without protection of some sort.
I'm not saying that central systems don't work. I'm saying that it's not the best method for controlling the spread of diseases. Quarantining new arrivals, every time, is the very best but impractical in a retail store environment. I realize that's not PC for a fish forum but I'm a realist.
Running 150 tanks (could that be as many as 400-500 species- at 20 fish per tank that's 10,000 fish) off a single bio chamber would be like running a hospital with a single doctor and a small janitor staff. I'd rather have more doctors and a couple of janitors on each floor. If I were a patient I'd want my own doctor.
When I think of a central system for a fish store I'm reminded of the morning scene in "The 13th Warrior" watching each member of a team "sharing" a communal bowl for their morning rituals. Yuk!
Hey man, I just work there. I know that you need to be careful, but no store has a new arrival side and an old side, so everyone tries their best to keep things in check. Besides, I think your estimates are off on the bio load and what not. Just my two cents.
