Hello I am new and a pet store. have a question

[Dragonspets]

I had already setup up to 30 gallon with sponge filters/air. And larger ones with sponge/air plus external filters. Air is central

A LSF id check out as was closes compition.... was one a single sump and had more dead fish them live. Some like a large goby looked liked dead for week. And already thought of the illness issue with sumps. But had wonder3d if was something i was missing.

So current plan is lot of single 30 and 40 gallon breeder aquariums. And dozen larger. One thing i find no info on is stocking rates. I did look up those pvc lines suggested for air and draining. Didnt find mathimatical guides so going to jave to use my construction experience lol

 

[skjl47]

hello; While I have not done commercial setups I have known of breeders with many small tanks to run them with only air operated sponge filters. The key likely will be a regular WC (water change) schedule.

Over the years I have run tanks with only a sponge filter many times.

If you do go for individual power filters for each tank may I suggest using a brand with commonly available replacement parts such as impellers.

 

[Dragonspets]

I can get tetras pretty cheap so not too hard to have back ups of them. Only used them as hibbyist over the years.

 

[J. H.]

Hamburg matten style filters work well on large tanks and can be run off of the central air system. Probably not feasible in a LFS, but Waldstadt style tanks work great too. Also, I know my LFS and many large scale breeders use central sumps, but run all the water through UV filters before returning it to the tanks. This seems to stop spread of disease. I personally hate UVs as they scare me, but in an a large system like that it seems to be the way to go. The major advantage of central sumps is the stability it offers. My LFS uses 2 saltwater and 3 freshwater loops. This allows the different loops to be kept at different temps and ph. It also means that while you may only see 200g of tank when you walk in, there can be almost 1000g in HDPE barrels just out of sight, sextupling the carrying capacity of the tanks.

 

[Dragonspets]

I liked the sump idea till saw lot of people mentioning how they seem to spread illness often. Unless major maintenance done daily. I am probably go with original plan of sponge filters with individual filters for 40 Gallon on up tanks. Most systems I have seen either too costly or too much maintenance :-(

Though the quick WC ideas I am going to try to use. I do like the idea. Just doing a 10 Gallon can take while to do lol