Individual vs. Group filtration

[iDRINKbLEACH]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of designing a rack system for my fish room. I like the idea of buying a bunch of non-tempered glass tanks, drilling them, installing bulkheads and plumbing them all to one big wetdry/sump/fluid bed. My biggest concern is disease. The idea that if one tanks gets sick, basically every tank gets sick. I could also eventually incorporate an automatic (or at least less labor intensive) water change system.

The other solution is to use individual filters. The only options that I can imagine are undergravel and a sponge filter and weekly water changes which would be much more labor intensive.

The racks that I am building will go in my fishroom for now, but will eventually end up in a small retail shop I plan to open this summer. So I have to consider commercial viability also. Basically, my fishroom is practice for when I go "live" in June or July.

What are your experiences with either of these systems? What pro and cons am I not seeing? What other strategies do I have to control disease if I go with a group tank system.

Thanks in advance.

 

[toweraquaticservices]

I am a fan of group filtration, but I have never had a disease outbreak yet....

I would probably set it up like you were saying, drilled tanks, then only plumb 4 together in the same filter system, that way if you do have an outbreak it only affects 'some' of your tanks not all.

The pros will chime in, but I believe alittle salt and quaritine new fish will keep disease down

 

[kamikaziechameleon]

This all comes down to having a comprehensive QT solution. You'll need to QT fish and even pre-emptively treate them for disease prior to allowing them into your system. I don't salt my tanks so I do a combo of UV filtration with Epsom salt med food to flush their intestines and salting the water or using copper safe with a warm temp of 86 to make sure the animal is clean. If the animal is wild caught I feed food medicated with metro as I'm doing for some rope fish i just got.

The UV filtration is key as having it is the most cost effective way to treat tanks for everything. Make sure your Wattage to flow rate is correct, 1 wat per 10 gph.

Do some of your own research everyone has their own methods I've actually setup a one or two threads under the pretense of treating fish in QT. Loosing hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars of fish doesn't require a shared sump, lol. I've had bad diseases jump on siphon hoses and nets. A good QT will save you and a good filter as you are proposing building will save you money and time all while supplying your fish with better water conditions.

 

[Good_Times]

Here's a thorough QT regime
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?6189-Proper-use-of-Quarantine-facility

 

[cantrell00]

How large are the tanks?

 

[Oughtsix]

It would seem like a UV sterilizer or (my favorite) a monster DE filter would curtail the spread of disease in a group filtered environment.

 

[F1 VET]

^^^^×1000000

Uvc is critical with a group setup.

As said before me a long quarintine period is also highly suggested

 

[joe jaskot]

If you are going to open up a retail fish business, you should design a system with individual tanks set up with plumbing to do automatic water changes. Plumb in an air system to operate sponge filters. Multiple tanks on a central system do not work out very well when constantly bringing in new livestock. Just my two cents.

 

[cantrell00]

If you are going to open up a retail fish business, you should design a system with individual tanks set up with plumbing to do automatic water changes. Plumb in an air system to operate sponge filters. Multiple tanks on a central system do not work out very well when constantly bringing in new livestock. Just my two cents.

I completely agree, particularly if these are small, 10-20 gallon tanks. You CAN automate water changes without sumps also.

As for UV's, you can't exceed 30-40 gph to eradicate most parasites. Bacteria, sure - but usually that isn't the issue.

Parasites are usually the pain to deal with..

 

[dp_paul]

there is a lfs near me that uses under gravel filters in every tank and they have a lot of tanks and trust me it isnt good
the noise is terrible and due to the number of tanks they are virtually changing water none stop, constantly topping water up from sold fish and evaporation, also they have gravel in every tank which makes the tanks look not as clean (due to the fact they have used the cheapest pea gravel money can buy)