Petco Aquatics Makeover

[revkkoolaid]

The chiller is on the tank because the AC in the front half of the store dosn;t work that well and the tank will recieve some sunlight even though the window is tinted. So we all thought it was in the best interest of the fish that tank gets warmer than some of the tropical setups.

Are you using MARS racks? I'm sorry if you don't know what I mean cuz I know I keep asking that. It's the marineland rack systems most Petcos have with huge commerical grade biowheels in the sump.

For the sake of discussion all newer petcos have chillers on the goldfish racks, or at least are supposed to. With the high stocking levels at a busy petco the higher o2 levels attained by chilling the water is nothing but a bonus. And I know we all know goldfish are cold water fish and from my exp goldfish really do prefer some nice low 70's water and the huge inline pumps on MARS racks dump quite a bit of heat in the water sometimes. For those who don't know all the racks you see at most Petco's are not connected as they are Petsmarts sometimes. It's either one or two racks. Each rack is around 100-150 gallons but the return pumps on the sumps are huge because the have to push water to all the return lines in the system so again they dump alot of heat into the system so the chiller if not needed is still nice to have and kind of a why not if you have it to use.

Plus in an . . um. . . "advanced" store it's nice to have a chilled system to house other coldlwater species. ie sturgeon and salmonoid fishes.

Or is this a goldfish display tank we're talking about. . . ???

Oh and the super crowded tri-channel feeder fish tanks would be impossible with out having the water cranked way down. (Those things are enough of a pain in the ass already for more reasons than I want to list)

 

[Peanut_Power]

Wow, that sounds like an improvement. Will the quality of the fish go up as well? Would be nice if that was one of the focal points of the improvement.

Can you list the other 30 stores that are in the same category? Just curious if there might be any near/around me. Thanks!

 

[revkkoolaid]

Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga worlds largest freshwater Aquarium!

I can't find any info about it other than that quoted over and over again worlds largest freshwater Aquarium. I can't find a gallons size anywhere or anything mentioning a huge fw display. I wonder if that's speaking cumulatively or a reference to that fact that they apparently didn't have sw displays until 2005. . .???

I meant the current largest freshwater display and not facility.

Sorry this is way off topic and should probably be it's own thread.

 

[airborne82]

I was not framilier with (MARS) but yes that is what we have. The goldfish tank is the old 75 gal coral tank converted to freshwater this got the goldfish out of our main system. The 120 gal show tank is a strick not for sale show tank that is brand new and seprate from all other tanks this will be a reef tank. I have also been ok'ed to rip out the glass silicon diveders in the MARS tanks I want to make an African and a South American setup that will be for sale.

 

[revkkoolaid]

I was not framilier with (MARS) but yes that is what we have.

OK. MARS stands for Marineland something something something.

Are yours the ones with 3 sections or 2? The 3 section cubes are overall too small IMO but the the 2 section splits work quite well. You can honestly house more species in an orderly safe fashion with most of them in place. It's nice to have a couple rows opened up for housing larger or highly active species (ie med aros ) but avoid the temptation to rip out most of them if you have the two section racks.

Do yours have those stupid strainers stuck in the overflows? They had started getting rid of the removable overflow boxes before I left due to the cost of replacing them ocassionally. The strainers typically dropped the water level just below the flip up door making it look bad, like a tank needing a topoff (like half the pics on MFK ), plus they didn't work nearly as well the overflow boxes with the slots up top and the bottom.

The newest MARS racks have some sections that have 3 cubes each split in half again. The reef racks usually have those as well. Its usually the "unusal and amazing rack" lol. Those I will def. agree are completely useless. It's like a 12''x6'' foot print in there and nothing is happy in there plus the filtration equip isn't split. into each section and detritus quickly builds in the section over the intake from the circ. being impeded by the divider.

 

[revkkoolaid]

How old is your store and system?

 

[airborne82]

I think my store is about 10yrs old. we have the 3 section cubes so I will be ripping out a few dividers to make room for bigger species and better display tanks. I have to get some sleep now I will post some pics after all they are worth a thousand words.

 

[airborne82]

Pics are comming! And yes we are trying to increase quality for example increasing w/c vendor issues and removing aquarium salt in one system for fish that are intolerant of it.

 

[airborne82]

 

[Death Pony]

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