Overstocking In Fish Shops?

[daizeUK]

MBOU do you mind if I ask which shop you work at? I actually live in the Reading area so just wondering if you might be one of my locals I'm in the South Reading area

 

[Mikey1]

All our Systems are run off of sumps, each sump is 5x2x2 in size and split in half, the whole lot is filled with kaldnes biomedia and one side is aerated and the other is not and the water is passed through the sump. The sump not only collects the dirt and passing water through a massive colony of bacteria but also the aerobic and anaerobic baceterias too that break down even nitrates.

this works well and cuts down on individual tank maintainance but its also a great way to spread a disease or infection from one tank to multiple other tanks.....

if i owned a shop i would have each tank running its own undergravel filter, effective and simple

i would only use a sump on marine tanks

Also too much decor makes it very difficult to gravel clean!! I have the wonderful job of gravel cleaning 120 tanks at least once a week but generally twice if i can fit it in round customers and I can seriously tell you, messing about with the coverslides is a pain, having to stop to pull out decor before doing each tank can make it so much harder!!

thats why most stores do not use any decor, or very little

 

[MBOU]

I'd love to see you find time to clean and maintain 120 (in a very small shop!) undergravel filters, heaters, 120 water changes every 2-3 days... and still have time to actually run a shop and serve customers. I have done this in a local shop and its ridiculous.

 

[daizeUK]

Goodness me, I should have done this earlier. Checked out online reviews of the aquatic shop I have been visiting (the one with fish all mixed up) and the reviews are absolutely awful. Dead fish, bad fish care etc.

MBOU has pointed me to another shop which has much better reviews and is actually closer, can't believe I even drive past it on my way to my usual store and never realised it was there, lol thanks MBOU!

 

[Mikey1]

I'd love to see you find time to clean and maintain 120 (in a very small shop!) undergravel filters, heaters, 120 water changes every 2-3 days... and still have time to actually run a shop and serve customers. I have done this in a local shop and its ridiculous.

uuummm.....thats why most stores have staff....as in more than one person,

my LFS has over 150 tanks, all on undergravel filters

heaters in every tank is a waste, its easier to just keep the room temperature where the tanks are high, the water will then be the temperature of the room, no need for heaters at all

 

[MBOU]

Easier still to have a system with an external inline heaterand even with 3 staff in a small shop, if the shop has any decent trade going on, there just isnt time to do it properly.

 

[Chad]

I suppose each shop can do it how they like. We have one local shop where each tank is individual. They do this because they area specialty shop and have need to change things out regularly. However the other shops have massive connected systems. I think if I owned a shop I would do a little of both, the massive system for most regular quick selling items and seperate tanks for the custom and slower selling items.

Either way I wouldn't have undergravel filters as I personally hate them. I know they have fans, but I'm not one of them.

 

[Mikey1]

Either way I wouldn't have undergravel filters as I personally hate them. I know they have fans, but I'm not one of them.

why not?

i assume you vaccuum your gravel anyway? that is all the maintainance they need!

no media to rinse out or change....just vaccuum and fill.....simple!

 

[Chad]

My main tank of course is the 210 gallon reef. With a reef tank using the Berlin method with a sump is best practice.

But long before that for freshwater I just developed a personal dislike for UGF's.

Despite the fact that they can be effective filters I have found I don't care for the maintenance required, especially the occasional need to remove them. In a heavily decorated or planted tank this means a complete overhaul. Even with steady gavel vacuuming this eventually has to be done.

But...where I really said I was done with them was when I started keeping plants. Roots caused problems with the filter and the filter caused problems with some species of plant. Also, in heavily planted tanks it's simply impossible to vacuum the gravel as it's often not even visible for the plants. As I write this I looked over at my little 6 gallon tank and there is hardly any gavel visible where I could even get to it. This is how I planted my larger tanks as well.

So it really comes down to a few reasons the main one of which is just the style of tank I keep isn't as compatible with UGF's as they are with HOB's or canisters and for reefs they don't fit the bill. That's really it.