Pet Store Cycling?

[lucasluke]

I have been wondering this question for a while now... you know stores like Pets@Home and Petsmart etc? How do they cycle there tanks? Like once they have set them up? Is there some sort of trade secret they have developed?

 

[chickennuggets123]

I wondered this too. I suppose they do it before they put fish in to sell.

 

[TropFishUK]

At a new pet shop near me that opened they had their tanks running for 3 weeks empty...

Bet they fishless cycle with old media then play stupid to customers xD

 

[Gilli]

I might be wrong here but I think most of the tanks are linked in that the water flows right through them all - presumably they have either one large filter or several it passes through.

 

[StandbySetting]

I worked recently in an aquatics retailer that started from scratch, the total volume of each system was near 500 litres, we added fish and water was continually changed, approximately 25% an hour until the filters were coping on an automated system, much similar to a fish-in cycle.

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

I'm willing to bet they don't worry about cycling at all! I worked at a US pet store chain for 3 years, but I wasn't there when the store opened. My experience with them is that they give the associates the knowledge that's going to make the company the most money. I honestly don't think they are too worried about training associates in the tried and true methods of fish, reptile, and small animal keeping because they know that most associates that work for large corporations are there to make a living first and foremost and not necessarily very experienced in the actual care of all these animals. I was one of the few associates in my store who actually took an interest in learning as much as I could and in the 3 years I worked there I didn't learn a whole lot and a lot of the things I did learn weren't accurate. They are more concerned with training for customer service and give extremely limited training on actual animal care. I would be willing to bet they dumped a gallon of Cycle in the system and let it run for a week or 2 then called it good. You have to realize the size of these companies and the money they pull in. Them losing half their fish stock due to uncycled tanks for the first month or 2 that the tanks are running is something they know they will bounce back from. The tanks WILL cycle eventually. The thing is that these corporations don't view these individual animals as their own. They are money to be made. Any losses are tax deductible so they may actually not mind losing a couple thousand dollars worth of fish in a week. It adds to their write off and tax savings at the end of the year and they want to get their max tax deductions. This is definitely what happens because they do take inventory of fish loss every night and I assure you it's not to find out what can be going wrong with their tanks. I'm not trying to paint a picture that these companies absolutely don't care at all about their animals they sell, but I GUARANTEE you that their #1 concern is the bottom line and their shareholders! PETsMART, PETCO, Pets@Home, etc. are glorified "WalMarts" for animals and animal care. WalMart, by the way, is the ONE place I will NEVER purchase a fish or ANY live animal they may sell in the future! At our local WalMart they actually have a sign up at their bagging station for their associates stating, "Do NOT use tap water to bag live fish, it will kill them!" I don't know about you guys, but that's not a place that I want to encourage to sell me a fish.....

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

I might be wrong here but I think most of the tanks are linked in that the water flows right through them all - presumably they have either one large filter or several it passes through.

You are absolutely right! It's actually a modified pool filter system. Even the PetCare Manager(the one in charge of all live animals in the store) didn't know how to work the system and couldn't even find really anyone in our district who could explain the ins and outs of the system and how to troubleshoot it when needed. The actual workers contracted to come out and troubleshoot it weren't much help either. They would say it was fixed then a couple days later it would be giving us the same problems.

 

[MBOU]

Fishless cycle for 4 weeks, we bought in mature filtermedia and chucked a few handfulls of fish food on each system on week 2(smallest being 3500L and largest is 4500L) and then bacteria supplement on weeks 3-4 then when testing steady and not showing any ammonia when food put on.... then fish slowly added, few tanks at a time to prevent spikes... waterchanges done when necessary.

I think you'll find most shops cycle their tanks, would hardly make business sense to lose hundreds of fish...

 

[Aqua Tom]

Fishless cycle for 4 weeks, we bought in mature filtermedia and chucked a few handfulls of fish food on each system on week 2(smallest being 3500L and largest is 4500L) and then bacteria supplement on weeks 3-4 then when testing steady and not showing any ammonia when food put on.... then fish slowly added, few tanks at a time to prevent spikes... waterchanges done when necessary.

I think you'll find most shops cycle their tanks, would hardly make business sense to lose hundreds of fish...

Probably what nearly all LFS do. They wouldnt sell much filter start etc if they told everyone though.


tom

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I might be wrong here but I think most of the tanks are linked in that the water flows right through them all - presumably they have either one large filter or several it passes through.

I know my local Petsmart has a system like that. All of the tanks are linked and have barriers to prevented interaction amongst incompatible fish, but all 2000 gallons of tank water is all filtered through one HUGE filter.

 

[Delloy12]

Every now and then I walk past my fish shop and they've got a bit of hose sticking out the front door with water running from it.

 

[MBOU]

Lol you sure its not me? lol i gravel clean out the door

 

[tmh0921]

The big chains here in the southeastern US have all of the tanks on a central system that is constantly cyle water through, meaning water pumped out, new water in - like constant water changes. They aren't cycled at all, toxins don't have time to build up. However, since all of the tanks are on a central system illness spreads easily from one tank to another. I was at one recently that had a bad outbreak of what looked like fish TB in their danio tank and the other tanks were already showing symptoms. I was shocked that 1) they had such Ill fish for sale, and 2) they weren't quarantining....I put the items I was purchasing back and left. I'm not supporting them....

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

The big chains here in the southeastern US have all of the tanks on a central system that is constantly cyle water through, meaning water pumped out, new water in - like constant water changes. They aren't cycled at all, toxins don't have time to build up. However, since all of the tanks are on a central system illness spreads easily from one tank to another. I was at one recently that had a bad outbreak of what looked like fish TB in their danio tank and the other tanks were already showing symptoms. I was shocked that 1) they had such Ill fish for sale, and 2) they weren't quarantining....I put the items I was purchasing back and left. I'm not supporting them....

 

[BIGbadJOHN]

This is exactly what ours did in Louisiana. I couldn't remember how exactly the system worked but I knew it dumped and filled automatically. It's true also that illness spreads quickly in these systems also like you say. Once one fish gets sick its inevitable a chain reaction will occur with all tanks being linked. This also means that all fish are kept in the same water parameters. Cichlids, cories, angels, etc. The goldfish water runs through a chiller first of course but that's it. If you can get to a lfs you will get much better quality fish. It's worth the little extra.