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Re: NFC: Multi-Tank Filtration Question
At 09:05 AM 3/27/02, you wrote:
>I really think you should think long and hard about
>using a central filtration system, far too many fish
>from commercial sources are sick and with a
>centralized system you will almost guarantee the
>majority of your fish will have some background
>infection like velvet and/or ich. I go into the
>various pets chains here and see tank after tank of
>ill fish on their system.
I have to disagree with you here, mein Herr.I have worked at a few LFS's
over the years, and installed a central filtration system in one of them (I
got on board too late to design it else I would have made some
changes). In any case, with adequate UV and proper net sterilization you
will not have a porblem with spreading disease. Even when I was lax with
the nets I never had this kind of problem, despite buying from some of the
largest fish farms in the country.
>A friend of mine runs a fish store and uses
>undergravel filters and a blower exclusively.
This is how it was done in the old days, and still has something to
recommend it. It's cheap, for one.
>The only store I know that successfully uses a central
>system for most of its tanks, Byerlys in Columbus,
>also has a huge quarantine area in its back room where
>new fish are treated and acclimated before they are
>ever released to the floor.
I can't speak about the stores that are having problems since I haven't
seen 'em, but I suspect human factors are more important than mechanical ones.
I have seen two systems which I thought were quite effective, and not your
run-of-the-mill setup. One was Morgan Lidster's ATS system. Morgan didn't
even use UV and his fish and inverts were in great shape. The other was a
kind of hybrid system, where instead of one central unit you had about 6-8
tanks running on one W/D filter, which allowed you to have different water
parameters for each "unit". This would be the most expensive solution,
however. The cheapest and probably healthiest (Centralized, that is) would
be ATS, but bear in mind that this does not produce pristine, sparkling
clear tanks.
Prost,
Martin
Jackson, MS
-------------------
I can't stand cheap people. It makes me real mad when someone says
something like, "Hey, when are you going to pay me that $100 you owe me?"
or "Do you have that $50 you borrowed?" Man, quit being so cheap!
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