good idea, bad idea

So I'm an LFS employee and have a couple who really doesn't know or is even really willing to research the animals they buy and tend every week they go through a new animal from sea horses to volitan lions to a panther grouper hanging on to dear life. My ethical heart crys when they come in because they see solving the problem just entails restocking their tank. I have spoken in depth to them about the amonnia cycle and it hits a mental wall most every time. how these people got rich I may never know. so the husband reports a .025% constant ammonia level which he sees as slight to no problem, I have pressed the importence of 0% but to no avail. to day I got him to buy an Air Pump for his sump (no refugium) system. The theory behind it is to allow the nitrifying bacteria excess oxy so they can process ammonia faster sound bio. my bigger question is will he now have to deal with higher nitri/ate spikes that could further damage live stock? if so I should probably sell him a refugium set up right.
 
i think if they want to spend the money try to sell him a refugium plus do more frequent small water changes. if you can influence them more keep their minds off large fish that would probably help a lot. what about a fluidized bed filter?
 
I'd sell them more aragonite/live sand. Plus perform weekly water changes of about 5-10%. Maybe they are feeding too much, and seems like they are going too fast with regards to stocking and the bacteria level trying to adjust.

Tell them to go slow, add some mature live sand from a tank in your store. What type of filtration do they have? What size tank?
 
Live sand might help a little. Water changes will not help very much at all. The problem is they are never completing the cycle. I'll be they are changing the water too often, and they likely have too much of a bioload. Going slow is great advice. They don't need any filtration other than plenty of good LR, which will seed the sand. I suppose another thing you could do is refer them to this site :)

Jack
 
I already have reffered them to here and pray they will not recognize this thread. as for the live rock they already have 55lbs in a 54 corner tank as for patience they know nothing of it so I could see more LR being a fair Idea but from the sounds of it they are running out of room/ ideas on how to create aqua scape within thier tank. possibly higher flow in main tank to would help?
 
it is a container that hangs on the back of the tank. usually the best substrate in silica sand. a pump pushes water from the bottom and it exites out the top of the unit back into the tank. the water flow keeps the sand in suspension. bacteria colonise the sand creating an extra filter in a small space. since the sand is in constant motion it doesn't clog, require cleaning or replacing. the only thing is if the power goes out and there is no backup power the bacteria could die quickly. same as any other filter except there is more bacteria in there. punch it into yahoo you should be able to see one.
 
Back
Top