need help - predator filtration...

[chrissreef]

I'm a reefer but I ran into some people at the lfs that were losing fish left and right and had bad water.

Turns out on their 3 month old 125g predator tank they have (shark, ray, grouper, tang, butterfly and lost 3 fish). Aside from them moving to fast and feeding a lot...

Their filtration:
Skimmer
UV sterilizer
15g Refugium (sitting empty right now)

I thought bioballs are needed - but the lfs owner/manager insists bioballs trap waste and they have ALL the filtration they need.

Am I missing something???

 

[prime311]

Their skimmer is probably crap and their refugium is totally unused. My guess is massive underfiltration and not enough water changes to make up for it. Did they have any live rock in the tank? Not to mention it's downright criminal to keep a shark and a ray in a 125 and dear freaking god after just 3 months, that tank is stupidly undersized and overstocked and foolishly stocked too quickly. The LFS guy was right, bioballs trap waste and become nitrate farms if not cleaned regularly, but most likely completely wrong on their filtration.

 

[chrissreef]

they want me to "fix" the problem... what do you suggest short of scrapping the whole thing?

 

[prime311]

The only way to fix the problem is to change the stocklist for something more realistic for a 125 gallon otherwise they're looking at a lot of problems in both the long and short term. If it was just the grouper, tang, and butterfly you'd have something to work with. Then make sure the skimmer is good enough for the size of the tank and that there's enough live rock to handle the biological filtration and they should be much better off. If they insist on keeping the ray and shark, find out what kind they are and let us know so we can recommend a better suited tank for them. Unfortunately, rays especially aren't exactly known for their hardiness and rays and sharks have different tank requirements. Sharks require lots of swimming room and rays require a large imprint tank/bottom surface area and both get too big to be content in a 125, especially when some of that room is taken up by the rock that will be required for proper filtration.

 

[prime311]

Oops, double post

 

[pinkie]

I agree, that tank and stock list is set up for failure. No way should a shark or ray be kept in a 125, and they definitely should not be kept in one with several other fish, even with the best equipment and maintenance.

IMO, the most important thing that should be done to "fix" the tank is to find a proper home for the fish and stock with properly. Good luck, I hope everything works out.