How do fish stores avoid the uglies?

[19Mateo83]

I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about “ugly stages” and having issues with dinos, Cyano and diatoms. You don’t see the same issues in stores very often. My question is how do commercial growers and retail stores avoid some of the issues and uglys the home aquarists gets? Also if they do get these problems how do they get rid of them?

 

[Leightonandrade]

Microbacter 7 and hydrogen peroxide dosing

 

[fishywishy]

Because every tank is attached to a giant sump and the sump is very established.

 

[Zaven D]

A lot of LFS use a ton of live rock and have larger volumes than our home systems. I can say I have been to local fish stores that had the worst time trying to cycle some tanks. I do personally know from experience a lot of Microbactr 7 and seeding helps this process.

I have a new tank I setup about 6 months ago and seeded with some live rock. My sps are alive so far but let’s see how they do.

 

[Mark Goode]

Because every tank is attached to a giant sump and the sump is very established.

Not in the better shops I've used. Everything attached to a single sump means a disease outbreak hits every tank. A very risky way to run a business.

Good question about the uglies though.

 

[SPR1968]

You don’t have to go through the ugly stages (I didn’t with my large tank), you can avoid/minimise it if you know what your doing, and I guess most LFS owners probably do if there at the stage of opening a store.

 

[fishywishy]

Not in the better shops I've used. Everything attached to a single sump means a disease outbreak hits every tank. A very risky way to run a business.

Good question about the uglies though.

Every fish store I’ve been to does because it would be way to expensive and hard to maintain individual sumps and filters for every tank, so most stores run copper at low levels in their tanks which keep’s diseases from spreading and killing the fish but since its so low the diseases are just kept at bay until you take them out of the copper then the will get sick.

 

[xiongsy]

You don’t have to go through the ugly stages (I didn’t with my large tank), you can avoid/minimise it if you know what your doing, and I guess most LFS owners probably do if there at the stage of opening a store.

Care to elaborate or go further into details on what one would be doing exactly if they knew what to do to avoid/minimize the uglies?

 

[xiongsy]

Every fish store I’ve been to does because it would be way to expensive and hard to maintain individual sumps and filters for every tank, so most stores run copper at low levels in their tanks which keep’s diseases from spreading and killing the fish but since its so low the diseases are just kept at bay until you take them out of the copper then the will get sick.

How are they going to make money if everybody's fish stays healthy and alive , am I right? Lol

 

[fishywishy]

Care to elaborate or go further into details on what one would be doing exactly if they knew what to do to avoid/minimize the uglies?

Get live rock, like real live rock that comes from the ocean. That will instantly establish your tank skipping the ugly stages

 

[Mark Goode]

Every fish store I’ve been to does because it would be way to expensive and hard to maintain individual sumps and filters for every tank, so most stores run copper at low levels in their tanks which keep’s diseases from spreading and killing the fish but since its so low the diseases are just kept at bay until you take them out of the copper then the will get sick.

The one I use most has no more than 6 tanks per sump. Or so they tell me.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about “ugly stages” and having issues with dinos, Cyano and diatoms. You don’t see the same issues in stores very often. My question is how do commercial growers and retail stores avoid some of the issues and uglys the home aquarists gets? Also if they do get these problems how do they get rid of them?

They clean the tanks everyday so you never see a problem.

They're also experienced in spotting problems well before a typical hobbyist.

 

[fishywishy]

The one I use most has no more than 6 tanks per sump. Or so they tell me.

I never said they use one giant sump for the whole store i said lots of tanks use one giant sump.

 

[homer1475]

They clean the tanks everyday so you never see a problem.

They're also experienced in spotting problems well before a typical hobbyist.

This ^^

 

[Fishy888]

I would think they’d need at least two or three large sumps. One for healthy fish, one for coral since copper would certainly kill them and any live rock would end up with copper bound up in it. A third for a QT/hospital tank setup where they could run copper without having to replace the live rock.

 

[Mark Goode]

I never said they use one giant sump for the whole store i said lots of tanks use one giant sump.

"Because every tank is attached to a giant sump"

But okay, perhaps that's not quite what you meant to say.

 

[shcrimps]

They clean the tanks everyday so you never see a problem.

They're also experienced in spotting problems well before a typical hobbyist.

yup they’re there usually several hours a day & that’s part of the job
for sure the huge sumps tie into that as well as clean up crew in the tanks themselves but every single time i’ve ever went to any lfs there’s been at least one person cleaning something at some point

 

[shcrimps]

They clean the tanks everyday so you never see a problem.

They're also experienced in spotting problems well before a typical hobbyist.

yup they’re there usually several hours a day & that’s part of the job
for sure the huge sumps tie into that as well as clean up crew in the tanks themselves but every single time i’ve ever went to any lfs

 

[Mark Goode]

I've visited a couple of shops over the past year, both established for over 20 years, to find tanks overrun with hair algae, galaxies of Asterina, the obligatory dead fish, etc. One proprietor got quite cross when I asked him the price of a particularly impressive Aiptasia specimen.

 

[fishywishy]

"Because every tank is attached to a giant sump"

But okay, perhaps that's not quite what you meant to say.

Yeah every tank in the store is attached to one giant sump but I didn’t say it was only one giant sump