LFS detective work!

[TaylorPilot]

I hope they do water changes! I spend so much time every week doing water changes on these HUGE systems! We have a 900 gallon fish only system that I do a 300 gallon water change on every wednesday - as an example. Oh well, that makes them a little lazy in my book.

You are right, I was thinking more about the systems they sale livestock out of. One of the higher end stores I go to can use up to two buckets of salt in a few days just re-topping off with saltwater from livestock sales, so in essence they are doing several small 15-30 gallon water changes on their multiple systems throughout the day everyday. However, they are one of the higher volume stores in the 3rd largest city in America, so it may be a little different in smaller cities. They do have a very large 600 SPS reef with 3 400 MH and 6 radion pros over it. The corals are huge and amazing with very fat happy fish. Since they don't sale out of that system, I am sure they do water changes. I still wouldn't want water out of it because of unknown pathogens.

 

[melypr1985]

I still wouldn't want water out of it because of unknown pathogens.

You got that right! Scary

 

[JonPhillips]

I work at a very good LFS. We have a "fish only" system where we run copper constantly at therapeutic levels. I personally check the copper levels every other day.



I hope they do water changes! I spend so much time every week doing water changes on these HUGE systems! We have a 900 gallon fish only system that I do a 300 gallon water change on every wednesday - as an example. Oh well, that makes them a little lazy in my book.




Oh and @JonPhillips , you dont want to use your LFS's used up water. It's gross, full of poo and crap they probably siphoned off the bottom and probably has parasites floating in it. Same goes for a friend's tank. You just can't trust whats in it and when you first start up your tank you want to do it on the right foot. You know? You dont want to start your tank up the cheapest way possible and end up with headaches right off the bat. I'll second the idea of Instant Ocean being the way to start up the tank cheaply. You can always switch to a better salt later on. Anyway, Good luck!

Doing it and loving it!