Ok so this is going to be a long post but help is greatly appreciated so bare with me.
So heres the deal the owner of the store im manager of recently bought a casco 12k system ( tanks and racking only no actually 12 k fliter system) from a super pet he got an amazing deal on it so we took it. Now heres the problem: we now have 105 tanks (mostly 18 g, but a couple 35g and the bottom row are slanted 25s) sitting empty because we cannot make up our minds as to what we are going to use for filtration and this is the sum of my question. If your not familar with the system its the kind most petsmarts use it consists of a bottom row of 25g that slant inward as the go up and the 2 more shelves of 18ish gallon tanks on heavy metal racking divided into 8 foot section with 3 tanks high and 4 tanks going wide. here are some pictures of the store ( I dont think they help that much though because they are pre-12k) //www.cncaquarium.com/OurStore/
We are toying with a few ideas each with there pros and cons which are as follows:
Sponge filters: Pros: They are cheap, little can go wrong and they dont take up space in the store allowing us to squeeze each portion of racking pretty close together; we are not a huge store so sapce is a major concern. Also if tanks are not centralised it will help curb the spread of sickness.
Cons: People have told me they will need replacing on a yearly basis , Is this correct? Im under the impression they dont need to be replaced untill the start to fall apart. Also more gravel washing will may be necessary if nothing is actually taking stuff out of the tank. And finally the major con would be that guy we would be getting them off is out of town for 2 weeks and considering we have alreaddy had the tanks sitting empty in the store for almost a month that is really bad cus that meens we wont have fish in the system for almost another month.
Internal power filters
Pro: More capabilty to be flexable with filter media and greater waste control capacity. We can set it up quickly as we can pick them up.
Con: price quite expensive to buy 105 (at least) IPF's. More to go wrong, we would have to check and see if they are cloged and make sure they are all working well on a daily basis.
Plumbing the whole thing together ( or at least big parts of it) and using sumps and maybe a bio tower.
Pro: low mateinence, no more major money will ever needed to be spent on it.
Also very good filtration.
Cons: SPACE! we figures we'd need at least 2 4 x4 sumps to get it up and running that ends up taking alot of space because we would have to put them inbetween 2 16ft sections making a void of useless space inbetween systems the other problem is cost its going to cost an arm and a leg to buy tubing, fittings, sumps, and then have somone put it together for us. Plus sickness speards.
So thats the sum of the problem, any advice you have to offer would be greatly appreciated.
So heres the deal the owner of the store im manager of recently bought a casco 12k system ( tanks and racking only no actually 12 k fliter system) from a super pet he got an amazing deal on it so we took it. Now heres the problem: we now have 105 tanks (mostly 18 g, but a couple 35g and the bottom row are slanted 25s) sitting empty because we cannot make up our minds as to what we are going to use for filtration and this is the sum of my question. If your not familar with the system its the kind most petsmarts use it consists of a bottom row of 25g that slant inward as the go up and the 2 more shelves of 18ish gallon tanks on heavy metal racking divided into 8 foot section with 3 tanks high and 4 tanks going wide. here are some pictures of the store ( I dont think they help that much though because they are pre-12k) //www.cncaquarium.com/OurStore/
We are toying with a few ideas each with there pros and cons which are as follows:
Sponge filters: Pros: They are cheap, little can go wrong and they dont take up space in the store allowing us to squeeze each portion of racking pretty close together; we are not a huge store so sapce is a major concern. Also if tanks are not centralised it will help curb the spread of sickness.
Cons: People have told me they will need replacing on a yearly basis , Is this correct? Im under the impression they dont need to be replaced untill the start to fall apart. Also more gravel washing will may be necessary if nothing is actually taking stuff out of the tank. And finally the major con would be that guy we would be getting them off is out of town for 2 weeks and considering we have alreaddy had the tanks sitting empty in the store for almost a month that is really bad cus that meens we wont have fish in the system for almost another month.
Internal power filters
Pro: More capabilty to be flexable with filter media and greater waste control capacity. We can set it up quickly as we can pick them up.
Con: price quite expensive to buy 105 (at least) IPF's. More to go wrong, we would have to check and see if they are cloged and make sure they are all working well on a daily basis.
Plumbing the whole thing together ( or at least big parts of it) and using sumps and maybe a bio tower.
Pro: low mateinence, no more major money will ever needed to be spent on it.
Also very good filtration.
Cons: SPACE! we figures we'd need at least 2 4 x4 sumps to get it up and running that ends up taking alot of space because we would have to put them inbetween 2 16ft sections making a void of useless space inbetween systems the other problem is cost its going to cost an arm and a leg to buy tubing, fittings, sumps, and then have somone put it together for us. Plus sickness speards.
So thats the sum of the problem, any advice you have to offer would be greatly appreciated.
