New Biological Filtration System For an LFS

The Animal Jungle 1,000 Gallon Saltwater System

Soon after the Animal Jungle (AJ) pet shop in Kinston, NC opened in October of 2005, they began experiencing problems with their saltwater systems. In spite of their best efforts, they had high mortality rates and ich outbreaks. Ammonia and nitrate test readings continued to spike and the losses (both in livestock and money) became unacceptable. In July of 2006, the owners, Perry Jones and Mike Ingalls, hired a contractor (Stan & Debbie Hauter, your About Saltwater Aquariums Guides :-) to solve their problems.

We surveyed the SW system and practices and determined that the problems stemmed from 5 areas.

1. Insufficient biological filtration.
2. Insufficient mechanical filtration.
3. Insufficient acclimation of new arrivals.
4. Lack of quarantine (treatment) facilities.
5. Lack of disease (ich) prevention and treatment methods.

Here is a photo of the tanks on one side of the SW "Stack", before the conversion.

When originally constructed, the 36 30g tank SW system was split in half, with each half's filtration system consisting of a 6' wet/dry bio-ball tower sitting in the 300g sump, a 1 hp pool pump which draws water from the sump and pushes it through a series of small canister and UV filters, then up to overhead jet nozzles into each tank. The water is then returned by back drilled overflows (2 for each tank) to the sump. Here is a photo of the original filtration system inside the Stack.

Here is a graphic of the original filtration system.

The solutions to the problems:

1. Insufficient mechanical filtration.

• Install a Hayden 50 sq. ft., 10 micron canister filter.

2. Insufficient biological filtration.

• Install a Hiatt Torpedo containing 55 lbs. of Hiatt's Tri-Based Pelletized Carbon (TBPC) in the systems.
• Dose the systems with Hiatt's Right Now! bacteria.

3. Insufficient acclimation of new arrivals.

• New arrivals are acclimated using the "Turkey Baster" method.

4. Lack of quarantine (treatment) facilities.

• Inspection and quarantine of new arrivals which have problems.

5. Lack of disease (ich) prevention and treatment methods.

• Systems maintained at a .15 ppm level of copper sulfate.

The new filtration for each side of the Stack consists of a 300g sump, a 1 hp pool pump which draws water from the sump and pushes it through a Hayden 50 sq. ft., 10 micron canister filter, then through a Hiatt Torpedo (the red tank in the photo) which contains 55 lbs. of Hiatt's Tri-Based Pelletized Carbon (TBPC), then up to the tanks and back to the sump via the overflows.

The systems were then dosed with Hiatt's SW Right Now! (RN!) bacteria.

The new filtration system looks a lot cleaner than in the "before" photo, doesn't it? The blue tank on the cinder blocks in the back sits in the left sump and is used for acclimating new arrivals before putting them in tanks. The acclimation tank is filled with water from the sump, then drained back into the sump when not in use.

System maintenance has been greatly simplified. Twice per week, each side of the stack is shut down and the pleated cartridges in the Hayden canisters are removed, cleaned and stored for the next change. A fresh cartridge is installed and the system restarted. The whole process takes only a couple minutes.

The Hiatt TBPC was used because of its large surface area per cu. ft. for a nitrifying bacteria platform. When used in conjunction with the RIght Now! bacteria, nitrates are converted to nitrogen gas and eliminated from the system. This has eliminated the need for constant water changes in order to reduce nitrates.

A separate hospital or quarantine tank was also set up. New arrivals are now spotlighted in the shipping bags during acclimation. Specimens which appear to have problems (i.e. struggling, ich, fin and body damage) are placed in the QT and treated.

Since copper sulfate was going to be used for ich prevention in the Stacks, the 6 tanks on the end of the stack were taken off line, filtered with bio-wheel units to be used for invertebrates and other critters which do not tolerate copper.

Since converting to the new filtration system, as well as the adopted inspection and quarantine of new arrivals, the AJ aquarium fish department has experienced a dramatic drop in fish and invertebrate losses. Test readings results are: Ammonia 0.00 ppm, Nitrites 0.00 ppm, Nitrates .10 ppm and still falling. The pH remains steady at 8.2.

Mike and Perry were very pleased with the results and asked us to fix their 3,500 gallon Shark Tank problems.

See the Solution to the Animal Jungle Shark Tank Problems