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.
- Insufficient biological filtration.
- Insufficient mechanical filtration.
- Insufficient acclimation of new arrivals.
- Lack of quarantine (treatment) facilities.
- 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.
