Wow, how things have changed over the years

Things have changed over the years, when I started there was no such thing as a canister filter, not for the general hobbyist anyway, it was all undergravel filters. The bigger pet shops ran sumps and had multI tanks connected to them as well as UG filters. Cycling was done with live fish and was a 2 week deal. When you got your first 2 fish you got a handfull of gravel in the bag too to help you with creating your own bacteria. Ph was checked with litmus paper if at all. I vaguely remember a test that you took some water in in a jam jar to the pet shop and they could test it for you if you didn,t have a test kit but the kit was almost mandatory. Ist, 3rd, 5th and 7th day very light feed, 2nd, 4th and 6th day parial water change if no test kit but most had them and you went by ammonia level for better timed water changes. After 2 weeks you could add a third fish and at 4 weeks 2 more fish and your done, we were warned though that after that no more than 3 fish a week could be added. Rarely did we lose a fish. I still use undergravel filters and the same cycling method and it still works.
I had to take a break in fishkeeping due to my work but I started again when I retired at 55, I used the same method but now we have internet to put the spanner in the works, before we had the pet shop and a few very helpful clients of the shop that would gladly help, If you were lucky a local fish club. Nowadays with internet its so easy to find information, most of it conflicting, all kinds of new gimicks, to suposedly make your life easier not to mention lining the pockets of the inventor and so people get confused, misled and cheated out of your hard eaned money(to no benefit mostly)
Air pumps lasted for ever, all you had to do was change the ready available diaphram and latex valves, I used to dream of owning the Tetra Whisper variable twin outlet air pump, then power heads came out for the reef aquariums, Cleaning the airpump was a routine maintenance item just like doing water changes or a gravel vac, once you had more than 2 tanks you went with a small piston pump and made a manifold with plastic pipe, not seen a proper piston pump for aquariums in many years.

Reading a recent post it brought back memories of how things were over 40 years ago compared to now, which was better? and for who, the fish, the fish owner or the manufacturer of all these new fangled ideas to get their mits on your money. It seams to me the hobby has changed a lot and gone from a simple quiet hobby and love for fish to a great big bragging sesion to show off the latest and greatest and I have got not 1 but 2. Saddly lots of hobbies and pastimes are or have gone this way.

 

Totally agree. It was and still is almost impossible to foul a tank if you are using a properly installed ug filter. I have to admit to using powerheads to run mine rather than airstones. But I also run a large canister filter and I have never had cleaner water. So some things have changed for the better and others not so much. But I still love the hobby and my fish and get a great deal of enjoyment. I think it's a matter of weeding out the good from the bad and deciding what works in providing the best environment for the fish.

 

The problem with power heads is they move the water too fast. In a UG filter we have all the nitrification bacteria, anerobic and aneorobic, I can never remember which is what but they need slow moving water to do their thing, I will say that with power heads the water is probably cleaner from a visual point of view but what we cannot se are the nitrates that are there too. These nitrates are broken down with aneorobic(I think)bacteria that need a very slow moving current with virtually no oxygen to perform at their best and power heads don't allow this like air driven UG filters do. Basically I noticed more nitrate buildup with power heads compared to air driven so that was my conclusion even though it might be something else.
UG filters are out of fasion because the manufacturers made them be, once sold they get no more income from that filter but with a canister of hangon they get to sell carbon filters and bioballs every few months if you follow their recomendationes.

 

I do agree with the majority of your post. A lot of things in our consumer based world are very gimmicky. I always tend to take all things I read or hear and try and look for additional perspectives. Years ago, I too had an UGF in a 90 gallon and it worked rather well.
Since then, I have only ran a canister filter (took a break from the hobby for awhile) and my can worked amazing. I just bought another canister for a 20H I’m setting up.
While some aspects of the hobby have gotten over complicated, I think knowledge as a whole has improved for the better. A lot of the status quo from years past has gone by the wayside. And that’s not a bad thing, with respect to the health of our fish.

 

The problem with power heads is they move the water too fast. In a UG filter we have all the nitrification bacteria, anerobic and aneorobic, I can never remember which is what but they need slow moving water to do their thing, I will say that with power heads the water is probably cleaner from a visual point of view but what we cannot se are the nitrates that are there too. These nitrates are broken down with aneorobic(I think)bacteria that need a very slow moving current with virtually no oxygen to perform at their best and power heads don't allow this like air driven UG filters do. Basically I noticed more nitrate buildup with power heads compared to air driven so that was my conclusion even though it might be something else.
UG filters are out of fasion because the manufacturers made them be, once sold they get no more income from that filter but with a canister of hangon they get to sell carbon filters and bioballs every few months if you follow their recomendationes.

Well I know what you mean about slower movement of water but that's another thing with new powerheads. They are adjustable so I have mine set on minimum. The thing I really love is not having to muck about with air pumps. By the way, my first car was a 1958 FE Holden but I do prefer my Honda civic sport.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have tried canister filters I bought an eheim some years ago to se what happened and how they work to see if I got "better results" when all is going well not much of a difference but why pay over 50 times more for a product with more than double the daily power usage to get in my opinion not so good a result, even if the same results were obtained or slightly better you have to spend spend spend every few montha renewing media, I live in a rural area that gets frequent blackouts in winter my canister would airlock at times when it came back on, my UPS(an old computer one) will run a couple of airpumps far longer than a canister or hangon or water pump so really I cannot see any advantage. What am I missing?

Something I forgot, with canister or hangons you need one for each tank, you wiuld be amazed at what 1 decent airpump can do.

johnbirg I have an old 2002 vauxhall/opel astra 2.2dti, slightly tweeked I believe these were sold as a holden in Australia.

 

Surly what is needed to keep fish alive has not changed in our short time getting wet .
Evolution does not move near that quick .
Have we realized or learned more info about keeping fish ? Yes .
Do most who are trying to enjoy a 'hobby' need to know all that ? No .
I have made tanks as complicated as my time would allow and as simple as possible ...
Simple wins every time ..
Being 'bored' and trying to find an interesting activity / hobby we often over think a lot by choice ..We choose to take on whatever
recommendation or new method out of sudden interest . Maybe some feel pressured to do more ?
Most info found on this glorious machine is preference and personal experience … I am loaded with both … They may not be worth a dime ?
I see people make all types of filters work ..I loath certain ones ...The notion of bI monthly /semI annual maintenance still sends cringes through me ...I would never treat my fish like that .
Most everything sold is help the keeper be lazy and have less control over their tank then we did back with Metaframes ...Along with put money in others pockets ..
Used to be the selling of the fish was the money ,but now equipment eclipses them for most .

 

This is a very good and thoughtful discussion.

I am still running my undergravel filter in my 6 ft tank for my Clown Loaches 25 years after purchase. It is powered by powerheads - I dislike air pumps now and always did (but there was nothing else when I started in 1970).

I dislike canister filters because a friend of mine suffered the loss of all her fish and flooding of her house when hers leaked. I cannot risk my fish and undergravel allows me to keep all the water in the tank rather than pumping it out.

I feel six weeks is optimum for a fish-in cycle. I would never need to or wish to add ammonia to my tank as done by some today.

Today, the valuable experiences of others and developing best practices are shared quickly around the globe. This is the best thing about the modern fishkeeping.

When I bought my Clown Loaches even the most knowledgeable aquarists were recommending a 3ft tank and advising that the fish lived 10 years but now we know much better.

I'm sure I agree with others on here partly because I am the kind of person who asks "how can I simplify this and make this easier, more economical and more reliable" rather than "how can I make this more sophisticated, challenging and expensive".

But each to his own, I can certainly appreciate sophisticated, challenging and expensive things even if they are not always the way I want to go.

 

My parents both owned fish tanks long before I came around. In fact, that's what got me into the hobby in the first place, my mom decided I should have a fish tank. It ended up being both her tank and mine at first, because I was a child. Most of what we did was based on her knowledge from years ago.

Now that I'm an adult and am well versed in the modern day wisdom of fishkeeping, the way I do things is completely different, and most of the stuff I know completely goes over my parent's heads. I was talking to my father about how the medicine I was using in my quarantine tank wouldn't mess up the nitrogen cycle, and he looked at me like I was speaking a different language. I asked him if he remembered the nitrogen cycle, and he replied that he had no idea what that was. I had assumed he did, being that he kept fish in the past. Nope, had no idea. My mother has a basic understanding of the nitrogen cycle though, so she gets credit there.

 

Things have changed over the years, when I started there was no such thing as a canister filter, not for the general hobbyist anyway, it was all undergravel filters.

Yeah my first LFS had a canister... as in 1. It ran the big show salt tank, only salt tank in the place. Big see through glass jar that made noise and was full of black muck.
I asked what it was and was told "it is a canister filter and you can't afford one".
I remember coming in the day it had blown up. Whole floor covered in black muck and not smelling very good. The owner was having a bad day that day.

Air pumps lasted for ever, all you had to do was change the ready available diaphram and latex valves, I used to dream of owning the Tetra Whisper variable twin outlet air pump, then power heads came out for the reef aquariums, Cleaning the airpump was a routine maintenance item just like doing water changes or a gravel vac, once you had more than 2 tanks you went with a small piston pump and made a manifold with plastic pipe, not seen a proper piston pump for aquariums in many years.

The tetra with the dial/knob on top? Man did I want one of those.
I miss the cardboard things with the diaphragms on the wall of the pet shop. Spend 50 cents and grab a diaphragm replacement.
Now you can buy a Whisper repair kit for almost as much as a new air pump. I'm cannibalizing air pumps and trying to figure the best glue for butyl rubber these days.

As for piston pumps are you talking something like a jehmco Central Air Pumps or Alita?
My LFS recommends Jehmco with Alita as s second place if you can't afford the Jehmco. With Whisper failure rates and associated repair costs I'm trying to figure out how to plumb my house for air and just get a good pump.
They are less aimed at the casual home enthusiast but if you are driving a lot of tanks.. Those whispers add up so it gets easier to justify.

They used to make houses with centralized vacuums, maybe having air outlets in different rooms wouldn't be that weird.

 

Things have changed over the years, when I started there was no such thing as a canister filter, not for the general hobbyist anyway, it was all undergravel filters. The bigger pet shops ran sumps and had multI tanks connected to them as well as UG filters. Cycling was done with live fish and was a 2 week deal. When you got your first 2 fish you got a handfull of gravel in the bag too to help you with creating your own bacteria. Ph was checked with litmus paper if at all. I vaguely remember a test that you took some water in in a jam jar to the pet shop and they could test it for you if you didn,t have a test kit but the kit was almost mandatory. Ist, 3rd, 5th and 7th day very light feed, 2nd, 4th and 6th day parial water change if no test kit but most had them and you went by ammonia level for better timed water changes. After 2 weeks you could add a third fish and at 4 weeks 2 more fish and your done, we were warned though that after that no more than 3 fish a week could be added. Rarely did we lose a fish. I still use undergravel filters and the same cycling method and it still works.
I had to take a break in fishkeeping due to my work but I started again when I retired at 55, I used the same method but now we have internet to put the spanner in the works, before we had the pet shop and a few very helpful clients of the shop that would gladly help, If you were lucky a local fish club. Nowadays with internet its so easy to find information, most of it conflicting, all kinds of new gimicks, to suposedly make your life easier not to mention lining the pockets of the inventor and so people get confused, misled and cheated out of your hard eaned money(to no benefit mostly)
Air pumps lasted for ever, all you had to do was change the ready available diaphram and latex valves, I used to dream of owning the Tetra Whisper variable twin outlet air pump, then power heads came out for the reef aquariums, Cleaning the airpump was a routine maintenance item just like doing water changes or a gravel vac, once you had more than 2 tanks you went with a small piston pump and made a manifold with plastic pipe, not seen a proper piston pump for aquariums in many years.

Reading a recent post it brought back memories of how things were over 40 years ago compared to now, which was better? and for who, the fish, the fish owner or the manufacturer of all these new fangled ideas to get their mits on your money. It seams to me the hobby has changed a lot and gone from a simple quiet hobby and love for fish to a great big bragging sesion to show off the latest and greatest and I have got not 1 but 2. Saddly lots of hobbies and pastimes are or have gone this way.

Yes the hobby’s changed but not really that much. Yes they are trying to sell us everything . But that doesn’t mean we have to buy. Plenty I don’t understand or believe. But lots of good info coming through here.
As to ug filters they still sell them. Sorry I never liked them me I had the box filter with floss and charcoal. As soon as the hob hit the stands I was using them. Nitrogen cycle I never heard of it before I came here. Haven’t changed that in my profile. I allways moved media to new tanks and did water changes. Only thing I tested was ph. Bought my first apI test kit in 2004 and still have it . Rarely use it.
What’s changed is the quality of the fish. Some of the hardier fish we had years ago are tuff to keep these days. Neon tetras,Cory catfish bettas have all become problem to keep fish. Even fish like guppies are having problems.
Lot of new fish now too so everything changes. Hey if your happy with the way you keep your fish that’s all that really matters .

 

If a new gismo came out and proved to make the fish happier and reasonably light on the pocket i'm all for it, but to by something that's more expebsive, does less and costs a lot to run what is the point, up until recently canisters did not aeriate the water, most still do not as is, you have to buy an addon and only theirs will fit, so most need an airpump aswell.
Lots of things have improved over the years yes, glass is one of them, silicon to stick it together too, beforehand you needed a frame, my first tank had putty holding the tank inside a frame.
Progress is good for everyone(usually) but my main point was why pay much more for something that does a job not quite as well or even the same. If its not broke don't try to fix it.
Another thing, take a 100 gallon tank in a persons home run on a canister, when you first see it you might say wow that's big, they tell you yeah its 100 gallon and then, run on an fx4 or fx6 (inflating chest) and I reply yeah, when the motor goes you are stuffed(to disinflate the same chest) on something like that you are better of with 2 or 3 smaller filters and tanks just in case and I believe a lot nowadays is the braging rights that for some reason get bundled in with the most expensive things, like when the new ferrarrI arrives you leave it parked on the drive instead of putting it in the garage.
K.I.S.S, keep it small & simple.
The first thing I was told about was the nitrogen cycle, the store keeper would not sell me anything other than a tank and gravel and air pump, I had intended on taking everything including fish, he was a responsible seller, he even lent me a book, when I gave it back he asked a few questions to make sure I had taken it all in, funny thing is I thought goldfish were different as I had seen hundreds hanging in bags or in small round glass globes at the market or fair, jees I was green. A pet peeve I still have today that and the way most keep betta(even retail shops) in those minature shoe,box things.

 

this is the piston pump I was on about they were variable speed too

 

That pump has more metal then some cars today !
I run Alita linear pumps ..

 

Your right, nowadays all plastic, even the windings on the airpumps, once copper is now mostly aluminium
By putting both outlets into a 3" pipe you could take off as nany outlets as you wished, deep tanks too, lots are still running today and since the 70's

 

I kept fish in the 70's and 80's. I just got a couple of small tanks and have found this forum very useful as I struggle to figure things out.

The info you find here was unavailable to the common aquarium fan. The gear is better nowdays but the info out there is way different.

 

Gear better? More expensive yes but better i'm not so sure, some things are but a lot is there to take your money and is not needed.
Internet is far better than spending hours in the library but the information you find is quite often contradictory from one site to another, there are many self profest experts about too and would say black is white when money is involver. I suggest try to find a good fish club.