Old, Old, School the 1970's Aquarium

[tengallonman]

For those of you who are old enough to remember keeping tropical fish in the 1970's I thought this might be fun.

Today the hobby is so sophisticated with the ammonia cycle stuff, the cycling your tank stuff, water changing, CO2 stuff, the power filters, diatoms, lights, plants and all the rest but do you remember days from your childhood like this?

You go buy your slate bottom, heavy metal sided aquarium, psychedelic orange rocks, bubbling treasure chest ornament, and under gravel filter or corner filter. That same night you also buyall the fish, put in your chlorine remover, and stick all the fish in that night because you were too impatient to wait to get the aquarium going?

Personally, I did that more than once.

I even have the same 10 gallon aquarium with my funky label maker label (remember those) which says "No fishing community tank" in operation today.

The fish farmers must have not done much better with the fish they raised or else the fish were tougher because the amazing thing was that the fish LIVED. Sure you had the occasional bacteria bloom, but the fish lived! Try getting tropicals today without cycling a tank and you know what happens.

Just thought I would share and get some of you guys to share your similar memories.

 

[Miles]

I have a Kordon canister filter from the 70s that was years beyond it's time, and costed a fortune when it came out.. I have been thinking about selling it as an 'Antique' collectors item!

 

[Recycling Works]

i have a broken treasurs ship, where the one side goes up and down with the bubbles dated 1967

 

[HarleyK]

Howdy,

... the good, old days. I am about 10 years younger than you, and I started in the very late 70's. Can hardly remember. But I still harvest my own drift wood, get my own rocks and - before I had to fill a 220 gal tank - even got my gravel from a river sandbank. In between, I tried out high-tech CO2, gravel heater cables, digital temp control, fertilizer combos, you name it. But it all convinced me that old school is best: I sold the crap on E-bay.

What I have to say, though, is that even the books in the 70s (at least in Germany) recommended to let a tank "run" for a few days before you add fish one by one. And I never lost a single fish during cycling.

Anyhow, it's great to know that there are more of us Welcome!

HarleyK

 

[tengallonman]

Hey, HarleyK yes I am sure you're right, but when you're a kid you don't read anymore than you have to and the slap it together in one night method was certainly the one preferred by my friends. It wasn't the best but it certainly worked. Thanks for the reply it's good to know some of us are still around that remember the good old days.

 

[guppy]

I did not know it was called "cycling" but I still start a tank now as I did then and it still works.

 

[JD_MAN]

I have an old aquarium book from the 1930's and I thought it was funny how they used to have to heat aquariums. I had read in another book that the bottoms of old tank were made out of slate and they would use a Bunsen burner underneath that to heat it up for tropical fish. But, this book states that another method they used to heat aquariums was to stick a light bulb in the tank about 2/3 of the way down. It also says how you can heat it up to 90 when fish are sick by placing the majority of the bulb on the tank. I can’t imagine trying to use this method.

The book title is “The Modern Aquarium” by William T. Innes.

 

[gomezladdams]

Chlorine remover??? in the 70s it was common knowledge that chlorine in tap water was good for your fish.After all you drink it everyday right?


And no waterchanges older water is better for your fish,in my breeding room guppies got new water 3month old the cories bred in it then at 6month to a year bred bettas in the same water then break tank down.


I still have one of my two original supreme aquamaster filters running a 55g in my fishroom 25+ years old and still going

I had several lfs employees from different stores tell me I was wasting all that space in my 30g on a 10" oscar 10g is big enough 1" per gallon rule

 

[fishnutham]

I agree with gomezladdams about the chorine remover what the hell was that the biggest fish store when i grew up was zellers or something i dont even think they caried gravel lol
after returning to fish keeping many moons ago i learnt a lot on a very slow modem and very old transcripts of german fish manuals i stick by the old school rule except i take advantage of the lighting and uv available now will be a cold day before i stick a lot of chems in my tank to get the effect needed..

 

[guppy]

I just used the fill and wait method to dissipate chlorine, no one used chloramine then.