Filtration question for the old timers

[wesleydnunder]

I got my first fish at the fair in '68. It was the early 80s when I first heard about the nitrogen cycle and beneficial bacteria from a lfs owner in Yamato, Japan. In early '84 Bill Wimmer, owner of University Pets in Houston, Tx. elaborated for me and explained the relationship ammonia toxicity has with ph in freshwater aquaria.

Mark

 

[wesleydnunder]

My first filter was one of the air-driven corner box filters. Later I used UGF for the next four decades in one form or another. Water changes at first were as already described; completely empty the tank, scrub it out, rinse out the substrate, put fish and brand new water in the tank. This was followed by immediate fish deaths. So glad I learned...

Mark

 

[Text]

I started keeping fish in the 70s .
I always used the old reliable under gravel filter which kept my water clear and my fish happy as long as i kept doing regular water changes and gravel cleanings.

nowadays i use a under gravel filter with power heads and a aquatop cannister filter .
That glass wool was rough on your hands lol.

 

[fwiffo]

Well, I have not been as active in the hobby as many of the previous ladies and gentlemen, but I have been in the hobby for almost ten years. Early on, I began with a internal filter and undergravel filters. The undergravel filter was great but not so much for planted tanks. Plants love to weave their roots through the undergravel filter's screen! I still use undergravel filters and sponge filters. Those two are like old reliable filters in the hobby. But early on, I had no idea about biological filtration in the aquarium. I knew of the nitrogen cycle and figured that the substrate was enough, just like how it is in the wild. But in a closed ecosystem like an aquarium, I learned that more biological filtration was apparently needed. Would make an interesting study perhaps on closed ecosystems.