Historical System Comparison for PK

Guyb93 said:

Off the comparison it just seems people are more cautious now than then maybe its the increased value of the live stock over time I don’t know the facts but I’m guessing fish didn’t cost anywhere near as much 40 years ago leading to today’s keeping not being bothered over a £5 bottle of tap safe or an extra 30mims per week maintaining an aquarium to ensure a valuable bunch of fish don’t have issues .

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Guyb93 said:

Off the comparison it just seems people are more cautious now than then

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Guyb93 said:

maybe its the increased value of the live stock over time I don’t know the facts but I’m guessing fish didn’t cost anywhere near as much 40 years ago

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Guyb93 said:

leading to today’s keeping not being bothered over a £5 bottle of tap safe or an extra 30mims per week maintaining an aquarium to ensure a valuable bunch of fish don’t have issues .

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Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

Not sure where you get that from. Granted, the advice about the Nitrogen Cycle is more widely circulated...

Most fish were actually wild-caught, making them more expensive and a lot harder to keep. I'd also suggest that they'd suffered a more traumatic journey in getting to our tanks. All of this increased costs significantly, apart from the few species that were readily bred closer to home. PLUS, equipment wasn't as effective, nor as a cheap, as it is today.

As today, there were those who knew what they were doing and those who didn't. The former would be running the full gamut of necessary tank maintenance tasks, whilst the latter would not.
NOTE that a well-established tank shouldn't even need 30 minutes maintenance a week.

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itiwhetu said:

PK because you stated that everything older than 5-10 years was out dated. I thought I would give you a comparison.

40 years ago.

We used natural gravel in our tanks.
Under gravel filters.
Mechanical Filters.
Didn't vacuum
Did 25% water changes
Had T8 lighting
Hardly used Dechlorinators
Rarely tested for anything
Used live food and cheap flake food
Never used Fertilizer
and sometimes fish died.

Today

We use sand
Power Filters
Vacuum
Do 50-75% water changes
Use LED lighting
Use Dechlorinator
Test for everything
Use expensive Frozen and dried foods
Use Fertilizers
and sometimes fish die

Things haven't changed much really

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DoubleDutch said:

Glad the heathers got a "bit" better since 1923 hahahahaha

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itiwhetu said:

PK because you stated that everything older than 5-10 years was out dated. I thought I would give you a comparison.

40 years ago.

We used natural gravel in our tanks.
Under gravel filters.
Mechanical Filters.
Didn't vacuum
Did 25% water changes
Had T8 lighting
Hardly used Dechlorinators
Rarely tested for anything
Used live food and cheap flake food
Never used Fertilizer
and sometimes fish died.

Today

We use sand
Power Filters
Vacuum
Do 50-75% water changes
Use LED lighting
Use Dechlorinator
Test for everything
Use expensive Frozen and dried foods
Use Fertilizers
and sometimes fish die

Things haven't changed much really

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fishyfun&fans said:

I’ve only ever mainly done 25% water changes and never had problems because of water chemistry

I did a 50% change once as one of the fish(lovely little white paradise fish she was) looked a bit lethargic one day she died the next day!

Was my first ever fish death and I’ll tell you it hurt Just like losing a family member.

I foundout she had small tumour once netted out entirely unavoidable despite whatever I could do to try and make things better

Sometimes modern methods don’t work well.

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