Modern Fishkeeping - or something like that

Ok i think maybe im just being silly and will probably be stepping on some toes here. Dont mean to offened anyone or get anyone angry here.
Lately when you read threads on help to get started or help with this or that, you always get a long list of "products" from all members, this will help you cycle the tank, that will help with amonia and nitrite and what the hell else.

have we somehow forgotten basic fishkeeping, it has somehow become like our lives where we have medications for everything.
in my day (wow like im 60 or so note im just 29 having kept fish for about 20 of those years). my main display tank (6 foot) hadnt lost a single fish for about 5 years, have never added any additive to my tank besides de-cholinater.


the way i know things is by doing proper water changes and getting good water turnovers and to get rid of your amonia and nitrites make sure you have adequte bio filtration. Note have kept fish only and only dabling in planted tanks for about 2 or so years now.


So is my thinking all wrong, should i now be using all of these additives etc or easy it just for people who rush into adding fish without waiting for the cycle or not doing the all important water changes.

sorry for the reading

 

People are just impatient nowadays. There is nothing wrong with cycling a tank with fish food or stocking slowly.
I believe that if something is not broken (and you don't want to break it to try and fix it) then don't fiddle with it.

 

One great advantage of modern fish keeping is the "Bacteria in a bottle".... For sure you will build up a mature filter with just normal cycling...but using something like Microbe Lift's Special Blend not only cycles new tanks faster...but introduces many more strains of bacteria into your system than would just naturally colonise your filter....
Sort of having a bigger,more varied ecosystem to deal with the fish waste...that in my mind is a good thing...

 

I am of the old school thought (Im also 29). If it works, why change anything? But having said that I am not against the whole bacteria in a bottle. Whatever the individual prefers

 

Also old school at 32

Prefer the wait it out game.

 

i am most definately not against it as well. in fact i think its quite amazing the progress of things, but the point i hopefully would like to make is to the new fishkeepers out there, is that they should not get carried away by all these things and fish can be kept really happy without this stuff as well.

 

@Linga: I agree entirely. The advances are more for the fishkeeper than the fish. It makes our lives easier by making things easier/quicker/less complicated

 

Nope @Linga.... your filter and the bio media in it has various types of "Habitat" available for bacterial colonisation... from the high oxygen/high flow surface of lets say a Bioball to the slow flow centre of a piece of Matrix... Whereas one bac strain will be dominant in one area..another will find the other conditions more beneficial and colonise there...

Many people also overlook the importance of the bacterial colonies in your substrate.... A much more low flow area - but HUGE space for available for bacterial colonisation.... Here certain other less thought of processes take place - namely breaking down of Sulphide chains and Phenols etc...

Having studied Ecology quite extensively at Tertiary level and as a "Hobby" since then,I have come to the conclusion that the more varied an ecosystem is - the more it can combat change in said system - be that good or bad change...lol - so any advantage I can give my tank(ecosystem) by modern scientific means is all good in my eyes... I'm also an old school fish keeper.... been with a tank round the house now for 31 years.... It's astonishing how fast aquarium technology has come...

 

yes and no. easier - maybe / quicker - yes definately / less complicated - no i dont think so - remember old school no calculating water divided by 10 drops of this or 20 drops of that, just patience, and water changes are the main thing, and you really cant go wrong unless 1 the water is too cold or 2 the ph differs greatly.

 

ok sorry engineer brain here not much about organisms and stuff. so with different zones you would get the different bacteria. even without the bacteria in a bottle, but the benifit of the bottled stuff is getting the strongest strains that work the best.

sorry for leading this on but i think its good for begineers to know this stuff, we spend huge amounts of money on equipment and fancy decor and tank styling etc, when the key to everything is the tiny bacteria we never see.

PS everyone remember wash those filters in tank water not clean tap water.

 

I like to do it the old school way if I have the time available, but sometimes you can not wait or in the case of 80% of freshwater hobbyists out there, do not want to wait.
Personally I started knowing/believing only 2 bacteria's were important in a aquarium and ALL the rest was bad, now those 2 bacteria is known to be part of a very bigger picture.

The nice thing about the new technology is that when we re-opened Pet Stop after the fire, we did not have the opportunity to wait for nature to take its course :cry:

So we went the technology way and the results was astonishing!! :biggrin:

We added Microbelift special blend and also another industrial blend from an fish importer, the combination ensured that we received fish in "brand new" aquariums and losses was incredibly low.

That is a testament to the power of new technology.

Another story I would like to share is of a good friend of myself and Pet Stop that is retired now, showed me:
He breed special catfish at that time and battled to win diseases in newly imported stock from South America. He decided to do the natural way, he went to 3 different river systems north of Pretoria and got some "dirt" from each of these and seeded his filter with them. The resulting variety of "microbes" out competed the deceases completely and he was able to breed the fish without adding any medication.

NOW I DO NOT SAY YOU MUST DO THIS! He is very knowledgeable regarding deceases, microscope work fish keeping and all kind of experimenting. PLUS do not forget a 1000 years of knowledge!!!
What I am saying by ensuring you have a STRONG + VARIETY of bacteria going in your aquarium you stand a MUCH better chance of success. If that bacteria come out of a bottle or over a period of time is beside the point.

Last point I promise :amuse:
Remember that a certain type of bacteria will win the battle in the beginning while the rest will perish and if you did not go the natural way, you need to do a "bacterial top-up" so that those bacteria can be re-introduced so they can actually win this time and do their work. Doing it in old school aquariums can not be bad as well.

 

Technology has a definite place in our hobby although we must all be on a constant alert for snake oils. Our hobby has many of them.

I was the first to condemn the "bacteria blends". Eskom decided to bless me with a 2 day power outage because of a sub station that burnt down. Ammonia levels started rising.... My Biological filtration was in total meltdown. I was forced to give these blends the benefit of the doubt. I cleaned out my entire filter and purchased seachems stability and managed excess ammonia with seachems amgaurd. Water changes were just not practical because the ammonia climbed to dangerous levels within 6 hours. I used seachems stability as directed and it done miracle work for me. My 300l tank was stocked with 30-40 medium sized fish and was cycled within in one week. Mid treatment I had a slight nitrite spike barely readable and that's all I saw of nitrites in that tank again.I didn't lose a fish!

That experience changed my whole view on the matter and since then have never been without those two products. They waiting patiently in my cupboard for next time.

 

I don't agree. There are many things that can go wrong. That's why I always say this hobby is about managing water and feeding fish. Temp,ph,kh,gh,fe,no2,no3,nh4,nh3,p04,cu,co2 ect,ect etc...the list can go on and on. They all in some way effect your aquarium in some way or another depending on what your goals are. The changes and relationships of the above relate at some point to every post on this forum. If fish keeping(thinking of the hobby as whole) was as simple as temp,water changes and ph there simply wouldn't be a forum...

 

I stick to my six weeks cycling if algae cant grow yet bacteria can't grow yet
My Rule

 

I agree, especially looking at very complex systems, as those in the amazon. Each organism developes to each intricate exclusive and specific niche of his environment.

Very interresting, strange the fish didn't pick up any diseases from the rivers.

 

Very interresting, strange the fish didn't pick up any diseases from the rivers.[/QUOTE]

Should have added (my bad) that this aquarium ran for a while without fish before he added the catfish

 

That is so true. My mom when they as kids first started to collect fish the heater and the thermostat were seperate in two glass tubes. The thermostat didn't even have a tempereture gauge for adjustment, you had to open up the thermostat and adjust the screw at the top and monitor your water tempereture. My first heater/thermo the thermostat was out the water and thats 25yrs back. The advancements in the hobby is astonishing.

 

I think old school slow cycling is better just because it gives me more joy. I like the rather nerdy idea of a completely natural non-artificial ecosystem being contained in a glass box in my house so I can watch and marvel but not interfere.. To me the slow cycling and the algae is not something I ever want to skip but allow it to form at natures pace because it all has a purpose and means something.

To me the chemicals and additives, other than dechlor, come into the picture in emergencies like when you need to quickly set up a tank to separate fighting or injured fish, or when your careless sister unplugged your fish tank for 4 hours to do freakin' vacuuming:motz: but yea the nerdy bacteria and nature balancing herself stuff is what I love about this hobby, to each his own as long as the fish are happy as can be at the end of the day.