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tiptreemick

tiptreemick

Seedling
Joined
10 May 2011
Messages
6
Location
Tiptree, Essex
Hi all, been keeping tropical fish on and off for just over 50 years (I was young when I started !!) Came back to it about 5 years ago for the third time and am currently keeping Lake Tanganyika Cichlids (Tropheus moori) and a marine reef tank. Having seen all the planted tanks in Pfk over the last few years and the excellent articles on them, I'm giving it a go in my new third tank. One month in and it's looking OK, some plants growing too quick and some hardly at all and a bit of algae but less than I expected. Overall, I'm very happy with my progress so far. If all goes to plan (??) I will change my 4 foot Cichlid tank to a planted one. Anyone in the market for T. moori ?
Other than that, retired, widowed, biker (Harley), grow bonsai trees.
Looking forward to some more excellent articles.
Mick
 
Welcome to the forum.. :)

50 years keeping tanks on and off is a long time, you must have seen some amazing setups, and have a lot of history to share with.

What is the oldest form of filtration you remember?

For me, in the mid 80's, was the hang on filter powered by a air pump. :D I wish I had a picture of it. Mother says that she has pictures of my tank when I was 12, a 120L tank with angel fish and molly's, so hopefully it will show the filter.
 
Welcome Mick :wave:


Many of the UKAPS members have a keen interest in Bonsai's and Bikes to - so you're definitely in the right place :)

Enjoy
 
ghostsword said:
Welcome to the forum.. :)

50 years keeping tanks on and off is a long time, you must have seen some amazing setups, and have a lot of history to share with.

What is the oldest form of filtration you remember?

For me, in the mid 80's, was the hang on filter powered by a air pump. :D I wish I had a picture of it. Mother says that she has pictures of my tank when I was 12, a 120L tank with angel fish and molly's, so hopefully it will show the filter.
Click to expand...

From what I remember my first filters were a green translucent triangular internal box fliter which you had to put stones or lead in to make it sink and a sub-gravel filter. This comprised of three 1/2 inch tubes running almost the length of the tank and two shorter pieces at the ends, fitting together with corner and 'T' pieces making a square 8 shape, with an uplift at one end. Both were operated by an air pump which vibrated so much it used to fall off the table it was on. Putting it in a box stopped it moving but the made the noise worse. This would have been about 1958/9 when I was about 11 or 12. The tank was a 24x12x12 inch angle iron and the base was frosted glass sandwiching wire netting. The glass was puttied in and leaked when I got it (second hand) but my Dad said if we filled it with water, put in a handful of dirt and swirled it round it would block the leaks. (I think he used a similar method to repair his old Standard 8 car radiator) It sort of worked but the putty on the outside was always wet.
I suppose the sub-gravel filter covered about 10 per cent of the base but this was state of the art in its day and conformed to the 'balanced aquarium' theory of the day. Fish survived in it, plants took about a month to die.
The hood that I got for it was aluminium alloy and was vertical at the rear and had two holes in it to facilitate two household bulbs. After a couple of hours it got so hot you could not put your hand on it.
Happy days
 
Fantastic, what sort of fish were available on the shops, and plants?

Got any pictures?

I am very interested on aquariums early history.


No photos I'm afraid, and if I did have any they'd be about 2 inches square and in black and white like all the photos in the early 'Aquarist & Pondkeeper' magazine we had then.
My local shop, a pet shop, had one tank, probably about 3 feet long and everything he had was in there. I obviously can't remember everything he had in there but I know I bought guppies, black widow tetras (I think they lived for about 20 years !!), cherry barbs, harlequins, neon tetras (that lived for about 20 days !!) and a couple of corydoras. I think they were about a shilling or so each, so from my 5 shillings pocket money I could only afford a couple at a time. (5p & 25p respectively) This would have been about 1958-1963.
The only plants I can ever remember having at that time were Amazon Swordplants and Elodea densa, amazingly the amazon swordplants did well, even with that sub-gravel filter and household bulbs.
In 1963 I had my own transport so was able to travel a bit further afield and visited several aquatic shops and an importer in West Bergholt, I believe most of the more common tetras, barbs and cichlids were available. Between 1963 and 1965 I don't ever remember seeing Discus, Apistogramma, Rift Valley Cichlids or the vast number of Rainbows that are avaiable now.
My first attempt at 'landscaping' at the time was using large lumps of coal which you could get then and a couple of carrier bags of sieved coal dust from our coal shed. I threw away everything that went through my mums flour sieve. And the Amazon sword plant. It looked quite good, and thinking about it, I'd try it again if I could get proper coal.

Mick
 
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