Page 19 - Water and the Aquarium

GARGAS: Water and the Aquarium Page 19
GARGAS: Water and the Aquarium Page 19

Pictures by MFJacobs . . . 2010
I would guess that after over 50 years in the aquarium hobby I think
it’s a fair statement to say that “The more I learn about water and fish the more I
learn the establishment doesn’t know what it’s talking about!”
Make no mistake about it . . . this is a wonderful hobby and the people
in the hobby with me are, absolutely great people. They are giving people
and they are people who genuinely care about animals and fish. However, there
are rumors and old “wives' tales” running around the hobby that are largely
unproven and everyone . . . top to bottom . . . seems to buy in to them.
pH is one example of these rumors. As far as I can investigate there
is almost no effect on the fish by pH. And yet to this day almost every fish
related article I read, from the local bulletins I read to the top aquarium
magazines on the market they states the pH as something that needs to have
an eye kept on to make the fish survive or spawn or just live. I simply don’t
think the pH rumor is true, and this is not an article about pH, . . . but about
freshwater and freshwater protein skimmers.
In the late 1960’s through the 1980’s I put together a lot of saltwater
tanks. We went through the nitrogen cycle and made sure that it was estab-
lished. My goodness this oh-holyiest of water had to be skimmed with a pro-
tein-skimmer. It was obvious, after a day or two of working there was this
awful looking ‘gunk’ that was produced by the Protein-Skimmer and therefore it
was GOOD! Well, OK! But what about freshwater? Surely this method would
be just as good for fresh as for salt???? Well . . . NO, I was told by the experts
. . . IT WON’T WORK IN FRESHWATER . . . PERIOD! Well . . . I thought it
might . . . NO, JACOBS, IT SIMPLY WON’T WORK . . . PLEASE FORGET
IT . . . THAT’S FOR THE HOLY WATER . . . SALTWATER!
Well . . . OK . . . but now I can see that I should have challenged these
experts. It can be done and is done. And I might add it is being done well and it
is accomplishing all of the extractions that skimming accomplishes in saltwater.
I mean come on guys . . . I lived on the shores of Lake Michigan and literally
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