PlanetCatfish.com

What product or piece of equipment or inovation do you think has made fishkeeping more successfull?
It could be anything I'm just interested, as for me I believe it was dechlorinator.

From a historical standpoint, affordable air freight. Imagine having to wait at the docks every weekend in hopes some sailor brought back a few fishes, alive and in good health, from Asia, Africa, or the New World.
-Shane

For me: a new boiler, 10 meters of gardenhose and a handy attachable showerhead! doing waterchanges was never so easy as it is now.

wich makes lugging buckets in the house obselete, but also contains a risk to flood the livingroom if I get distracted by something else (like computers).

It may look like an advertisement, but I would like to mention Eheim filters and Jaeger heaters.

Powerheads.

Seriously, I had to make do with air pumps and box filters for many years.

I vote with Shane. Without modern packing methods and airfreight the hobby would not be what it is today. Despite the older methods, equipment, additives the hobby was still very much alive and well long ago. Remember Dr. William T. Innes? Just to name one notable who taught many of us a great deal long ago.

Powerheads and good quality sponge filters. On my 8 smaller tanks its all I use. Simple system...great success.

Marc van Arc wrote:It may look like an advertisement, but I would like to mention Eheim filters and Jaeger heaters.

I vote for the same! The Eheim 200 air pump also rocks...

For me, it's the Python water changer!
Amanda

The internet.

The internet, Python, titanium heaters and Vita-chem.

For me it would be the simple gravel cleaner, I know it does a mundane job and has probably been around in some form or another for long before I started keeping fish, but when I discovered it I was bowled over by how much more efficient water changes could be.

I also have to say thanks to Eheim pumps and canisters, their simple and reliable design makes them a joy to use and easy to adapt and modify.

Whats a python water changer?

Quite possibly the best invention since Biltong.

http://www.pythonproducts.com/nospill.htm

-Shane

PS Biltong explained here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong

PPs Pls enter your location info.

Biltong is good stuff. When we were young me and my best mate Sarge were into all that survival/bushcraft stuff and we used go out camping with minimum equipment, eating off the land and stuff. Biltong came in handy back then, but we used to have to make it ourselves. You can buy it down the market in Swansea (Wales) now so it's hell of alot easier now.
All this bushcraft is really popular now thanks to Ray Mears, but it is always in places like Africa and Australia which is no real use to people in the UK, you would not believe the amount of food you can gather just walking around the countryside and seashore, my mate Sarge has his own business teaching this stuff to all the city types now. Can you believe it!what a job! he gets paid lots of money just to walk around doing what we used to do as kids for fun.
Anyway that Python thing looks cool, never seen them in the UK.

Shane wrote: http://www.pythonproducts.com/nospill.htm

I only see it has to do with waterchanging. i myself simply use 2 tubes: 1 to empty the tank, and 1 to - simultanously - fill it.

Thus the waterlevel will not change dramatically, and I do not lift any amount of water

I'm lazy, you know, and proud of it

i recently changed to an external filter, thats rocks, a tetra tec

Fluorescent lighting must have a case. Great question by the way.

I just have to mention that the internet has been one of the biggest helps to me so far. Information is a powerful tool, whether it's fish identification, or filter options, or forums such as this one.

I just thought of this one: A home water softener. Our well gives us healthy sweet limestone water, better than the best Perrier. But it's bad for most fish. So I think our water softener is our best piece of equipment.

I'll have to agree with everyone who has mentioned the internet.


I think forums have made a huge impact. Their main benefit is that any advice given is peer reviewed, and information is very easy to update instantly.

kcmt01 wrote:I just thought of this one: A home water softener. Our well gives us healthy sweet limestone water, better than the best Perrier. But it's bad for most fish. So I think our water softener is our best piece of equipment.

I don't think a water softener is such a great thing for most aquariums - the traditional home water softener replaces (through a process called ion-exchange) the minerals in the input-water with sodium and chloried (or sometimes potassium and chloride). This is great for avoiding scale-buildup in washing machines and central heating systems.

However, the point about limescale in aquariums is the osmotic balance between the fish and it's surrounding water. Since Sodium Chloride (table salt) is much stronger ions than calcium carbonate that you're removing, so you're basicly doing the same thing as replacing vinegar with muriatic acid. Not really a good idea.

Much better is to use a RO system (which also removes hardness, along with 95-98% of everyhing else that happens to be in the water).

--
Mats

All the accessories have made fish keeping easier but without all the fish fast airfreight makes available where would be the impetus?
Bas Pels wrote the siphon and refill. I do the same thing sometimes but I'll use the computer while doing it and end up overfilling a tank everytime. Tanks always fill faster when I'm on line.
Maybe the wet/dry vacuum cleaner is the greatest innovation.

I don't think a water softener is such a great thing for most aquariums - the traditional home water softener replaces (through a process called ion-exchange) the minerals in the input-water with sodium and chloried (or sometimes potassium and chloride). This is great for avoiding scale-buildup in washing machines and central heating systems.

However, the point about limescale in aquariums is the osmotic balance between the fish and it's surrounding water. Since Sodium Chloride (table salt) is much stronger ions than calcium carbonate that you're removing, so you're basicly doing the same thing as replacing vinegar with muriatic acid. Not really a good idea.

Much better is to use a RO system (which also removes hardness, along with 95-98% of everyhing else that happens to be in the water).

--
Mats[/quote]

Well, first of all, the real danger from the limestone is the pH level, which in our well is through the roof! Second, the sodium chloride ions are much weaker than the calcium carbonate. The stronger calcium displaces the weaker sodium on the beads; this is how it is removed from the water. And as far as RO filtering is concerned, it is simply too wasteful to be practical. Oh, and I add a few salt crystals to the aquariums besides what is in the water, as it seems to help keep parasites under control.