Water changes, done the wrong way

What was the old John Prine song? Father forgive us, for what we must do. You forgive us and we'll forgive you. We'll forgive each other til we both turn blue, then we'll whistle and go fishing in heaven.

There's father fish potential there! Just change "fishing" for fishkeeping.

If a guy wants to be a fishkeeping god, you couldn't pick a better name than the one he chose. We're just fishkeeping brothers and sisters, of the older generation. 60 years of aquariums - that's getting scary to me. But to go back in the thread, in all that time and a lot of reading, I haven't quite seen anyone act like this guy. There have been self promoters, thieves, liars and scammers mixed in with the majority of really good people, but this is our first old testament patriarch thundering at the hobby from on high. Father Fish indeed.
 
Yes , a regular aquatic Elmer Gantry but I think he’s just an old man reveling in his fame . It’s got to be intoxicating to a guy our age . We’ve never been able to garner attention like this before until the internet came along .
 
I feel bad for the fish I kept going back decades, but…honestly….it was done that way back then…..UGFs, no WCs to speak of…just topping off, and only minimal water movement/filter turnover. And I really feel bad because I am a trained biologist as was my father and we should have known better. When I learned of the merits of better water management with fish, I forever changed my approach both for higher success and, more importantly, a better life for the fish in my charge.:wub:

This FF stuff is simply a no brainer :rolleyes: If in doubt, take a moth larva, put it in a tupperware container with some food and change his food and clean it out daily. Then take a second Tupperware with the same species larva and repeat this but merely add food with no cleaning out. After just a few days, the second one will start to smell, get dirty, moldy, and its health will deteriorate. It makes 0 sense to keep fish in a closed container (aquarium holding water being equal to a closed Tupperware container holding air) without changing it with FRESH clean water. Even people living in filth, sadly, have the same problems as such conditions lower both the quality of life and, imo, the duration of life.

I agree that showing/linking FF’s vid is unwise as there are people who will blindly follow such “stuff” because it looks and sounds like he knows what he talking about. ******99.9% of fish in the wild do not live in the same exact water. They swim to different areas having much larger water areas to swim in than a fish tank, it rains, there’s water runoff….or….water itself moves along and is replaced with new water. :nod:

Lastly…..if questions/doubts still abound, go hug a dog kept in filthy conditions (his environment not having been cleaned/fecal and urine material) and compare that to hugging a dog kept in a clean home.

Finally……think about that animal (fish) that is TOTALLY under your care control for its existence…..why not make it as good as possible?:fish:
P.s. sorry about the rant….I held off for as long as I could with this “FF stuff”.
 
I feel bad for the fish I kept going back decades, but…honestly….it was done that way back then…..UGFs, no WCs to speak of…just topping off, and only minimal water movement/filter turnover. And I really feel bad because I am a trained biologist as was my father and we should have known better. When I learned of the merits of better water management with fish, I forever changed my approach both for higher success and, more importantly, a better life for the fish in my charge.:wub:

This FF stuff is simply a no brainer :rolleyes: If in doubt, take a moth larva, put it in a tupperware container with some food and change his food and clean it out daily. Then take a second Tupperware with the same species larva and repeat this but merely add food with no cleaning out. After just a few days, the second one will start to smell, get dirty, moldy, and its health will deteriorate. It makes 0 sense to keep fish in a closed container (aquarium holding water being equal to a closed Tupperware container holding air) without changing it with FRESH clean water. Even people living in filth, sadly, have the same problems as such conditions lower both the quality of life and, imo, the duration of life.

I agree that showing/linking FF’s vid is unwise as there are people who will blindly follow such “stuff” because it looks and sounds like he knows what he talking about. ******99.9% of fish in the wild do not live in the same exact water. They swim to different areas having much larger water areas to swim in than a fish tank, it rains, there’s water runoff….or….water itself moves along and is replaced with new water. :nod:

Lastly…..if questions/doubts still abound, go hug a dog kept in filthy conditions (his environment not having been cleaned/fecal and urine material) and compare that to hugging a dog kept in a clean home.

Finally……think about that animal (fish) that is TOTALLY under your care control for its existence…..why not make it as good as possible?:fish:
P.s. sorry about the rant….I held off for as long as I could with this “FF stuff”.
This forum and every other online fish forum exists for one purpose. To share information, debunk myths, and to help every fishkeeper be as successful as possible using the best methods and practices that are known at the time.
"We" are the hobby. The hobby has to police and protect itself.
So why are we letting this garbage proliferate? Why has the standard become so low that FF gets a free pass?
Would the hobby allow a vendor who constantly ships sick fish be allowed to flourish? How many repeat orders do you place with a vendor that consistently sends dead/dying plants? Why is information or a philosophy treated differently?
No one disputes a daily dose of mercury is bad for you. No one disputes washing your hands after using the restroom is good thing. No one disputes daily bathing is a good thing, unless you're a deadhead. :p
How is this nonsense that FF preaches, which is the exact opposite of every advance in the hobby over the last 50+ years any different?
 
That moth example doesn't take into consideration the use of magical dirt. It just mentions regular dirt, but the magic stuff is, well, magic, you know. It does magical things magically, and if you disagree, you aren't an expert like FF and should be unmagically silenced.

I think that's the gist of the counter argument, which should always be considered and prepared for...

We adopted a dog who had been kept crusted in faeces and urine in a pen. She was 9 years old and close to death. It took months to nurse her back to sort of functioning, but she then lived to close to 15 and was a vaguely normal dog for the last four. It must have been the magic dirt, right?
 
That moth example doesn't take into consideration the use of magical dirt. It just mentions regular dirt, but the magic stuff is, well, magic, you know. It does magical things magically, and if you disagree, you aren't an expert like FF and should be unmagically silenced.

I think that's the gist of the counter argument, which should always be considered and prepared for...

We adopted a dog who had been kept crusted in faeces and urine in a pen. She was 9 years old and close to death. It took months to nurse her back to sort of functioning, but she then lived to close to 15 and was a vaguely normal dog for the last four. It must have been the magic dirt, right?
I hear tell that Magic Dirt is really magic . I’ve hunted all over town and can’t find any . It seems to have magically disappeared . You have a supply you can part some of with ?
 
I hear tell that Magic Dirt is really magic . I’ve hunted all over town and can’t find any . It seems to have magically disappeared . You have a supply you can part some of with ?
No worries. FF sells magic dirt.
It seems like A LOT of oragnics to decompose in water to me, but what do I know?
Don't forget to feed your pirhanas and oscars that spinach as recommended.
Screenshot_20261012_133342_Chrome.webp
 
If you dump your magic aquarium dirt out the window after a water change, your java ferns will grow rhizomes all the way up to the clouds...
 
Something tells me yous all are taking the P now 🤣


Back in the eighties there was a guy who wrote that urine from pregnant women could spark fish breeding. To my knowledge, that one never caught on, but we didn't have the internet then either.
 
Back in the eighties there was a guy who wrote that urine from pregnant women could spark fish breeding. To my knowledge, that one never caught on, but we didn't have the internet then either.
beaslbob ~!
Could it be?
we did say his name more than 3 times.
 
I have never tried urine from pregnant women. But I can tell you it is chock full of reproductive hormones. When I first started out in science before genetic engineering was developed to have bacteria synthesize specific hormones for medical use, we isolated certain sex hormones from post menopausal nun urine. Honestly.
 
used to be a place n town ( now shut down for stealing someone else’s process ) that used the urine from pregnant horses to pull hormones for medications for human women…
 

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