Being that I am a Geezer (like many of us) I hear all the time that Geezers are old school and don't change their ways or don't know about new technologies. I run a reverse UG filter and that is not old school as DSBs, SSBs and BBs are newer. Regular UG filters are definately old school and I will be the first to admit, they don't work in salt water.
That is not a rumor and like almost everything, I didn't learn that on the internet. I run a "Reverse" UG filter because it works long term and has very little maintenance and the system most likely "Not" to fail if something dies or goes bad like the power. How do I know? Everyone with an older tank that does not use reverse UG filter raise your hand.
Thats what I thought. So I can prove the thing works, but as for newer systems, for the last 42 years I (and the other Geezers here) have not been in a coma. We didn't start our tanks decades ago and did nothing else but go bald and watch re-runs of the Ed Sullivan show. Yes Ed Sullivan, he was on with Lincoln and I know you have heard of the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Their first appearence was on that show, and I saw both of them. Anyway, as time went on, sometimes I would awake from my coma to notice "new" methods that was the rage for the time. Jaubert, live sand, wet dry, Berlin, etc. I saw all those systems come and go and I tried all of them. I also had a fish tank during Ed Sullivan's time but I am not sure if Ed had one.
I also know about dosers, controllers, Vodka, Katie Perry, vinegar, reactors Justin Bieber, Lindsey Lohan, Yves St Lurant designer clownfish and refugiums and was here reading about all of them when they were invented. (or born) I still use Vodka near, but not in my tank. I remember all the lighting from whale oil lamps to incandescent, to flourescent, to VHO, to PC to MH to LEDs and have had them all. Now it is hard to get whale oil. (unless you find a whale willing to sell you some) By the way, do you know why vintage tanks had slate bottoms? No, it was not cheaper. Years ago, before electricity whale oil lamps were placed under tanks to heat them. See us Geezers know all sorts of things. Like, do you know where the expression "OK" comes from? No, not Okey Dokey. It was from the President of the US in 1837, Martin Van Buren and he was born in Kinderhook New York. While he was campaigning they called him Old Kinderhook. The wanted it to sound like he was a good choice so they shortened it to "OK" for something good.
Do you know who the rich women in England hired to build their tanks? Ship builders. Yes ship builders because that was the trade where they melted tar to seal ships. Geezers know all sorts of things and we didn't have to google the internet to find out. (computers were made of wood then and so were TVs)
Do you know what the first glass tanks were used for? Ferns. Fern keeping was the rage before fish. It started In England. Like the Beatles.
And for you young uns that think we had it easy, remember there was this thing called the draft, where they would take you right out of high school and stick you on an army base hundreds or thousands of miles from home, way before cell phones, Justin Biebers Lindsey Lohans or internets, then most likely put you right in the middle of a war where you had a very good chance of not coming home. Then, when (and if) you got out, many of us had to go right to work so there was no chance of college and Daddy didn't finance us like some, but certainly not all, now.
Oh and you didn't have to show up for the draft if you didn't want to, you could have just spent that time in prison where it was safe.
We also had snow shovels, those were the snow blowers of the day. They had no "on" switch and you didn't have to put gas in them as they ran on Twinkies, peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches or Girl Scout cookies.
Teachers were allowed to hit, punch, smack or kick us and they did profusely. If, like me you had to go to Religious instructions after school, the Nuns didn't think the teachers hit you hard enough and thought of it as a contest, who could make you more black and blue. Then your parents got a shot at you.
But we could buy anything we wanted, all we had to do was get a job. And we did.
So we did have a few little inconveniences in our time. :dance:
