Aquarium Developments

The development of aquatics over the last one hundred years is due mainly to the understanding that an aquarium can usually offer no technical support, and no chemical habitat for fish and plants. The focus of technical development was primarily in the second half of the twentieth century.

In addition to a growing knowledge about the biological and chemical processes in an aquarium, another factor was the availability of materials for the construction of increasingly sophisticated aquarium filters, improved lighting systems and small pumps, and sufficient purchasing power of a sufficiently large proportion of the population. As people became more willing to invest in this hobby, the demand for such products to purchase grew. There was increasing dissemination, even to the outlying communities.

Aquariums can be made of different materials. Until the late 1960s, most aquariums were made of glass that had been cemented in metal frames. There were also full glass aquariums, holding about 20 liters. A key design change came with the development of silicon glue, which made the old metal frames obsolete. Thus, frameless aquariums in different shapes and sizes were possible.

The typical aquariums in the 1960s and 1970s were mostly covered with wood on the sides. This was to ensure that the aquarium inserted harmoniously into the flat. During this period, increasingly, the emphasis was on a harmonious diversity of plants placed inside, as with the Holland plant aquarium.

For the aquarium there are various options and methods for temperature setting. Contact thermometers are commonly used, as are electronic control devices and manual temperature setting. Today, heaters with probes can be used in aquariums, allowing a precise degree to be maintained without the attachment of manual devices.

Electronic devices also allow a partial or daylight time-temperature control according to the daily temperature fluctuations in the areas of the fish’s natural habitat. A gradual increase in water temperature is necessary to trigger some labyrinth fish’s readiness for spawning. With electronic controls this can be accomplished relatively easily.

Instead of hanging a heater in the tank, there are different types of floor heating systems. In large aquariums, one often finds direct heating of the elements, which are controlled by central heating.

The saltwater aquarium, which has long been operated only by experienced aquarists, is now easier to implement. However, it is still considered more sophisticated and more costly than the freshwater aquarium. In practice, national preferences are developed. In Germany, and probably also in many other countries, reef aquariums are operated, especially after the Berlin system.

Many French seawater aquariums use the Jaubert system, and more recently, from North America, there is the deep sand method that makes possible an enormous growth of stony corals with low use of technology. Hammer coral (Euphyllia paraancora) is a slow-growing hard coral that can reach enormous sizes in deep sand bed aquariums.

The Zeovith method, miracle mud, and algae retreat are further care options in the marine aquarium. It can be said, however, that none of them are described as the “best” system. A classical filter, as in the freshwater aquarium, has not prevailed.

Regarding the freshwater aquarium, Takashi Amano is probably the most influential of the aquarists. He has made the so-called natural aquarium popular, in which the natural landscape is imitated. These are strongly influenced by the Japanese garden art. It is by no means a biotope aquarium in which a habitat is exactly reproduced.

The aim is rather to give the aquarium aesthetic landscapes to function as objects of meditation. Examples from nature and imagination are transmitted into the aquarium. Amano combined plants that come from different continents along with their associated organisms even though their habitats in the wild do not overlap.

Increasingly, there are nowadays a variety of so-called “design aquariums”. These basins have column or pyramid shapes. There are also wall aquariums in the form of an image or a hemisphere with too little volume, which are not suitable for holding fish (consider the goldfish bowl).

These “design aquariums” also have added facilities, such as slides, elements of chrome and plastic tubes. These could come under the aspect of cruelty to animals.

The latest development of the aquarium is the bonsai shape aquarium. This is similar to a paludarium, with importance attached to a single part. It is decorated with roots, waterfalls, moss and a small solitary tree. The basins for this type of aquarium half the front and slant the side windows.