Why Wouldn't the Fish Breed:
What I Learned at The Fish Farm
As a younger man I learned a lot about clean water and water purifiers as the half owner of a company called The Fish Farm Inc. My partner Joe and I got into the wholesale tropical fish business through a shared hobby of keeping and breeding tropical fish. We rented a house together back when we were in our 20s and single. We both kept adding fish tanks until they were all over the house. We were both looking for more ways to make money and thought we should look into breeding and selling tropical fish. We'd been having good success at the house in the suburbs with the breeding - we particularly liked fancy guppies. We wondered if we might actually make some money, and possibly a living, by building it into a business.
We did our research, decided we might be able to make a go of it, and set up a company. We rented a new place for the business in a small city nearby. We filled the place with tanks and filled the tanks with water and several kinds of fish. It soon became clear that the fish had quite a few health problems, which we identified came from the quality - I should say lack of quality - of the water.
If we used water from the tap in our fish tanks - even water that we adjusted for hardness and temperature - the fish would die!
The only way to save the fish was to save the water. We already had understood that we needed to let water sit for a couple of days before we put it in the tanks to let gases escape. But that was proving to be insufficient. This was a problem we had to solve. If we didn't, we would have no business. We kept studying what was going on. If water was left to sit in a glass tank without gravel, it was easy to see that there was rust accumulating at the bottom of the tank! And fish tank filters were not sufficient to remove it. The pipes that were carrying the water to us were old and corroding. Those fish that lived were not really healthy, and if they bred at all, the offspring were weak. The fish were living in water with rust and who knows what else floating in it! No wonder they weren't doing well! Without filtered water we and they didn't stand a chance. But what I was thinking about more and more was that we were drinking this stuff straight from the tap! Without it sitting for days - and without any filtration. In other words, we were getting worse water than the fish - and it was killing them! I started calling the regional water authority to learn what they were doing with the water - what they were putting into it. They wouldn't tell us! They would decide that they needed to add more chlorine or something else, and they would do it - there was no way we could know what they were doing so we could deal with it. The need for us to become experts on water filtration and water quality became evident. There was no question left that the only hope for our business was to bring in an expensive and sophisticated water purifier. We took the challenge seriously and visited university experts and the folks who ran a large public aquarium. The people we met were very sympathetic and most generous with their time and knowledge. We learned a lot. We selected and purchased a fantastic water filter appropriate to our situation and got it installed. It delivered clean water. The filtration made all the difference. The improvements in the fish were immediate and dramatic. Fish that had been sluggish became active and the death rate plummeted. All the fish perked up and started growing, mating, breeding and throwing off babies like mad! A couple of beautiful angel fish we called George and Gracy started throwing off healthy babies by the hundreds. And they kept that up for years to come. A big beautiful red Siamese fighting fish named Mongo started breeding and took care of his young eggs and babies - raising something like 400 at a time. (If my memory serves me well.) The whole fish population was healthy and vibrant. This does make one think about the importance of a healthy environment, don't you think? Clean filtered water made the difference. What's Different Today? There is some good news in that awareness about water purity issues has grown enormously since them, and many people have become more careful about what water they drink. However, there are many of us who are still not doing enough to ensure that we intake clean water. Unfortunately, the number and quantities of pollutants entering our drinking water have increased enormously since then! Many believe that some of the problem chemicals include those that are being used to treat our drinking water. (See other archived editions of The Waterfall.) Are you doing enough to be sure that the water your family drinks, cooks with, and showers and baths in is really pure? We need to filter water coming into our homes for our usage to maintain our health, and to send clean water back into the environment to save water resources.
What About Bottled Water? The water in bottles can be good - but do you actually know the quality of the bottled water you are using? Someone putting water into a bottle certainly doesn't make it clean water! Bottled water is not even subject to the purity controls of tap water. In fact, bottled water can simply be tap water put into a bottle! Another less recognized issue is that the popularity and proliferation of water bottles is causing very serious ecological problems of its own. There is a lot of energy used in the process of creating those bottles. Packaging worldwide uses 2.7 million tons of plastic each year. Then the bottles become massive piles of rubbish. Australia, as one example, has 2/3 of all water bottles sold ending up in landfills. We are also burning huge amounts of fuel shipping bottled water all over the country. It just doesn't make sense. Get a water filter and put it in your own bottle! Save a lot of money and know you are drinking good water. Some Good News There is additional good news in that the cost of top-notch water purifiers has dropped a lot since my tropical fish days. And there is a much wider selection of water filters available. This is great, but can also be confusing. How do you know that the water you and your children are drinking is good for you? How do you know your drinking water isn't actually hurting you? Have you thought about the water in the coffee and tea you drink, and in the dishes you cook? We strongly suggest that if you haven't done so already, that you install a water filter. Now would be a good time. We worked for months to select the best line of drinking water filters from those available now. While anxious to make our selection available to you, it required more homework than most products for us to be confident with our choice. I really don't claim to be a water expert, although I guess I used to be. I do know enough to make a reasonable assessment of the claims made by various manufacturers. We have now chosen a terrific line of kitchen water filters. I think that they are the best solution available today - and they require the least maintenance. The price is very low for the great job that they do. Since you can go a year without changing filters, the long-term cost is exceptionally low.
(Several months after we made this choice and wrote this article, we found that Dr. Andrew Weil recommends this type of KDF in combination with charcoal. And this is the only type he recommends.
One of the interesting things one sees when comparing water filters is that several companies use charts showing how their specific filter or their type of filtration compares to the others. I've been fascinated by the way not one of them included the Power Disk water filters in their charts. I'm pretty sure we know the reason - it works better than theirs. We are truly not trying to say that the others aren't good. Most will help, and you should have a drinking water filter. A particular concern several people have expressed to me is fluoride. Fluoride is very hard to remove from water. One of the filters in our store, the undersink model, does remove fluoride. If you prefer a countertop model that removes fluoride, give us a call. We have it. Click through below to learn more about the system and the different models. Please Don't Wait To Act! This is one of those things that you can intend to do, and the next thing you know years have gone by and you are still drinking bad water. What is the cost to your health and that of your loved ones? Maybe you've been thinking abut doing this for a long time, and somehow never got to it. Now is a great time. These water filter housings have a pro-rated warranty by the manufacturer for 5 years. As with any product you get from friendsofwater.com, you can return it within 30 days for any reason for a full refund. We really hope you'll start drinking clean water and stop buying bottled water. Drinking Water Filters
Thank you for reading.
More Fish Farm Stories: Betta Babies
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