My Aquarium/Pond Endeavors

As per the URL of this blog, one of my hobbies that grew into an occupation is aquarium keeping. Although I plan to write more in the future in this blog about my endeavors that are pure hobbies (such as camping, flying, etc.) I thought I would touch on this a little.

Background

For more pictures, please see this site: “Carl Strohmeyer; Aquarium Pictures”

I started in the hobby in 1968 while I lived in Hacienda Heights with a 5 gallon Metaframe aquarium with a bubble corner filter. By 1977 I had my first saltwater aquarium, a 40 gallon with undergravel filter and Eheim Filter. Also in 1977 I started work at Archie’s House of Pets in La Puente California and later the same store in West Covina. During my time here I became the fish department manager for all 3 stores and also started an aquarium maintenance company on the side.

Learning
I loved learning form the trade shows, others in the hobby/industry as well as my clients. I know that may seem strange to learn from the person that is paying you to take care of their aquarium, however I have always felt that I could never know all there is to know about a subject (I still am trying to learn more as to aquatics via research, forums, clients, etc.). One way clients taught me is the many Medical offices I set up and maintained aquariums over the years. I often became friends with the Doctors who would not only share their own aquarium keeping experience but their medical experience as to where human medications and fish treatments had similarities.
Other ways I learned from Clients included when they simply challenged me as to why and I was forced to answer them via research, simple experimentation, or other methods.

As I learned and grew in the hobby and profession I also challenged myself to do a better job of extending my clients fish lives by means of improving diet, water quality, even unique aspects such as Redox Potential and general overall care. This led me to experiment and read more into many aspects of aquarium keeping.

I have also spent much time (especially of late) in research into what truly makes a good aquarium light, especially for freshwater plants and reefs. I have gone outside the aquarium industry for much of this research since this tends to be an area where anecdotal information really gets passed around (such the highly inaccurate “watts per gallon” so-called rule). I have got good information from the Greenhouse and general lighting industry, and I am currently working with a developer for cutting edge LED lights.
Here is my regularly updated aquarium lighting article: “Aquarium Lighting”.

Inventions
My research and experimentation led me to develop my own UV Sterilizer which I designed for easy maintenance and more important; effectiveness. As usual I did not rely solely on my own knowledge/experience but I utilized a friend and employee for input as to electrical and other design ideas. This is not to say my UV is the only good one available as there are other UV Sterilizers/clarifiers that work (although many are very gimmicky such as the wipers that come with some over priced units), the Terminator UV is another excellent UV Sterilizer that works and is not over priced with gimmicks that make little difference in effectiveness. I will brag to say I have spent 100s of hours in UV sterilization research as well as even more time with hands on experience with many different UV Sterilizers for both ponds and aquariums which has also led me to sell many different UV replacement bulbs as well.

I also invented a pump that turned on during power failures of which I also received more help input for this as well.

My Articles and current Aquatic Endeavors
I have since sold my aquarium maintenance business due to family and personal issues and now run an online aquarium supplies business where I use a lot of what I have learned and used in my maintenance and aquarium/pond design business to decide what and what not to sell.
More importantly (at least IMO) I have written and continue to write several articles that I update regularly due to my still constant research and feedback I get with colleagues as well as friends in forums, etc.
I still employ my same methods of research and not just relying on my experience, but on input and even challenges from others. I will also add that much of the research I perform is outside the aquarium/pond keeping and products industry as there is an over abundance of anecdotal aquatic information that just keeps getting passed around without real research or tests to back it up.

For more of my Aquatics Biography, Please see this site:
Carl Strohmeyer; My Aquarium Experience/Bio

A few of my article sites include:
Aquarium and Pond Information
Aquarium (& Pond) Answers
Fish as Pets

As well I have some links to others excellent article, blogs, directories, forums, etc. here:
Aquarium Information Directory

Within these sites you can find MANY articles with unique information that is based regular research as well as practical experience in my aquarium maintenance business.
Examples include my very current Aquarium Ich article:
Aquarium Ich; treatment, methods, & much more, The Aquarium and Pond Nitrogen Cycle

This article deals with the MANY aspects of aquatic disease prevention, as well as how to prepare a fish “bath”, dip or quarantine: Aquarium Disease Prevention

This article has a few sub pages and is a very excellent and thorough guide to pond care, set up, and much more:
A Clear Pond; Information, articles, and more
And MANY more!

The Aquarium Answers Web site has many blog style articles that are frequently updated, (which is VERY rare for web sites of this format). There are MANY articles of interest here such as this one that is updated regularly with facts and theories about aquatic HITH:
HITH; Hole in the Head Disease in Fish

For readers looking for personal help in a friendly forum format, please visit “Everything Aquatic”