Great article Roger

[tacocat]

I grew up near a large pet store that stocked marine fish during the 70's and 80's. It unfortunately is no longer around. It was interesting to read a synopsis of all the changes in the hobby that I have witnessed personally, as well as the events that occured before my time.

[rvitko]

Thanks. BTW- my article would be indecipherible if it wasn't for Skipper, Eric Borneman and Ron Shimek who do a fantastic job editing and reviewing these papers. I am not much on grammar and my rough draft would have gotten an F

[Habib]

if it wasn't for Skipper, Eric Borneman and Ron Shimek who do a fantastic job editing

So they changed history?

Roger, I still have to read that article and certainly will do so.

[rvitko]

In more ways than one. When I first thought I had finished I felt very good, then when it came back with all the corrections I needed to make I was very sad

[Todd March]

Very nice article, Roger... I particularily relished hearing the history of German aquaria as we owe them so much. One thing that interests me to know is after Norbert Tunze approached Eheim and they showed a lack of interest in his powerhead idea, calling it non-viable, what is the history of Eheim entering into the aquarium equipment field? When exactly did they start to manufacture aquarium goods?

Again thanks for the research and interviews and time invested. It was most enjoyable for us readers....

[rvitko]

Eheim is a very old company, some data suggests a manufacturing history back into the 1890's of farm implements. In the 1950's Eheim was a toy manufacturer, their specialty was model trains- I actually own a small collection of Eheim trains and they are very neat. They had fiberoptic lighting for the headlamps and windows of the cars. They were european styled trains powered by overhead electrical lines which they followed. The pump Norbert repaired was a pump for a train set fountain for waterfalls and train dioramas, he had an aquarium in his repair shop and this where he tested it. Eheim entered the aquarium hobby in 1965-67, I am not certain, I have it filed away somewhere. Eheim has a pretty amazing history- they were NASA's only supplier for some years and made the CEBAS mini module which was a fully contained aquarium used on the US space station. They made pumps for dialysis machines and I have seen an Eheim dialysis pump, my dad is a urologist and some of the older machines in the nephrollogy clinic he makes rounds in and I worked in as a a teenager were Eheim. They also made industrial pumps for everything from diamond cutters to bottling Coca Cola. I have one of the diamond cutting pumps and it is pretty slick, it has rubber blades to withstand the slurry. Now, Eheim is a different company, they are becoming a giant like Hagen. The family is more focused on the commercial airline operation they own and they don't make the industrial equipment anymore. Marineland won the NASA contract some years ago.

[Todd March]

Wow, I had no idea about Eheim having their irons in so many fires, though I have seen Ehiem train sets at antique toy shows. Thanks for the low-down, Roger... Eheim have always seemed to produce the same level of German quality product that say Tunze does. Can you imagine Marineland making dialysis pumps...Ha!

I really have to admire the German manufacturers more and more... I just noticed that even the glass shields in my Aquaspacelight has a DIN number...! Quite unlike things on this side of the pond...

Thanks again...

[Flamehawk]

Roger, enjoyed the insight, thanks for sharing.