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I was just wondering if anybody knows how long aquarium keepers have known about the nitrogen cycle. Is it as old as the hobbie? Or was it just "discovered" 10 years ago?

I know 25 years ago, when I had a tank as a kid, I never heard of it .

Just wondering.

-Dennis

Beefshank

I can clearly remember 35+ years I was told the tank had to settle in and this was the term I always used until I recently set up my new tank

I have just read for your interest.
Advanced Aquarist Guide uses these references (Hughes,1952 and Ghadially 1953)

Was described by these people way back then.

That was 50+ years ago I think you will find it was know many hundreds of years before that (when fish keping began) but it would have not been in the technical terms as of today

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I kept fish 25 years ago, and never heard of it back then (which probably explains why my fish kept dying.)

I just pulled out some of the 99-cent booklets about fishkeeping that I bought back then -- they were pretty much all that was available to the beginning hobbyist back then. (If you got serious about it, I assume there were much better books you could get, but ... )

Anyway, only one of the seven made a vague reference to the importance of bacteria in a tank, and that was only to say it was important not to kill them. But that was about it -- none of them had any explanation of the gradual buildup of bacteria in a new tank.