Vintage Aquariums

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Just a thread for you to post whatever you like about vintage aquariums. Memories, pictures, articles, ads, tips, stuff for sale, what have you. While the emphasis is on vintage, current equipment is welcomed as well. Enjoy!

 

 

[this post was last edited: 7/7/2014-00:26]

 

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Metaframe 1971

 

 






 

 

[hydralique]

When I was a kid we had some of those metal frame aquariums, I still remember my sister wiping one out after a little incident on the unicycle . . . we did manage to save quite a few of the fish though.

 

[rp2813]

We got a small (10 gallon?) tank for free somewhere/somehow for Dave's younger daughter when she was living with us.  We didn't know what we were doing and dumped feeder fish in with slightly more exotic types and it became a cleaning nightmare.  I also remember dumping several tiny neon tetras (?) into the tank without even considering that they were small enough to eat (see lead-in to previous sentence).  They lasted less than three minutes.  Those poor innocent things didn't deserve such a fate.  Sigh.

 

Back then, we lived in an area that got a serious thrashing when magnitude 7.0 Loma Prieta struck, and half the water and most of the fish were seiched out.   She was already bored with it and gave it away not long after that.

 

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<h2 class="itemTitle">Restoration of my Metaframe Aquarium...</h2>
 

Home - Minnesota Aquarium Society

Minnesota Aquarium Society (MAS) is a Twin Cities based aquarium club that promotes all aspects of the aquarium hobby.

aquarium.mn

 

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<h2 class="title icon">Metal Framed Slate Bottom Tank Restoration...</h2>

Metal Framed Slate Bottom Tank Restoration

Some of you may have seen this before but for some reason I never posted a thread about this tank restore on here, so I figured I'd do it now. Here's a tank I came across on Freecycle and how I went about restoring it. I did this project about 1 yr ago. Before I cleaned it... Here's the...

www.aquariacentral.com

 

[tomturbomatic]

Yeah, if the Metaframe tanks ever dried, you almost always had to have the tank taken apart and the sealant repacked, one area in which the new all glass was better and the all glass tanks did not have to have all of the metal sealed under silicone if you wanted to keep salt water fish.

I kept tanks for years and really enjoyed them, but now I don't like to keep any critters confined. I'm not judging anyone; I've had my fun, glad I could have it but don't need that anymore.

Aquarium came from the combining of the two terms aquatic + vivarium back in Victorian times.

 

[beekeyknee]

I replaced a broken glass in a large Metaframe tank for my biology teacher back in the '70's with the original black tar stuff. It came in a green can and as I recall it was Metaframe sealant. I did it on our patio, in the sunshine on the hottest day of the summer. The heat glaring on that concrete made installing the glass easier. It was a large tank with very heavy glass. I'll never forget that. My teacher was mighty impressed.

I told her after I returned it to never let it dry out. I was a member of Science Club. Everyone in my class hated me 'cause I was smarter than they were. Or at least that's what they thought.