I would love to see a walkthrough of the aquarium industry over time, I've been part of it since the 1980s but I think a summation would be fascinating!
Related but side story. When I worked for a few different dealerships, our prices were too high for me to honestly recommend but we would do all the little work even if it was a hard to get to pain in the neck to do. About 3 years ago my personal car engine decided to eat one of its main bearings. A time consuming but easy fix 2-day prosses especially on a Subaru: Remove engine literally split it in two by removing about 30 bolts, Send the possibly scarred crank shaft to a shop that can repair or polish it, Next day it comes back, and you put it all back together with all new bearings. About 4 hours of real work and 12 hours waiting for the crank to make its trip. Well, no more are those days Sorry but you need to buy an entire shot block so we can fix your car. We just can't ensure what the problem is, so this is the only option! WHAT??? $5,000 and 4 days later less than half the work was performed as the traditional fix and at more than double the cost. To those interested the short block is basically the bottom half of any traditional engine. Turns out this is how many companies are operating now.
If a company made a heater and gave a 30 year warranty we would all buy it. Two things may then happen - if the heater does break down before the 30 years is up the company would have to replace it which means they would lose money on the deal. The other possibility is that it would actually last for 30 years in which case very few would be sold after the initial rush to purchase. Either way the company would soon be out of business; they are relying on the consumer to continually spend money with them.
Being purposefully vague to follow the spirit of the video. I appreciate that the company that sold the heater with the infamous light stopped selling heaters because they were unhappy with the inability to source a heater that they could guarantee for longer than 2 years. Great video. Hope to see this problem change soon. Until then, I'll probably just do my best to stick with things that either can't really break or that I can fix myself.
40yrs keeping Aquarium's,needed a new Ehiem 600 classic.new one sounds like a tractor,The Shop were I bought it suggested I put a house hold brick on top of it to stop vibration that's what his friends recommend (brand new filter),and refused to exchange it.Turns out it's made in PRC ,China.Put me off Ehiem for good,and Ehiem Main supplier weren't much help either.I still have it in the box, definitely not as good as old Eheims.Fluval more reliable,and parts are easy to get anywhere.All the best Bentley,great content as usual.
Preach. With the unsustainability of our current consumer culture due to pollution, climate change and cheap junk for end users the more I think we need to go back to this older production of high quality, long lasting products. I’m all for it. Keep up the awesome videos my man. You are going in a very cool good direction.
Thank you for this video! Sadly it seems to be an attitude that is in overdrive in the US. Perhaps it's because loose regulations and protectionism mixed with corporate greed but, in many cases, the same brand and model in Korea (For example) is vastly superior to the one in the US. As consumers, to some degree, we are to blame too since Everytime we choose a specific product we are basically "voting" and encouraging these practices.
40 years ago my washing machine sprang a leak. I took it apart, the problem was the pump - the exact problem was a seal that must cost a matter of pennies to manufacture. I tried desperately to find this seal but it was not available anywhere. I ended up replacing the entire pump. When I complained about the unavailability of the seal the parts supplier replied thusly - 99% of people who own a washing machine would not be willing to strip it down, they would call an engineer to fix the problem. Even if the seal was available as a spare part you will not find an engineer willing to fit a new seal to an old pump, it's just not worth spending time stripping and replacing the part when a new pump is available just to bolt into place. Why would you spend that amount of money just on labour to replace a part on a machine that is nearing the end of its life anyway. If the machine starts leaking again 3 months after an engineer has replaced a seal the customer is going to call him back and expect him to repair it again free of charge.
When the entire freshwater community wants to pay next to nothing for their aquariums, and pride themselves on how little they pay for the hobby... What do you expect? They're still very solid and good equipment available in the aquarium hobby. But it cost money. Go get a titanium heater and a separate temperature controller. Or better yet an aquarium controller. I've been running two of my titanium heaters and their inkbird controllers for well over 4 years now with little issue or signs of wear.
I bought a 2 marine land bio wheel hob at a yard sale sale with 1 30 gallon and 10 gallon aquariums for $20. The marine land hob was still working after 10 years when I moved and sold it.
@@mikefritz4111 Great. But that's exactly why we don't have nice things designed and built for the freshwater hobby. What you bought those for, weren't retail prices. Who you bought them from, payed the retail price. And expecting to pay next to nothing for a product, from a company trying to make a living making and selling products, isn't an equation that works. All that gets you in the long run is cheaper, poorer made equipment. Which has been proven time and time again. If you want something well made and durable, you need to be willing to at least pay for the design work, the material selection, and the companies overhead. Or they can't afford to make things that are durable and well designed.
As long as a company is beholden to the investor, maximum profits will always be the goal. In today's market, it is unlikely any company could survive at scale over engineering a product in the modern market. Tractors are definitely a fairly easy one to follow from over engendered to engendered with a fail date. I would definitely love to hear the 50s/60s to current aquarium hobby talk. I do strongly feel investor's and greed was the downfall of longevity and reliability.
I'm 60yrs old. This shift started happening when plastics became prevalent. when I was a kid everything was made from glass, metal, wood, cotton and wool. Also, As soon as you pay your last payment on your car then it breaks down. I had a truck "back in the day" that had a leaky radiator, I put 2 raw eggs in it and it never leaked again. I bet you can't do that now with your Tesla.
Used Bio Wheels on all my aquariums in the eighties,nineties, hot magnums or canisters, then made long distance move so I got rid of all the aquariums and equipment, now starting over inspired by Father Fish and others
7:21 bro stuff like the heaters get me so heated haha. I feel like a heater failing is the absolute worst thing that could happen equipment wise and with these new ones only being reliable for like 6 months to a year (and thats if you get a good one) is absolutely ridiculous to me. I shouldn't have to change heaters more than my water lol They don't even sell the biowheels anymore! The old ones were amazing but they are really bad now
This is 1 of the reasons I tend to use Hygger and Nicrew. They're inexpensive and I haven't had a single issue or failure in the 5 years or so that I've been using them. But if they do fail, they're inexpensive. But I've been using the same 500w Hygger heater for 3 or 4 years. Never had a single issue and it keeps the tank in about a 4 degree range.
Love this video, Bentley! And.. OK.. I'm certainly not defending capitalism over customers, but isn't this just how it is now? As sad as that is to say...I mean, is there even a way, to NOT do this? Feels like all the little guys who DO want to help, will continue to get crushed by the big guys who want profits, AND get them? I'm just not sure what the options are, for us to be affecting change, in these markets, or at least for someone, like myself, who's not already a business or manufacturing person... I know, theoretically, we speak with our pocketbooks, but it just doesn't feel like enough of our pocketbooks, speak the same financial language... Or do we just have to cross our fingers and hope good wins? 😬 Sorry, not trying to be cynical, but it all feels very out of my hands and this point, and I feel completely at the mercy of the manufacturers.. so I guess I'll just keep watching you folks on the youtubes, and hoping y'all give me good advice on what to buy! 😂
I feel this. I think if more folks valued longevity and quality over upfront costs, this would shift back. I didn't really believe the age-old adage, "They don't make it like they use too" until I began purchasing things that should be lasting, like appliances ect, but they pewp out within a year. Now I just save up for the better things, my shoes are a good example. I buy name brand DC shoes, they're expensive upfront, but they last 8 or so years with daily use. So that seems more cost-effective over time to me, than to buy some Walmart shoes that may last a year or two. . . Alas though, the working class and lower are struggling financially as it is, so I don't see that shift happening until our economy gets out of such a sheit state. 😢
I would have saved a lot more of my tank supply when I closed my fish room in the laght 90's. If i would have known i cant get good quality tank supply's today. Nothing lasts.
Thankfully, there are no aquarium clouds yet, so they can just brick our products when they feel like it and stop supporting certain versions after a period of time. Or even worse subscriptions to run your heater/filter/whatever. or is it coming???
You want to get a smaller shrimp net. There's lots of really good options that are kind of big box shapes. From there honestly I would transfer them to something like a specimen container temporarily with some water in it as you're collecting up the shrimps and then just take them over to the new tank. If there's a difference in temperature, you might want to slowly drip water into the specimen container to kind of get them used to the differences and then pour them in the new tank. But if your similar temperatures you should be able to just transfer them.
What heater can I use that won’t have the ability to kill my fish? Building a 55g planted community tank. If it does fail I don’t want dead fish. Just a dead heater would be great 😊
Well, that depends. If the heater casing opens, you risk electrocution in the tank, if it sticks on, you just cook them. If it sticks off, it's likely too cold. So you have to address each failure
Did more homework. They have a very limited lifetime warranty and only service one replacement ever. The replacement is not under any warranty whatsoever. Also, the likelihood of you qualifying for the warranty is rather slim but not impossible.
There are some brands that make a significantly better seal. That's kind of the problem with going with the cheapest tanks like the Aqueons. You can look at something like aquarium Masters. They make a significantly higher quality tank but it is more expensive to purchase. You can also look at acrylic or something a bit more custom like custom aquariums.
All aquarium heaters will fail eventually. The older the heater the higher the failure rate. You should replace your heaters every 2 years to reduce the chances of failing.
"Conpanies need to run, they are businesses, we get that." But that's the problem. Why should we just accept that like its a fact of nature that we cannot change? Why is it okay that the fundamental reason for doing things is to make money? Why can't we do things for an actual reason? We could have everything we could dream of but no bc humans are too fascinated by seeing number get bigger. Sorry its the Anarchist in me, I just can't not.
So where that would matter is if we chose to change our buying habits. Instead of chasing the cheaper and cheaper and cheaper product and we instead chose products for quality. Yes you pay a little bit more but in the long run it ends up saving you money because you don't have to replace it every other year. Companies won't stay in business if they don't make profit. We understand that. Doesn't mean we can't expect some level of quality. We just have to be willing to pay for it.
@@BentleyPascoe that is true and that would be a nice step forward. But what I am talking about more is that profit and money gets in the way of just doing things and just doing things the best way which we are more than capable of but we don't. It's much larger in scope than just heaters and filters, we could be zooming around in flying craft powered by mercury reactors and that have no mechanical engine! There are already many parents for them in the US. Point is that if we as a collective were to move past the idea of profit and worked together rather than wanting to extort each other and be on top of each other then we would never have to worry about money in the first place and we would never have had a need for lower quality products bc it would fundamentally not make sense to us. It's not like we can change things today but the language we use and propagate Does affect how we think about things. You have to lay the foundation for people to be able to see the possibility of something different.
Right to repair is a huge problem in our society. Its really big with more tech stuff just bc people talk about it more.
The planned obsolescence is a blatant money grab for sure. The Eheim and Ebo Jager stuff was a blast from the past. Thank you for the nostalgia trip.
I would love to see a walkthrough of the aquarium industry over time, I've been part of it since the 1980s but I think a summation would be fascinating!
Agreed. I’ve been doing this since the 1970’s.
Related but side story. When I worked for a few different dealerships, our prices were too high for me to honestly recommend but we would do all the little work even if it was a hard to get to pain in the neck to do. About 3 years ago my personal car engine decided to eat one of its main bearings. A time consuming but easy fix 2-day prosses especially on a Subaru: Remove engine literally split it in two by removing about 30 bolts, Send the possibly scarred crank shaft to a shop that can repair or polish it, Next day it comes back, and you put it all back together with all new bearings. About 4 hours of real work and 12 hours waiting for the crank to make its trip. Well, no more are those days Sorry but you need to buy an entire shot block so we can fix your car. We just can't ensure what the problem is, so this is the only option! WHAT??? $5,000 and 4 days later less than half the work was performed as the traditional fix and at more than double the cost. To those interested the short block is basically the bottom half of any traditional engine. Turns out this is how many companies are operating now.
If a company made a heater and gave a 30 year warranty we would all buy it. Two things may then happen - if the heater does break down before the 30 years is up the company would have to replace it which means they would lose money on the deal. The other possibility is that it would actually last for 30 years in which case very few would be sold after the initial rush to purchase. Either way the company would soon be out of business; they are relying on the consumer to continually spend money with them.
My last ebo jager died two years ago. Not bad since it was purchased around 1990. 32 years.
They don't make em like they used to eh buddy?
Anything Eheim, perfect example!!!!
Being purposefully vague to follow the spirit of the video.
I appreciate that the company that sold the heater with the infamous light stopped selling heaters because they were unhappy with the inability to source a heater that they could guarantee for longer than 2 years.
Great video. Hope to see this problem change soon. Until then, I'll probably just do my best to stick with things that either can't really break or that I can fix myself.
40yrs keeping Aquarium's,needed a new Ehiem 600 classic.new one sounds like a tractor,The Shop were I bought it suggested I put a house hold brick on top of it to stop vibration that's what his friends recommend (brand new filter),and refused to exchange it.Turns out it's made in PRC ,China.Put me off Ehiem for good,and Ehiem Main supplier weren't much help either.I still have it in the box, definitely not as good as old Eheims.Fluval more reliable,and parts are easy to get anywhere.All the best Bentley,great content as usual.
Preach. With the unsustainability of our current consumer culture due to pollution, climate change and cheap junk for end users the more I think we need to go back to this older production of high quality, long lasting products. I’m all for it. Keep up the awesome videos my man. You are going in a very cool good direction.
I understand why they're doing it, but it makes me so mad. We're just throwing more plastic in the trash now.
That's one of the other major side effects that really doesn't get talked about very often.
Thank you for this video! Sadly it seems to be an attitude that is in overdrive in the US. Perhaps it's because loose regulations and protectionism mixed with corporate greed but, in many cases, the same brand and model in Korea (For example) is vastly superior to the one in the US. As consumers, to some degree, we are to blame too since Everytime we choose a specific product we are basically "voting" and encouraging these practices.
40 years ago my washing machine sprang a leak. I took it apart, the problem was the pump - the exact problem was a seal that must cost a matter of pennies to manufacture. I tried desperately to find this seal but it was not available anywhere. I ended up replacing the entire pump. When I complained about the unavailability of the seal the parts supplier replied thusly - 99% of people who own a washing machine would not be willing to strip it down, they would call an engineer to fix the problem. Even if the seal was available as a spare part you will not find an engineer willing to fit a new seal to an old pump, it's just not worth spending time stripping and replacing the part when a new pump is available just to bolt into place. Why would you spend that amount of money just on labour to replace a part on a machine that is nearing the end of its life anyway. If the machine starts leaking again 3 months after an engineer has replaced a seal the customer is going to call him back and expect him to repair it again free of charge.
When the entire freshwater community wants to pay next to nothing for their aquariums, and pride themselves on how little they pay for the hobby... What do you expect?
They're still very solid and good equipment available in the aquarium hobby. But it cost money.
Go get a titanium heater and a separate temperature controller. Or better yet an aquarium controller. I've been running two of my titanium heaters and their inkbird controllers for well over 4 years now with little issue or signs of wear.
I bought a 2 marine land bio wheel hob at a yard sale sale with 1 30 gallon and 10 gallon aquariums for $20. The marine land hob was still working after 10 years when I moved and sold it.
@@mikefritz4111 Great. But that's exactly why we don't have nice things designed and built for the freshwater hobby. What you bought those for, weren't retail prices. Who you bought them from, payed the retail price. And expecting to pay next to nothing for a product, from a company trying to make a living making and selling products, isn't an equation that works. All that gets you in the long run is cheaper, poorer made equipment. Which has been proven time and time again.
If you want something well made and durable, you need to be willing to at least pay for the design work, the material selection, and the companies overhead. Or they can't afford to make things that are durable and well designed.
Your thoughts and view points are always valuable. Thank you!
As long as a company is beholden to the investor, maximum profits will always be the goal. In today's market, it is unlikely any company could survive at scale over engineering a product in the modern market. Tractors are definitely a fairly easy one to follow from over engendered to engendered with a fail date. I would definitely love to hear the 50s/60s to current aquarium hobby talk. I do strongly feel investor's and greed was the downfall of longevity and reliability.
I'm 60yrs old. This shift started happening when plastics became prevalent. when I was a kid everything was made from glass, metal, wood, cotton and wool. Also, As soon as you pay your last payment on your car then it breaks down. I had a truck "back in the day" that had a leaky radiator, I put 2 raw eggs in it and it never leaked again. I bet you can't do that now with your Tesla.
Tesla doesn't have a radiator, so you're correct - I can't. 😉
@@BentleyPascoe Oh that's right it's electric hahahaha well you have more problems then a leaky radiator.
DC pumps and LED lights are huge upgrades. I cut the electricity usage in my fishroom by about 75%. Heaters, I only use during the Winter months.
As an Anarchist I absolutely love these types of videos lol. We need to be aware of the systems we propagate and how they affect us and everyone else.
In general everything modern has become worse. I've been in the hobby 36 years and I remember when equipment was bulletproof and lasted decades.
Used Bio Wheels on all my aquariums in the eighties,nineties, hot magnums or canisters, then made long distance move so I got rid of all the aquariums and equipment, now starting over inspired by Father Fish and others
The fluval 07 series canister filter is pretty modular and simple. It's been very reliable for me.
It's a shame where quality has gone on a side note I have been looking at the innovative marine Helio 100w ptc heater it has a 5 year warranty
True that!. I have had the green Jager for 32 years and have no problems ! Meanwhile, the new eheim Jager only last for 2 yrs.
7:21 bro stuff like the heaters get me so heated haha. I feel like a heater failing is the absolute worst thing that could happen equipment wise and with these new ones only being reliable for like 6 months to a year (and thats if you get a good one) is absolutely ridiculous to me. I shouldn't have to change heaters more than my water lol
They don't even sell the biowheels anymore! The old ones were amazing but they are really bad now
This is 1 of the reasons I tend to use Hygger and Nicrew. They're inexpensive and I haven't had a single issue or failure in the 5 years or so that I've been using them. But if they do fail, they're inexpensive. But I've been using the same 500w Hygger heater for 3 or 4 years. Never had a single issue and it keeps the tank in about a 4 degree range.
Heck yeah, I have an old ebo jager heater that I picked up years ago, second hand at the time as well, and it’s never failed me.
Spot on Bentley!
Love this video, Bentley! And.. OK.. I'm certainly not defending capitalism over customers, but isn't this just how it is now? As sad as that is to say...I mean, is there even a way, to NOT do this? Feels like all the little guys who DO want to help, will continue to get crushed by the big guys who want profits, AND get them? I'm just not sure what the options are, for us to be affecting change, in these markets, or at least for someone, like myself, who's not already a business or manufacturing person... I know, theoretically, we speak with our pocketbooks, but it just doesn't feel like enough of our pocketbooks, speak the same financial language... Or do we just have to cross our fingers and hope good wins? 😬 Sorry, not trying to be cynical, but it all feels very out of my hands and this point, and I feel completely at the mercy of the manufacturers.. so I guess I'll just keep watching you folks on the youtubes, and hoping y'all give me good advice on what to buy! 😂
I feel this. I think if more folks valued longevity and quality over upfront costs, this would shift back. I didn't really believe the age-old adage, "They don't make it like they use too" until I began purchasing things that should be lasting, like appliances ect, but they pewp out within a year. Now I just save up for the better things, my shoes are a good example. I buy name brand DC shoes, they're expensive upfront, but they last 8 or so years with daily use. So that seems more cost-effective over time to me, than to buy some Walmart shoes that may last a year or two.
.
.
Alas though, the working class and lower are struggling financially as it is, so I don't see that shift happening until our economy gets out of such a sheit state. 😢
Been using same eheim since 2013 300 watt heats my 125 no problem
Also, super interested in the tech history videos!
I love me a Bentley knowledge drop! 😌
def luv history
I would have saved a lot more of my tank supply when I closed my fish room in the laght 90's. If i would have known i cant get good quality tank supply's today. Nothing lasts.
Thankfully, there are no aquarium clouds yet, so they can just brick our products when they feel like it and stop supporting certain versions after a period of time.
Or even worse subscriptions to run your heater/filter/whatever. or is it coming???
Does anyone know who has Chilatherina campsi?
What is the best way to transfer shrimp from one tank to another
You want to get a smaller shrimp net. There's lots of really good options that are kind of big box shapes. From there honestly I would transfer them to something like a specimen container temporarily with some water in it as you're collecting up the shrimps and then just take them over to the new tank. If there's a difference in temperature, you might want to slowly drip water into the specimen container to kind of get them used to the differences and then pour them in the new tank. But if your similar temperatures you should be able to just transfer them.
What heater can I use that won’t have the ability to kill my fish? Building a 55g planted community tank. If it does fail I don’t want dead fish. Just a dead heater would be great 😊
Well, that depends. If the heater casing opens, you risk electrocution in the tank, if it sticks on, you just cook them. If it sticks off, it's likely too cold. So you have to address each failure
Aqueon has lifetime on heaters. Couple of times I needed to contact for issues and they sent new heaters no questions asked.
What... I don't believe this
Did more homework. They have a very limited lifetime warranty and only service one replacement ever. The replacement is not under any warranty whatsoever. Also, the likelihood of you qualifying for the warranty is rather slim but not impossible.
What a great video
So much shit also has proprietary bits now so you can't just take it apart with a screwdriver...
Are newer tanks designed to fail and leaks these days? Looking to get back into the hobby but tired of reading reviews about new tanks leaking......😮
There are some brands that make a significantly better seal. That's kind of the problem with going with the cheapest tanks like the Aqueons. You can look at something like aquarium Masters. They make a significantly higher quality tank but it is more expensive to purchase. You can also look at acrylic or something a bit more custom like custom aquariums.
All aquarium heaters will fail eventually. The older the heater the higher the failure rate.
You should replace your heaters every 2 years to reduce the chances of failing.
I love you man but in a car it's called a seat not a chair.
"Conpanies need to run, they are businesses, we get that."
But that's the problem. Why should we just accept that like its a fact of nature that we cannot change? Why is it okay that the fundamental reason for doing things is to make money? Why can't we do things for an actual reason? We could have everything we could dream of but no bc humans are too fascinated by seeing number get bigger. Sorry its the Anarchist in me, I just can't not.
So where that would matter is if we chose to change our buying habits. Instead of chasing the cheaper and cheaper and cheaper product and we instead chose products for quality. Yes you pay a little bit more but in the long run it ends up saving you money because you don't have to replace it every other year. Companies won't stay in business if they don't make profit. We understand that. Doesn't mean we can't expect some level of quality. We just have to be willing to pay for it.
@@BentleyPascoe that is true and that would be a nice step forward. But what I am talking about more is that profit and money gets in the way of just doing things and just doing things the best way which we are more than capable of but we don't. It's much larger in scope than just heaters and filters, we could be zooming around in flying craft powered by mercury reactors and that have no mechanical engine! There are already many parents for them in the US. Point is that if we as a collective were to move past the idea of profit and worked together rather than wanting to extort each other and be on top of each other then we would never have to worry about money in the first place and we would never have had a need for lower quality products bc it would fundamentally not make sense to us. It's not like we can change things today but the language we use and propagate Does affect how we think about things. You have to lay the foundation for people to be able to see the possibility of something different.
Yay! You only made it 1:14 to mention co-op 😂
Planned obsolescence...why did I think of Joe Biden. Seriously, good stuff Bentley. Thanks!
immoral capitalism