What has changed is more people are keeping much fussier fancy GF with deep bodies.
those plain old comets or pond fantails won at fairs can stand pretty bad conditions
without dying. not so the fancier GF with long fins.
We still call them "goldfish bowls" and they were never appropriate for GF because
too little water and high maintenance. the same is now true for UGF, they are high
maintenance compared to bare bottom tanks with good external filters.

a bare bottom tank does not require chemical treatments. for an absolute newbie who
has never had any kind of fish, and for people who want a low maintenance set up,
nothing compares to BBT. Typically the tank is set up with double the usual amount
of external filters. So a 20 gallon tank would have a filter rated for a 40 gallon
tank. 2 big airstones and a heater to keep temps constant. it is not easy to get a
couple fish and cycle this kind of tank without using some biofilter startup, either
a filter pad from a cycled tank, some biospira, or start with some fish food and do a
fishless cycling before getting the fish. however, once this is up and running it is
very stable and easy to maintain. water changes once a week, rinse out the filter
pad(s).
the only thing easier is a pond with a veggie filter. Ingrid


Trevor Stenson wrote:
I agree that they have a bad, and I think, undeserved reputation these
days.
The trick is not to overfeed, use relatively large gravel and do your
normal tank care.
I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist but It seems to me that a cheap
UG filter has given away to the numerous chemical treatments that the
stores hook you into buying to keep you tank biochemistry healthy.


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