In the 1950s, aquarium maintenance consisted mainly of syphoning the gook off the bottom of the tank when it started to smell bad. If the idea of weekly partial water changes was around at the time, I didn't know anything about it. Most aquariums, not just mine, had murky looking water, and it wasn't until I discovered the miracle of under gravel filters that I actually saw nice clear aquarium water. I was so impressed that all of my aquariums still have cheap under gravel filtering.
To drain aquarium water, the trick setup was a clear plastic flexible hose. They were hard to find, and it was often necessary to make do with an old garden hose. Those things were dangerous, because you couldn't see the water level while you were sucking on the hose trying to start a syphon. Even with the clear plastic hose, I often got a mouth full of aquarium bottom water cooties. Strong mouth wash was not effective in removing the cootie cocktail taste.
Usually it was necessary to completely break down an aquarium about twice a year. The slate bottom made even small aquariums heavy, and the odor didn't help much either. I once read an article that advocated putting an air bubblier in an aquarium and using no filtration. The guy who wrote it probably didn't have to tear down fish tanks in the 50s.
After washing the white sand and replacing the angel hair in the box filter, the aquarium got fresh tap water with a few anti chlorine drops. No fancy water conditioners. No water test kits. Just fill and add fish. Somehow, they survived. At least some of them did, as did my interest in the hobby.
I think all those cootie cocktails lengthened my learning curve, because it was ten or fifteen years before I was actually selling fish, plants and mystery snails to a local aquarium shop. The gradual onset of puberty also handicapped my ability to learn, but that's another subject entirely.
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