Curiosity questions, because I just don't know.

[Scrappy71113]

If you stick to the basics you will usually be fine. As has been mentioned get fish that are compatible with you tap water, keep them in a decent sized tank with a suitable filter. Don’t overcrowd the tank. Change water regularly and feed quality foods but not too much and you should do okay.
I find if you have lots of plants algae becomes less of an issue too.
You can go nuts with gadgets if you want, get an R.O unit, a UV steriliser and Co2 injector and hi tech LED lights but it’s not really necessary most of the time and can add a lot of stress to what’s meant to be a relaxing hobby.

My tanks are pretty simple when it comes to equipment.
The system my Oscar is currently in is a basic petco 75 gallon tank with a 35 gallon sump I made. I ran all of the pipes myself. There's two water pumps that keep everything running, and the lights are clip on shop lights Secured to the wall with shelf brackets. I had built in an algea scrubber in the sump with knitting plastic, but I ran out of plug ins for the lights and just haven't went about getting a bigger power strip ? it was loads of fun to put together.
But it's literally my most successful tank. Plants thrive when my little brute doesn't shred them, the only algea in the tank is on the scaping rocks, my butthole of a fish is more than happy to try to eat my fingers. Funny thing is it's also the least scaped tank, go figure ?
My second most successful tank is the same set up that my goldfish are in. The only difference is I get more algea growth but it's still not out of control. It's only less successful because it was the first tank that I had built everything on and hadn't figured out all of the finer details yet. There were a couple of errors on my part that ended up with wet carpets because I took gravity into account when there were power outages, but not the upward flow of water when the power comes back on. Oops ?

 

[Scrappy71113]

Thank you guys, for the peace of mind. I've been a bit worried about what I have been doing. I know that not everything I read on the Internet is true, especially on FB. I just really needed more knowledgeable confirmation. FB people are freaking crazy, so I really should know better than to listen to them at all.

 

[duanes]

Do UV sterilizers impact/damage the organisms responsible for the nitrogen cycle in freshwater tanks? I always thought that it did not but I have a LFS owner here who is telling me UV sterilizers also kill/damage the good bacteria in a freshwater tank & advises against the use of UV in freshwater aquaria.

Agree with esoxlucius, benefial bacteria are not planktonic, (one of the reasons saving old tank water when starting a new tank is useless),
Beneficial bacteria don't normally pass thru a UV unit.
This is why we use filter media, and substrate to jump cycle a new aquarium instead, the beneficial bacteria are bio-film
But some sessile, and internal pathogens, and are also not effected by UV.