Tips and Tricks

[2wheelsx2]

The newspaper trick is an old car detailing trick. The ink in the paper is slightly abrasive and the spit (doesn't have to be spit, can be any water) lubricates it to very very lightly polish the glass. Windex and paper towels are a ton of work. If you get Stoner's Invisible Glass or any of the alcohol based cleaners (or just vinegar) it degreases and cleans your glass much faster without streaks.

[Jools]

Spitting is more fun, especially with cichlids. In all seriousness, it works well and doesn't run the risk of anything nasty getting in the tanks. When you have 3 or 4 tanks on top of each other, this becomes more important.

Jools

[bronzefry]

Since we've had a heat wave recently, I discovered a few things:
1. Lifting the lids on the tanks immediately lowers the temperature by 2 degrees F. Keeping the lids open overnight will keep the temperature at this lower temperature. Just watch out for any errant air stones. The bubbles can create some water on the floor. Oops.
2. Shutting off the lights during the heat wave also helps lower the temperature by another few degrees, especially if the light fixtures emit high wattage.
3. Unplug the heaters during a heat wave, even for the tanks with high-temp fish. They seem to do quite well with it. Plug them back in when the temps cool off.
4. Don't feed as much during a heat wave(unless you have fry to look after).
5. Plants like duckweed, when overgrown, can trap heat. Remove overgrown duckweed or surface plants.
Amanda

[corybreed]

Growing up in New York City I have been fortunate to have met many great aquarists. I always learn something when I visit a good fish room. Here are two useful items. First a rolling mincer that can be purchased in all houseware stores. It has a number of sharp blades that when rolled over black or blood worms cuts them into pieces of any desired size. You just rinse with water and feed. Another great item is a little plastic table thats put into pizza boxes so the pizza doesn't stick to the top of the box. You can silicone the little table to the bottom of a sponge filter so it raises it off the bottom of the tank and it keeps the fry from getting stuck under it. This might be a New York thing it think??

Mark

[corybreed]

One more. You can use a clump of Java Moss to collect adhesive cory eggs. Then you just deposit the eggs/moss in a hatching container.

Mark

[MatsP]

You can silicone the little table to the bottom of a sponge filter so it raises it off the bottom of the tank and it keeps the fry from getting stuck under it.

Just a thought: I'd bet a few pence that those "little tables" are made from PVC - can be glued with "solvent weld" to other PVC (prevalent material along with ABS for almost all types of plastic that goes into aquarium things).

Actually, that's probably a tip on it's own:
Most plastic bits produced for aquariums are PVC or ABS, and can be "solvent welded together". Of course, this also applies to solved weld type water/waste pipes that are commonly available in DIY/plumbing shops. E.g. an Eheim strainer can be glued to the "nut" of the bulkhead for overflow pipes to prevent fish being sucked down into a sump or such...

--
Mats

[matthewfaulkner]

When peeling and cutting vegetables lay out a sheet of cling film beforehand. Then you can wrap up all the peelings and leftovers into a bundle and throw them in the bin, instead of picking them up or scraping them into the bin. Or you could carry the bundle to compost heap/bin or garden waste and empty the bits there (probably not the cling film as I don't know if it's biodegradable).

[sidguppy]

some great tips are in this thread

as for overfilling I still haven't found any solution, except that I stay close, often with a book.
I read a LOT and i just make myself comfortable near the tank with a book and keep 1 eye on the tank, 1 on the book.

"just checking the email and the forums" doesn't work!
internet is wayyyyy too addictive and I flooded my former apartment 2 times with hundreds of liters at refills when "just checking the mail"


I always recycle tankwater! room plants, the lawn, the rest of the garden: all do fine on fish-poo. i just elongate the hoses with pieces of eheim pipe until I can reach any part of the garden.
I also collect tankwater when washing out biofiltration sponges, bacterial medium and such.
cold water will shock-kill the bacteria, but rinsing them in surplus tankwater will not and you don't have to waste drinking water to do that.

careful with this one:

Lifting the lids on the tanks immediately lowers the temperature by 2 degrees F. Keeping the lids open overnight will keep the temperature at this lower temperature

many fish can jump and eel like fishes get out as well......

even clumsy looking things like callichthys are true escape artists and finding one's prize rarities covered in dust and still busy dying is no fun at all.....neither is being a slow waker and stepping barefooted on the dorsal spine of a dead catfish

[apistomaster]

Multitasking refilling tanks while posting or e-mailing is the number one cause of my overflow incidents.

I also think it is a bad idea to leave the cover open. I never could see how so many people who specialize in aquatic gardening don't use any glass lids could not have enough sobering losses from fish jumping out to continue going without covers. Many fish which don't seem likely to jump actually do. Wild Discus for example.

[2wheelsx2]

I can see running open top if you have acrylic, since the openings are small, but yeah, when I ran open top I was always worried about suicide fish so I put the top back on.

[Jon]

At your local hardware store, you can usually find potting sand, which essentially amounts to completely inert, very fine sand (which almost qualifies as silt). It is by far the best substrate for any sand-diving fish you might have. And aesthetically pleasing/cheap, too.

[andywoolloo]

screen lids for summer are easy to make, fish can't jump out.

zip ties
plastic coated wire mesh cut at hardware store
garden ties/stakes

when you have glass lids and you lift them up and lean them back against the light strip, the front open area is what I screen.

[Barbie]

Some of these tips are going to be redundant, but they are all things people have seen me use at the shop and said "Gosh, how did you think of THAT?"

1. Clamps from Home Depot are a god send. I use the squeeze clamps on everything from water treatment barrels to holding fry containers on the glass in a pinch. They are primarily plastic and the little bit of metal is up out of the water in most applications. That extra hand can make it much easier to have water siphoning and filling at the same time in your fish room. Of course, this also doubles (ok, maybe triples) your chances of getting water outside of a box, rather than inside!

2. Muriatic acid is available at most hardware stores and is a fantastic soak when mixed with water to remove all sorts of lime scale from glass and plastic. CAREFUL! with this one!

3. The bulb suction devices they use in surgical applications are designed to be used one handed. If you can find them, they are extremely handy in a fish room.

4. Individual pill containers make great fish food holders when you are going to be leaving a caretaker in your fish room. Labeled or one left on each tank is a safe way to be sure they aren't overfed in your absence.

5. To start a siphon with a Python style water changer, you can submerge the gravel vac portion with the open end up, then raise it above the edge of the tank. As the water flows through the hose, submerge again, and start vacuuming. This allows you to let the water to drain into the toilet (which is self flushing as it fills) and not waste the water in your sink. It lets gravity do the work.

6. Most clear hoses will slide inside each other with a fairly tight seal. I regularly pump water 16' up to the second story by stuffing the python hose inside the 3/4" ID hose that runs in my saltwater mixing bin. Try it. It's handy! ;)

7. Sharpie markers don't wipe off tanks as easily as dry erase ones (learned this the hard way) but can easily be scraped off with a new razor blade. I write all over my tanks before I leave on vacations. No idea if it helps!

8. Sticky velcro from the craft store on power strips can save you having to stand in that puddle to unplug the power strip that is sparking at you. I use the 2" stuff and put a big chunk on the inside of the stand or rear leg, depending on the stand style. Then you can easily pull the strip out to work on things, but also have it up off the floor and out of the way.

I am sure I'm forgetting things. I will try to add them as I think of them. Great idea Shane .

Barbie

[Jools]

Having a home wormery is great for a fish room and also great for feeling good about yourself from a green perspective. I have this one (a Christmas present from my wife):

http://www.wormsdirectuk.co.uk/acatalog ... rmery.html

All uncooked kitchen vegetable and fruit waste exception onions and citrus related stuff goes in here as well as hoover waste, egg shells and cut flowers. I get a tonne of worms, and an infinite supply of blackwater extract too. The container itself sits within a fish poly box, and drains out into cups (blackwater extract). Amazingly it doesn't smell bad if kept open to the air. Every 10-12 months I get several kilos of high grade compost for the houseplants and I feed healthy live worms to my larger fish every two weeks or see, cost free.

Jools

[coelacanth]

Having a home wormery is great for a fish room and also great for feeling good about yourself from a green perspective.

We have made them from old 5-gallon salt buckets, few holes drilled in the bottom and some old netting over that, job's a good 'un, old tea bags are also go in there.
Any large food-grade container will do, I've got a couple of the posh purpose-built ones at home, but I wouldn't say they do any better than our cheapo bucket'o'worms method.
Worms mean happy fish

[2wheelsx2]

Can you feed the worms directly to plecos? Or do you chop them up? I've been thinking about doing one, but the thought of chopping up worms changes my mind every time.

[coelacanth]

Can you feed the worms directly to plecos? Or do you chop them up? I've been thinking about doing one, but the thought of chopping up worms changes my mind every time.

No need for chopping, just pull them apart with your fingers

If you're squeamish, you can buy multi-bladed scissors which do the job very quickly (they're sold for this purpose by angling suppliers, or you can buy them for destroying documents).

[bronzefry]

some great tips are in this thread

as for overfilling I still haven't found any solution, except that I stay close, often with a book.
I read a LOT and i just make myself comfortable near the tank with a book and keep 1 eye on the tank, 1 on the book.

"just checking the email and the forums" doesn't work!
internet is wayyyyy too addictive and I flooded my former apartment 2 times with hundreds of liters at refills when "just checking the mail"


I always recycle tankwater! room plants, the lawn, the rest of the garden: all do fine on fish-poo. i just elongate the hoses with pieces of eheim pipe until I can reach any part of the garden.
I also collect tankwater when washing out biofiltration sponges, bacterial medium and such.
cold water will shock-kill the bacteria, but rinsing them in surplus tankwater will not and you don't have to waste drinking water to do that.

careful with this one:

Lifting the lids on the tanks immediately lowers the temperature by 2 degrees F. Keeping the lids open overnight will keep the temperature at this lower temperature

many fish can jump and eel like fishes get out as well......

even clumsy looking things like callichthys are true escape artists and finding one's prize rarities covered in dust and still busy dying is no fun at all.....neither is being a slow waker and stepping barefooted on the dorsal spine of a dead catfish

Sorry. I thought about that as I was walking away from the computer! My jumpers, surprisingly, have been Otocinclus sp.. I reuse some of the tank water on the plants, especially cactus.
Amanda

[Shane]

A gift from Jools, this has to be the best piece of aquarium kit ever.

[Shane]

Super drainer. This is 1 inch clear hose from a hardware store. I attached an intake strainer from a Marineland 330 so I do not suck up fish.

[Shane]

Modified Marineland filter. The sponge filter attached to the intake is actually sold as part of their reverse undergravel filter kit (RUGF). These kits sell for very little and add about 40 gallons of sponge filtration to any power filter.
http://www.thefind.com/pets/info-revers ... vel-filter

I'll owe a beer to anyone (but Jools) that can point out what is really weird about these two filters being used on the same tank (Hint: Electric catfish).
-Shane

[2wheelsx2]

A gift from Jools, this has to be the best piece of aquarium kit ever.

I need to find one of those....are they in hardware stores?

[andywoolloo]

wow, i need to find that also.

i love this thread.

[Shaun]

I don't really have much in the way of tips except: RECYCLE! I never throw any old fish gear away, it all ends up being used for something. A good example would be: instead of buying clamps to hold hoses in tanks, I use an old canister inlet (a plastic U-bendish thing) attached to a hose and it just hooks over the side. The old inlet strainer even breaks up the water flow so there's no strong current to disturb fish/plants/sand.
Old tanks turn into sumps, and all my trickle filters are made from old buckets. I've turned the foam boxes that fish arrive in into planter boxes for vegetables (some of which are then fed to the fish), fish water is used on the veggies, veggie scraps feed worms which in turn feed the fish.
You get the idea

Sorry if this is repeating any previous tips or tricks, I'm still reading through everything...
Shaun

[JoePlec]

I use a pepper-mill for grinding tablet/granule food to fry-size grains.

--
Mats

Amazing.. ive been stuggling...

[Jools]

A gift from Jools, this has to be the best piece of aquarium kit ever.

I need to find one of those....are they in hardware stores?

Yes, you get them with washing machines and dishwashers but can buy them individually.

Jools

[Jools]

This might be a New York thing it think??

Pizza Hut UK delivery use these too, however dominos and most independents do not. However the top of a ball point pen inserted into the sponge (use three if you wish) do the same job.

Jools

[crkinney]

Those are some good tips .
When changing water I use a 1 in. tygone hose with the strainer off of a over the wall filter on the end ,sediment goes and fish don't
I keep a tank of fish from the swamp so I keep dark water. In stead of mixing a bunch of leaves and stuff I hang a tea bag in the filter until I get the color I want with very little change in PH.

[MatsP]

A gift from Jools, this has to be the best piece of aquarium kit ever.

I need to find one of those....are they in hardware stores?

Yes, you get them with washing machines and dishwashers but can buy them individually.

Jools

I couldn't find the thing on it's own when looking over the DIY/plumbing web-sites [maybe my searching wasn't particularly good], but you can certainly buy a drain-hose with the bending bit included, for just over £3 ($5 or so).

Jools, do you have a reference where the bit is sold on it's own?

--
Mats

[Jools]

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/76974/Plu ... -Hose-1-5m

Jools