Tips and Tricks

[pleconut]

Oh, and the adhesive labels you buy from stationary outlets, put on electrical plugs of equipment too- so i know exactly what I'm unplugging during maintainence- and hopefully plug back in afterwards.

[bekateen]

Although I know some people think using a garden hose to refill tanks is a bad idea, I have a garden hose dedicated just for the purpose of draining and refilling my larger tanks. One thing I worry about is having fish, floating plants, and sand get sucked into the hose while draining the tank. To avoid this, and to break up the water stream while refilling, I attach a soaker nozzle to the end of the hose:

[pleconut]

I really need to invest in something like this. Mainly as my next tank will be over 500 litres.

[TwoTankAmin]

I use a plastic garden hose sprinkler with a ball valve. The valve lets me adjust or turn off the flow.



I nip off the pieces that hold the metal lawn spike they come with- takes about 3 seconds.

For years I used regular garden hoses for refills until it became impossible to find them w/o a mold inhibitor and I switched to drinking water quality hoses. I never had any issues with regular garden hoses and I used them to refill tanks with zebra plecos and wild caught altum angels with no apparent ill effects over the years.

While I usually refill tanks using a pump and holding containers, in one area where I created a "fish space" and installed a utility sink I made sure he faucet was adapted to permit a garden hose to screw dirctly into the faucet. My portable ro/di unit comes with a garden hose adapter input already installed. Sure makes it easier to batch ro/di. I also use garden hose splitters with ball valves to allow me to get water out of two different hose adapters at the same time and independently control the flow from each one separately.

[backstreetgambler]

As any keeper of corys can testify to, they are suckers for worms. so to for freeze dried tubifex worms. Only problem is those cubes don't sink and the corys won't come to the surface for food.

Well, you can tie a bit of fishing line to a small nail. then gently drill a hole in the tubifex cube with the nail and then just drop it in and let it sink. It will within minutes.

Then just sit back and enjoy the feeding frenzy!