Question of the Day Hobby Hacks - your best tips, tricks and time-savers!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Art
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Art said:
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Nothing beats these for getting the inside of your glass crystal clear. They are 25 cents each and you recycle them when they clog up.

I’m stilling using my first bunch that I purchased two years ago.

Disclaimer: make sure they are wet when using.
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I get the scratch-resistant blue ones, pink is even better if you can find. Green will scratch glass very easy if youre not careful, especially low iron rimless glass

I like Mr Clean Magic Erasers ever better, can get a big bag of generic ones cheap. Anything too hard for those I use a sm paint scraper that holds a single-edge razor blade
 
A simple way to add soil or sand into an established tank. There are similar methods on YouTube, but the key difference is filling the bottle with water before pouring out the substrate. That helps keep most of the fine dust inside the bottle. When I stop pouring, the bottle is still black inside. That's all aqua soil dust. Without filling with water first, the fine dust will follow the substrate out during the initial part of the pouring. Easy to manoeuvre as well.
 
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I use clay pebbles as a bio media filtration in my canisters.
And, organic clay root tabs made for indoor plants. They are esay to break and put around the plants deep on the substrat to prevent nutriments leaking.
 
Pot scrubbers for filter media. Good surface area to support large microbial communities and good flow through, so not limiting turnover. And cheap.
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Old credit card to get rid of algae between the glass front and substrate.

Using a funnel with tube attached to add fresh substrate in an established tank when still full of water. Very good for getting it exactly where you want it without mess or disturbance.

Turkey baster with hose attached to disturb mulm in those awkward places and syphon it out at the same time.

Similar method for trimming moss. Attach hose to scissors, syphon moss out as it’s trimmed. Stops it going everywhere and growing where you don’t want it.

Layer of greenhouse shading mesh between soil substrate and capping substrate. Stops the soil mixing and messing up your aquarium. Particularly good when pulling up plants or distributing the capping substrate.

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Another turkey baster one, use it to get rid of excess water in or just above the substrate when doing dry start or to get rid of that last bit of water you can’t quite syphon out.
 
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I think I saw this tip at UKAPS a while ago and it really made a difference: put down washable puppy pads while you work to catch drips. They are less bulky than towels and naturally lay flat, and one side is waterproof so you don't have to worry about anything soaking through to your floors.
 
For anyone using Eheim 350 surface skimmers, this product really helps keep shrimp from getting sucked in and also diffuses that pesky jet stream that just about breaks stems in half.
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TRyan said:
For anyone using Eheim 350 surface skimmers, this product really helps keep shrimp from getting sucked in and also diffuses that pesky jet stream that just about breaks stems in half.
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Nice! I am an owner of the skimmer as well. Do you have a link to this product?
 
PeerUnk said:
Much appreciated, worth a try because the skimmer already took two innocent lives before it was shut down.
Cheers!
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You're welcome! I really like mine set up like this.
 
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