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

[Koan]

My top fave hack tip trick upgrade of 2025:



Stiff / clunky / kinked /unwieldy ugly vinyl stock filter tubing...

Begone!

 

[Art]

This definitely will solve the unsightly gunk that grows in clear tubes and will be easier to maneuver. Does it kink though?

 

[Kwyet]

I have it, and it does kink easily (for me anyway). It would probably be better if it wasn’t so cramped under the tank. I still like it better than the ugly ribbed hoses.

 

[Koan]

Well any hose can kink, I've kinked my share of green Eheim tubing

With this if I just use sufficient length for a sweeping run, it works great! In the couple places I needed a tighter bend I just used an elbow fitting.

The gray is very neutral, I thought it would be more distracting than it is.

I do use pipe clamps with it for safety Still prefer that any day over thick stiff vinyl preheating / trying to pre-bend / cram in barbed fittings.. And it snips neatly with scissors. I must have post-trauma over trying to saw squared off hose cuts.

I hate vinyl tubing.

 

[gnatster]

Inkbird has you covered:

Is the juice worth the squeeze with these?

Lordy knows I do like my gadgets. The hardware is almost as much fun as the plants.

 

[Kwyet]

Inkbirds are well worth the money, in my opinion.

 

[Art]

I agree 100% on the Inkbirds. If you use a heater, having a good temperature controller is critical. Depending on the type of heater, either it becomes your sole controller or you use the heater's thermostat as a back up to this.

 

[Koan]

Is the juice worth the squeeze

Ugh, until, let's call them 'recent events' they were about $25, a little more if you want Wi-Fi.

Still cheap at the price to save all the livestock in your tank .

At some point they will be $25 again. In the meantime, still in no brainer, all heaters fail and unfortunately due to a quirk of their design they fail "on" and cook your tank.

 

[Art]

Heaters should be treated as disposable items.

 

[filmpunk]

I've had 2 nearly complete livestock losses since I've been in the hobby. The first occurred when texas experienced "the big freeze" and most of our city lost power for 3 days. Only had 1 harlequin rasbora and "Waldo"my red racer nerite survive. I built my livestock back up, then experienced my 2nd major loss due to a heater failure which turned the tank into a literal hot tub... only Waldo survived because he was able to climb up out of the water. Bought a inkbird after that but I've yet to use it because I decided to go with an unheated tank. Keep the house around 73 degrees and don't really keep any species requiring warmer water. If I ever do require use of a heater, the inkbird will absolutely be part of my equipment.

 

[Pneumonicsonic]

I agree 100% on the Inkbirds. If you use a heater, having a good temperature controller is critical. Depending on the type of heater, either it becomes your sole controller or you use the heater's thermostat as a back up to this.

Dumb question, but what do you do when the thermostat for the ink bird is reading incorrectly? My top number says 115, (my water isn't 115 F) and so my heater never turns on.... is there a way to fix this or should I buy a new one? Sorry I don't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[Count Krunk]

Dumb question, but what do you do when the thermostat for the ink bird is reading incorrectly? My top number says 115, (my water isn't 115 F) and so my heater never turns on.... is there a way to fix this or should I buy a new one? Sorry I don't mean to hijack the thread.

Send it back. I've never heard of one even being remotely that far off.

 

[Kwyet]

It’s probably the probe malfunctioning. I believe it can be bought separately. If it’s new though, yes, just return the whole thing.

 

[ElleDee]

@Pneumonicsonic I have an ICT 306T and there's a temperature calibration step in the setup. I would definitely look that up and try it before I replaced the unit, though I agree that it shouldn't be that far off. IIRC either the aquarium probe is not available separately or it's not economical, but I can't remember which. You can get the other type of probe, but it's not made to be submerged.

 

[Pneumonicsonic]

Haha I buy tulle from Joann's to use with window screen track for DIY tank top screening a dozen colors, matte vs shiny sheens for reflectivity etc. Way easier to work with than plastic window screening mesh

And then work with a great guy on eBay to print up custom corners cutouts etc

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that go with the track!

Do you do this on all your tanks? Was thinking of doing this with acrylic clear pieces for my new uns120u

 

[Koan]

with acrylic clear pieces

It's really a trade-off with evaporation. I set up a farm tank with a custom cut piece of 1/4" lexan/polycarbonate





I definitely recommend thick polycarbonate over acrylic as it's much more rigid and resistant to bowing.

Now that I've been running both for a while, I'm thinking of going with poly for more of my tanks. Without an ATO it's a big maintenance saver, amazing how much it cuts down evaporation.

 

[Pneumonicsonic]

It's really a trade-off with evaporation. I set up a farm tank with a custom cut piece of 1/4" lexan/polycarbonate

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I definitely recommend polycarbonate over acrylic as it's much more rigid and resistant to bowing.

Now that I've been running both for a while, I'm thinking of going with poly for more of my tanks. Without an ATO it's a big maintenance saver, amazing how much it cuts down evaporation.

Woah. That’s awesome. What are those clips holding the lid on?

 

[Koan]

What are those clips

They work great




I will say on the flip side the screening mesh tops do give a super snug edge fit, to help keep the shrimps snails and nano jumpers in

Also visually unobtrusive,




super lightweight, and no condensation.

Comes down to what tradeoffs matter most for your setup. For this tank with the churning poppy-pipe outlet, and the other with the HOB, evaporation is the bigger problem. For others more the invert and fish escape artists

Third option might be to just rest the poly flat on top, to accomplish both

 

[Koan]

They work great

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Update:

They're sold as sets of 4 but you need 8, 2 for each corner They also have to match the width of your glass, esp. if you're using heavy Lexan / polycarbonate.

If they're oversized and loose they can provide partial support, but one or more light brackets or something similarly stable will have to take some of the weight

 

[techman81]

I imagine most on here are aware of this but thought I'd post anyway since it was on my to-do list today.

We all know how expensive hardscape can be, unless you're willing to do the work to go out in the wild and collect it yourself and take some small risk using it in your aquarium. I'm also aware that some types of stone, that aquarists really love for their appearance, are hard to get unless you're willing to pay those high prices. There are, however, some perfectly good hardscape stones that are available much cheaper than what your local LFS or online retailers are selling it for. Today I picked up some Colorado and Dakota river stone/cobble from my nearby commercial landscape stone yard. pictured is at least 350 lbs of stone from large down to pea gravel. I got the pea gravel in several different color varieties that will probably match many different scapes I do, and if it's used just for detailing, what I have will last a long, long time.

Now if I were to buy that from a local LFS or even online, it would cost me at least 1.99 per lb. I've never seen it available locally for less than 3.00 a lb and that was a sale price. So we're talking at least $700 for what I have here. How much did it cost today; $34 and change, and I picked it out from their yard myself. They mainly sale in bulk, but if you just want a small amount, it's $8 per 5 gallon bucket. These are the guys that sell to the local nurseries and commercial landscapers so do yourself a favor and search for ones in your area and skip the middle man to save some money.