What non-aquarium use items do you use for your tank?

[Vinnie1]

What non-aquarium use items do you use for your tank?

We all know about turkey basters and credit cards.

What inovative things have you come up with?

Please explain the use and post a photo if the item is obscure.

[gfk]

shot glass.

i pull tank water out of the tank and put it in the shot glass, and put the frozen brine in the water and mix it up and let it sit for a few mins. then i use my baster to get the shrimp out of the shot glass.

i dont like putting the frozen cube in the tank, and it allows me to spot feed better

[ACBlinky]

An old vinegar jug with IV tubing and a thumbwheel makes a great topoff container (just like a Kent Aquadose)

Dawn rotating dishbrush - very useful for scrubbing live rock, cleaning stubborn algae off tank glass and equipment

Bridal veil is great for loosely holding leather and other 'slimy' soft coral frags in place while they attach

Small portable fans do wonders - not only do they keep my tanks cool, they also blow cat hair away so it doesn't get into the water!

Eggcrate (fluorescent light diffuser) - my new best friend. An amazing substitute for glass tops; doesn't hold in heat, but prevents skittish fish from carpet surfing.

Two part epoxy (the stuff that's the consistancy of play-dough) - great for securing rockwork, coral, frags, even equipment. I have an urchin, I can use all the help I can get in this department. I used some to secure a plastic clip to a small Mag-Float, now I have a nori clip that stays put.

Plastic clip - see above

Cyanoacrylate glue - great for frags, broken equipment and sticking your fingers together

Old hospital cards - more flexible than a credit card and I don't worry about ruining them since they're disposable. Makes removing coralline a breeze

Razor blades - I use them for removing calcium deposits and coralline from glass, fragging corals, cutting up silversides for my LPS and more.

Vinegar - nothing beats vinegar for soaking coralline/calcium off a powerhead (okay, muriatic acid, but vinegar's easy to get in huge jugs at the grocery store). Also useful for mixing kalk and makes french fries tasty.

[rayjay]

Cut down swiffer glass cleaner.
THE BEST DARN CLEANER YET

[Andrew]

I use film cans to attach to the end of the airhose on my skimmer so the noise of air being sucked in isnt as loud.

[Ooulophilia]

Dental tools (poker and mirror)- getting critters out of places they shouldn't be

Steel bristled brush - eradicating star polyps (the scourge of my existence)

Muratic acid - soak pumps in it every 6 months - breaks down calcium deposits

[Ciarán]

Plastic sieve for removing uneaten food or suspended detritus. A modified black light ballast unit for a DIY actinic. Twine and various hooks for holding powerheads and other stuff at a particular angle. Polypropelene foam for vibration diffusion. Eggcrate for a DIY "in-tank" refugium where i let Caulerpa grow and keep it safe from my Flameback angel. Rubber bands for holding tension/suspending things. Cable ties for securing rocks, eggcrate, corals etc. Metal chain link for suspending light ballasts. Toothbrush for hair algae annihilation

[Vinnie1]

Thanks for the responses. Some really great ideas.

Andrew, how do you attach the film containers?

[mg426]

Plastic coke bottles to keep my homemade (randys two part)in
Razor blades to scrape coraline algae.
Walmart fan to cool the sump.
Flashlights
Rubbermaid container to mix salt in
PVC tubing for the plumbing

[mg426]

Magnifying Glass

[MORAY69]

Panty hose for chemical filter bags.

[waterfaller1]

Cassette case for surface skimmer in nano. Rectangular dark red tupperware container over overflow in 75gal to block light so algae does'nt grow there.

[dorschman]

diving light so see into caves and crevices in and out of the tank.

Adjusting rod (plastic) from a pair of old blinds to poke at stuff.

Veterinary forceps (tweezers) with an aggressive grip to rip caulerpa and other unwanted stuff off rock.

erik

[Rob Martin]

One cup tea leaf strainer (double sided) for thawing frozen food,run ro water thru it before adding to tank,no mess!

Rob.

[64Ivy]

Plastic spatula: To remove wanted and unwanted mushrooms from the floor of a barebottom tank.

Old Stamp Tongs: To remove hard-to-get-at stuff from hard-to-get-at places.

Pruning Shears: Fragging thick coral branches.

Hacksaw: Fragging really thick coral branches.

Toothbrush: Spot scraping algae from crevices inn LR.

[waterfaller1]

Originally posted by 64Ivy
Hacksaw: Fragging really thick coral branches.

What kind of corals are you growing there???

[Tate]

I'll second the awesomeness of the eggcrate top.

I also use pickling lime to make kalk.

[Paul B]

Lets see, I have "live" beer cans. "Live" bottles. "live" asphalt. And a dish that I feed my moorish Idol in. There is also some "live" chain in there. Oh how about a vinyl fence post slit in half for an algae filter and lights that I had left over from the outside lighting of the Plaza Hotel in Manhatten.

[navajo]

I think my best (to date) was the one night around 2 am I was setting up a temporary holding tank and needed something to sit the skimmer on inside the tank... HMMMMmmmmm, that new Britta filter Jug looks about the right size! My wife STILL brings it up occasionally.

Oh and I have absconded with BOTH of her collanders for rinsing "stuff"! Now she gets VERY nervous if I go to the kitchen when I'm fiddling with the tanks!

[pactrop]

That pic with the butterfly swimming by the bud can is classic.

[MCary]

I have 2 hospital feed pumps. Similiar to IV pumps buty for larger tubing. Programmable peristalic pumps with battery back-ups and alarms.

I canabalized old lab equipment. Blood gas analyser for CO2 regulators and bubble counters. Peristalic pumps.

Old spectrophotometer for calibrating test reagents. A couple of microscopes. Glass ware.

All free from scrounging at my job.

Mike

[Vinnie1]

Thanks for all the great responses!

Paul B,
What kind of lights are those? Are they easy to find? Do you have a photo of your algae filter? I can't visualize it.

navajo,
Time for a trip to the dollar store. Nice cheap "kitchen" items. Your wife will be pleased to know you have your own stuff.

MCary,
Wish I had acess to such cool stuff.

[Paul B]

Vinnie, those lights are kind of expensive, maybe $400.00 each. They are not aquarium lights, they are outside fixtures for lighting up buildings. I just changed the lamps. I used about 50 of those fixtures to light up the outside of the Plaza Hotel in NYC.
The algae filter or trough is pictured.
The white plactic thing in the front is for the actinic lights. It is also a piece of vinyl fence post that was slit in half, the other half is the algae trough. It swings back for access to the tank.
Paul



You can see the trough here when it was just installed before the algae grew.

[Frankysreef]

Kudos to PaulB for Initiative...
I am always looking for cool ways to use and reuse things for the aquarium. I dig the beer can

[navajo]

Originally posted by Vinnie1
Thanks for all the great responses!

Paul B,
What kind of lights are those? Are they easy to find? Do you have a photo of your algae filter? I can't visualize it.

navajo,
Time for a trip to the dollar store. Nice cheap "kitchen" items. Your wife will be pleased to know you have your own stuff.

MCary,
Wish I had acess to such cool stuff.

Naw, it's WAY more fun to let the wife do the shopping then try to find alternate uses for her stuff!

And BTW, Paul IS THE MASTER!