Purchase a cheap kitchen baster for use in and around the aquarium.

- Use it to start a siphon.
- Use it to feed frozen foods that have been thawed in a small amount of water. Food can be directed to where it is needed. Towards the bottom of the tank for your bottom feeders for example. Or just use it to direct the food under the plants that have taken over the surface of your tank.
- Use it to feed live baby brine shrimp

The next 2 can be carried out with the baster, but may also be done using a dip tube.

- Use it to remove uneaten food in a tank.
- Use it to transfer non adhesive eggs or young fry.


Instead of feeding your bettas, Hikari's Betta Bio-Gold pellets, feed them Hikari's Baby Cichlid pellets, which are a pellet of the same composition. You will however get about 10X the product for the same price, if you feed the Baby Cichlid pellets rather than the Bio-Gold ones! If someone can give me the net weight on a Bio-Gold packet, then I can calculate the exact amount. Be sure not to get the Cichlid "Mini" pellets, as these are way too big for a betta's mouth. Gotta be the "Baby" ones!


An expired credit card, ATM card, or other similar card makes a great algae scrapper that will not scratch your glass.
An expired credit card can also be used to scrape hard water rings from an occupied glass tank without scratching. I do this with the water level higher than the ring. I don't know whether it would scratch acrylic.

For an unoccupied tank, I use a little white vinegar in hot water to remove rings.


Dont buy aquarium salt from your lfs. Pickling salt from your local grocery store is the same thing at a fraction of the cost.

Dont buy aquarium sealant from your lfs. Look for silicone sealant at your local hardware or home improvement store. Read the small print looking for a statement that the product is safe for aquarium use. For example, Canadian Tire has a Mastercraft product that is suitable. Silicone part# 67-0860-4 clear. It will come in large tubes at a fraction of the cost of buying aquarium sealant from the lfs.


Use the old water from water changes to water your house and garden plants. The best fertilizer going is fish fertilizer.


Aquarisol at 10 to 12 times the recommended dose seems to take care of hydra infestations. Perform a large water change after 24 hours to dilute the medication.


Instead of buying artificial plants from the LFS (very expensive). Go to your local craft store or even the Dollar Store and get artificial plants there. Just make sure you don't get any that have perfume or glitter all over them.


A tip for people with big tanks (and no hospital tank). When buying meds, check the pond section at the local lawn & garden store. They should have the same type meds but more concentrated and cheaper (just check for fine print to make sure it really is safe for aquariums).

Example:
A 16oz bottle of Melafix from the LFS for $12 (dosage = 1tsp/10 gallons, treats 960 gallons). A 16oz bottle of Pond Melafix (exactly the same ingredients) for $13 (dosage = 1tsp/50 gallons, treats 4,800 gallons).


Leave a sponge going in one of the established tanks in case of emergency needs.


To increase surface area for biological filtration, you can buy little ceramic noodles. To save money, just put some old gravel in some pantyhose, tie the end, and stuck that in one of the trays of a canister filter. You can do the same thing with lava rock.


For IDing cord in a power surge protector, put a piece of colored duct tape right above the socket and a matching piece on the appliance to help ID which is going to what. You could also use a spot of fingernail polish, colored electrical tape, or white mailing labels maybe with a H, F, or L on it to remind you of where it is going to.


If you have hundreds of tiny betta fry mouths to feed several times a day and they have the potential to become costly with feeding specialized fry food ($12 for 1 oz). you can supplement their diets of live food with crushed Hikari Cichlid baby pellets ($3.69 for 8.8 oz) that you crush in a plastic bag with a hammer. OR you could go buy a small inexpensive coffee bean grinder with adjustable settings of fine, medium, and coarse ($10).
Put some of the pellets in the grinder, set it to the grind size you need depending on how old the fry are you're feeding, and grind away. TaDa! Baggies full of food just the right size and right price. To make extra sure you don't have big chunks you can sift it through a fine metal hand sieve ($2).


Replace filter cartriges (Penguin\ Whisper types) with a handful of loose filter floss. It keeps the water from backing up where the cartriges would get clogged, and to clean it you simply take it out, squeeze it in old tank water, and plop it back in. You never have to change it, thus keeping your good bacteria in place.
If you need to add carbon, buy the small packets that's sold for Aquaclear filters to put in, and then simply remove when you're finished.


If your fish love say, freeze dried brine shrimp but won't toutch pellets, you can trick them.

When the "good food" gets down to a layer of fine dust, chuck some of the "bad food" in there, gently shake and let it sit for a few days.

Now you have pellets that smell just like the "good stuff!"

Wow, that's a lot of really good information, thanks!

Great tips!
I've got one to add... plastic pipettes are great for feeding frozen foods! Thaw the food in a little bit of tank water, then draw as much as you want out with the pipette. This is particularly useful for getting the food into tanks with small openings.

Great TIPS.
I like barbeque bamboo steak. I use this to feed food to the betta always. ^_^

wow Betta Belle those are some great tips. I love the turkey baster idea. I was thinking of doing that myself. I have another idea. Instead of buying those glass marbles and polished river rocks at the lfs ( very expensive) byt them at your local Dollar Tree store. they are the exact same product and the ones at the dollar store give you more variety of shape, color and size than the lfs .

here is another tip I came up with
I have a bare bottom tank which I just absolutely love. Well I was wanting to put some plants in there to hide my airline and filter tubing etc. but could not figure out a way to mount them in the tank without gravel But then I came up with this idea to take suction cups ( you can buy them seperate ) and hot glue stick the bottom base of the artifical plant to the suction cup. Use lots of hot glue to make sure it is secure and then let it cure for a day or so. of course you would need to remove the pop on airline plastic holder thing first .Then if you wanted it to lay flatter on the barebottom of the tank you could cut the nipple part that sticks up from the suction area in half and sitll hot glue gun the plant base to it to the top of the suction cup. Then just suction cup them to the bottom of the tank where you want the plant to go. They have suction cup that are clear and that is what I would recommended . When you need to scrub well around the bottom of the tank where the plant is suction cupped down you could always remove it by removing it from the suction cup area and remount it when done.

Great tips ;)

YAY
This will help me alot

These are all great tips! :P

Also in Zeke my betta's tank he has an artificial plant that would not stay put. So one time When I cleaned out the tank I made sure to clean and dry the undergravel platform tray and hot glue gunned it to it. Viola. It stays put and hides the airpump tube.

Aquarisol at 8 times the recommended dose will DESTROYYY a terrible case of ick/ich overnight.

a short course of salt will help with ich too

I have found that it saves me a lot of time, if I mix my dechlor and salt up as a concentrate before hand.
I mixed 2 table spoons of salt, 2 table spoons of dechlor and 20 tablespoons of water. This goes into a glass jar, and is lidded.
Because I use water jugs, this works out best for me.
I just add 1 teaspoon per gallon.

Also, I premix the salt water for the brine shimp.. That way, when making another batch, I just have to pour the water in a new container. It is ready and waiting for me.

Also, many brine shrimp batches will give you up to 4-5 batches of bbs.
When I drain off one batch, I often will put it back in the hatch tank after putting the water back in it, and add an airstone.
Within 6-8 hours, there are usually as many bbs in it as I just drained off. I can collect from one batch at least twice before there is an appreciable number drop off.
But I can usually make at least one more good collection from the same batch of brine shrimp the third day after I set it up.
This is WITHOUT adding anything to it.

I just had a hard look at one on my heifer tanks Monday night/Tuesday morning, they were all crawling with ick.
I gave them a double dose of aqurisol, and I just checked them a few minutes ago, and not a white spot to be found.

So I am going to thumbs up this tip of yours!!!

Just to be safe, I am going to treat for a couple more days.

This tank, by the by, is unheated...

Yaaaaay, me love praise! :WOU

I came up with another treatment, for internal parasites. And it worked...Just ask Maru.

in a half gallon bowl/jar/whatever, add..was it three drops, two drops, four drops? I don't remember, I'll ask Maru...Each day for five days. When five days is up, clean water and redose.

It's 2 drops, clean the bowl every 5 days and restart.
I would put 3 drops the day I clean him.

Here is a time saver tip.
When you have a spawn that you're collecting BBS for, this might help save a little time.

Predesolve your salt into a gallon container.

It is as simple as that.
When it is time to start the BBS, the water is ready for you.
Also, you can reuse the drained salt water 2-3 times, before you have to discard it.
AND when you have made your first collection of BBS, often times, if you pour the water back in, and put the airstone in, more will hatch out.
I have used one set up for 24 hours, and collected enough to feed my spawns every time I collected.

Another tip..

Sticky lables leave a nasty residue when you remove them, BUT if you put a little rubbing alchohol on it, the residue scrubs off faster.

But why bother with THAT??

I use a Sharpie permanent marker to write on my tanks, both glass and beanies. When it is time to use that tank or beanie for a new fish, The Sharpie cleans off in less than 3 seconds if you pour a couple drops of alchohol on it.
And it comes away with nothing more than light finger pressure.

WOW, thanks Bella! I didn't know that! *takes off all the tape I had on my containers*
:) Sharpie, here I come!

So far, the sharpie cleans off of everything I have tried, but make sure you do a test spot first.
And if alchohol won't do it, finger nail polish remover will.. My daughter drew a picture on tile with purple sharpie (don't ask me why, at 9 yrs, she certanly knew better), and nothing was getting it out, because it had soaked in.. the nail polish remover got it out!

another sharpie trick...
if sharpie on dry erase or glass surface, go over it with a dry erase marker and it will wipe off like the dry erase. sometimes you have to follow up with the dry erase wipes to get the extra dry erase marker off.

another cheap aquarium trick...
instead of paying ridiculous money at the LFS for sand substrate. Pool filter sand or blasting sand can be bought from the Home Depot or Lowes for a fraction of the cost.

another one...
aquatech and penguin filters use the same cartridges. the aquatech filters can be bought at Walmart for much cheaper. Filter size A=1, B=2,and C=3.

another one...
if you are going to add rock towers to a tank. Go to HD or Lowes and get light diffuser/ eggcrate for the bottom of the tank so that a rock slide won't bust your bottom glass. FYI, this can also be used to top a tank for larger jumpers without lessening air flow.

Yep yep! I do that for substrate!
For sand, I use silica sand (easily available at any construction warehouse for ~ $7 per 50 lbs!!!) and for plant growing gravel, I use Schultz Aquatic Soil (available at Lowe's for $6 per 15 lb bag). This is how I "save" money for more expensive stuff like PC lights (~$110 for a 29 gallon one) and CRS (supposed to be $10 per, but I got 3 babies and a pregnant female for $20!)!

And yet, the fact that I am spending money makes me poor... I am out of money already... for the month.

For siphoning in a small container or in a container with fry I use air line tubing. I put the end I'm siphoning with through a straw to keep it straight and make getting into exactly the right spots without having to put my hand in the water a cinch. When I use a bright colored straw, like royal blue for example, the fry usually avoid it more. It helps in trying not to suck them up. Not to mention it's easier seeing exactly where the end is.

Another tip that I mentioned somewhere else was to use a plastic soup ladle instead of a net. I use a black one. The fish are calmer in black because they can't see anything, so they think, to be afraid of. No ripped fins and no abrasion injuries. I do recommend moving very slowly with the ladle. They soon learn the ladle isn't anything to fear. It will make ladling easier the next time. Oh, I also use a net to focus their attention on as I guild them into the ladle.

EASY WATERPROOF LABELING

I have found that this is the best and easiest way to label fish. Get a roll of 3M 1 inch wide cloth medical tape (not the plastic stuff), cut it into pieces about 2-3 inches long, write the name, color, type and breeder down on it using the writing impliment of your choice (Pens work fine cause the cloth absorbs the ink) and adhere the "Label" to your beanie or tank or what have you. It's water resistant so it doesn't come off very easily while rinsing out the inside of the beanie, and it doesn't seem to leave a residue like a lot of other things. Best yet, when you have your pair in the spawn tank or move your fish to another beanie, the label easily transfers with your fish.

That's a great idea Nate. Thanks.

One thing that is a pain is trying to figure out which cord goes to what heater or airline, or filter.
I have found you can take a label, and fold it over with the end of the cord between the two sticky sides, and you can mark it, then higher up the cord, say, with a heater... where it comes out of the tank, do the same, and give that label the same mark.
Then you will not have to fiddle and fuss around, especially with power strips, trying to figure out if this was what you meant to unplug.

Could someone please explain the filter floss/whisper filter thing in the the first post?

I am not sure how to explain it, since it seems pretty self evident to me.

Filter floss, batting/pillow stuffing type material... Instead of getting those cartridges for the whisper filter, just stuff a wad of floss in the containment area for the whisper cartridges.
Which reminds me.. It is cheaper to get the same stuff in the crafts department, you get more for less, lol.

O ok I get it now, I was just kinda confused because I thought she meant that you put it behind the cartridge.