DIY Tools

Here are a few of the DIY tools that I have come up with to make life easier. Feel free to add anything you have come up with.


This first picture is a gadget that I use to do general water changes. It lets me drain and fill like a Python but without the gravel washer (most of my tanks are bare bottom). To drain, I start the syphon with a water bed pump. To fill, I use a barrel with a sump pump so that I can pretreat the water.

This is made with half inch pvc plumbing and a hose adapter that I got from Lowes.

And here is the barrel. It is a 20 gallon water container. I cut the top off to make it usable for water changing. Any large container will do the job. Some people use these to age their water in addition to preheating it. The pump has a pipe thread to hose thread adapter.

by the way, in the above picture, notice the water bed pump. It is that blue thing to the lower left of the barrel. They can be purchased for about eight dollars and they come with an adapter so you can tap into your bathroom sink.

This one is a no brainer. It is a copper tube on a hose. The copper tube is used for running water to refrigerators and also for air conditioning work. It is flexible so you can make any bends to get around stuff.

There is a lot of fear about copper. Elemental copper is not soluble in water like salt or sugar. Aqueous copper and copper ions are what is bad for aquatic life (used in algaecides). Elemental copper will not harm your aquarium. It is used for plumbing potable water. As a cleaning tool, it will be removed from the aquarium anyway.

I also have a version of this that uses a plastic tube but does not bend for reaching around things. These are great for spot cleaning and for cleaning sand bottom tanks.

This one is for cleaning that gell stuff that grows on drift wood. It is also great for cleaning anything with an irregular surface. The black thing on the end is the brush tool from a mini-vacuum kit. The kit can be purchased at Walmart for right at ten dollars. The tube is cpvc and I needed a piece of vinyl hose to adapt to the cpvc. On the other end of the cpvc is the rest of the vinyl hose so that I can vacuum while cleaning in the tank. Try this thing one time and you will wonder how you ever got by without one.

Now I just need to make a self cleaning gadget to get the crud off the penguin 150.

(I know, vinegar and a scrub pad.)

one more...

This is a cartoon syringe that I got while I was in 'Toon Town. Actually it is a three dollar flavor injector with the tip of the needle ground off. I use it to dispense de-chlor and what not. It is really handy when you have a lot of small tanks to do water changes on.

dogofwar;701526; said:

Where can you buy the water bed pumps? I haven't been able to find them at Target or Wal-Tard...

Are they beefier than the replacement Python ones?

Click to expand...

Mine came from K-mart before the merger with Sears. I don't know if they still have water bed supplies. You can buy them at any water bed store or possibly online.