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

[PeerUnk]

Got that same experience myself as well. Went to such a local seller, selected/gathered myself 100-150 kg of river rock from huge piles they have laying around their premise and payed…. 20 euros.

 

[CincyScaper]

n

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.

View attachment 10214

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

 

[JayP]

n

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

I expect the Colorado river cobble to be inert as it seems to be the same you find being sold for aquriums. The stone they call Dakota seems to be a river stone but also a bit like Manten stone. The colors surprised me as I was power washing it, gray with patches and streaks of rust/orange. I think it will be fine but I'll probably do a basic test on it to be sure.

 

[JayP]

n

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

Tested all the rock today. Colorado river cobble, as expected, was all good. Unfortunately, the Dakota stone failed the acid test. Is it any worse than Seiryu? I don't know, but I'll probably put it aside. Too bad because I liked some of the coloration. It was only a small portion of what I purchased though. Interestingly, I was also power washing all the Tom Barr El Jefe stone and as I was pulling it all from the boxes it came in, one big chunk stood out. Taking up weight in my 50lbs of El Jefe stone was a chunk of seiryu stone. Of course, it also failed the acid test....the El Jefe did not.

 

[CincyScaper]

Tested all the rock today. Colorado river cobble, as expected, was all good. Unfortunately, the Dakota stone failed the acid test. Is it any worse than Seiryu? I don't know, but I'll probably put it aside. Too bad because I liked some of the coloration. It was only a small portion of what I purchased though. Interestingly, I was also power washing all the Tom Barr El Jefe stone and as I was pulling it all from the boxes it came in, one big chunk stood out. Taking up weight in my 50lbs of El Jefe stone was a chunk of seiryu stone. Of course, it also failed the acid test....the El Jefe did not.

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

 

[JayP]

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

I can take some picks of things sorted out later. Yes, I used the Nitrate #1 reagent for testing. Should have thought to take it with me to the rock yard. Lesson learned.

 

[JayP]

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

Rocks in top photo are what was labeled as Dakota. All but the one on the far left failed the acid test. In the bottom photo are all the largest of the Colorado river cobble. Those and all the smaller sizes passed. Eventually I'll get around to doing a river cobble scape or two.

 

[JayP]

You may be wondering, what top and bottom photo. I forgot to add it .

 

[gnatster]

I found these to dim the bright lights on modern audio equipment. Light-blocking stickers that are semi-translucent and dim the little dot lights. Like I'm finding on an ATO controller, or the KASA smart strips.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Here's a good one! It's really hard to get smooth sand when scaping. If you try to use something large and flat to level it, it works -- but often leaves lines and ridges from the flattining.

Instead, use your planting pinsettes to "smooth" the sand. If it's fine enough sand, it will really take well to being raked with your tweezers into super smooth, flat planes/hills/shapes.

I've been using my pinsettes for this purpose for years, I'll never go back to using "sand flatteners"!

 

[Koan]

A new favorite







Chef's kiss, no notes

 

[hamfist]

A new favorite

View attachment 17233





Chef's kiss, no notes

?? For tank glass cleaning I assume ??

 

[BranchScape]

?? For tank glass cleaning I assume ??

I use it to clean wood and rock too. It scrapes off thing algae films like a boss.

 

[That Guy Brian]

A new favorite

View attachment 17233

View attachment 17232



Chef's kiss, no notes

Added to the list when I get around to setting up my first aquarium next month. Thanks!

-B

 

[JayP]

I buy mini melamine sponges on Amazon in bulk and I like how well they clean the glass, even better than the scrubby pads, but I do worry about all the micro-plastics and what it may be doing over time.

 

[gnatster]

Put a label on the plug bricks to note the item that uses said brick. That way you don't let out the magic smoke when you mate the wrong brick to a light, since so many bricks look the same.

 

[Koan]

Moss tying tip!

Thread 'Thread Bobbin Holder - Fly Tying'

Jul 30, 2026

Anyone else here into fly fishing and tying?

Yesterday I was working on making moss walls and attaching some moss to driftwood, and a tool that very much came in handy was a fly tying bobbin holder.


The bobbin holder keeps tension and makes navigating the thread around wood a little easier. Give it a try if you have one. I've decided getting white residue everywhere from gel superglue is more annoying than doing thread wrapping.

Couple of fly boxes for summer fishing as well:

• Gwad
• drift wood moss
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Equipment Discussions

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[Sulla]

I learned this the "hard" way. I have an open tank and the evaporation was annoying me. So I bought an ato and a good size reservoir.
My water is quite soft, 2-3kh/gh. After a few weeks I noticed it creeping up 5-6..thought not much of it..then it was a while and thought I should test just to see and it was 10-11 range.
At first I thought it might thr stones leeching but that didn't fit as I would have seen the effect earlier.
Then it hit me...I've been using the same tap water for the reservoir. The water evaporates but the minerals stay. And even with water changes etc...the creep was inevitable.

Since I switched to using ro for the reservoir it's been slowly (over weeks) been coming back down again.

So if you're using ato, think about what's in the reservoir.

 

[Sulla]

Other than the ato...

• dry salts for ferts, way cheaper
• auto doser for ferts.
• religiously clamp every hose after one time when I flooded my study because a hose just came off
• use temu to buy tiny small nick snacks like cleaning sponges, various clips, air hose etc.

 

[TianChen]

I do have a few hacks to share lol.

1/ During the resetup, when you uproot the bushes, try to get the 10-piece set of single use microwave plastic boxes. Your plants wont be entangled when you need to replant. The same technique can be applied with trimming as well

2/ The conversion between the submerged form to the emersed form needs not to be in a closed bin, I found this promotes mold as you guys can guess it. My suggestion is to get a seeding sponge mat, soak it thoroughly, put it on a shallow tray with water and throw your plant over - no, they wont be dry and they can breathe better. After 2-3 times of use - please bleach the sponge mat with either bleach or H2O2 over 10%, leave these over night so it can do the killing thoroughly - then dry it and you guys can reuse.

3/ Utilize mud if you can for emersed. Aquasoil is too expensive lol. Keep the mud wet. With wet mud, DON'T PLUG the stem into, lay them gently, horizontally. Better to be used with tweezer.

4/ Knifeholder can hold all of your tools for a much cheaper price than inox stands hahaha

5/ For a mass propagation, yes we are talking about mass propagation, you need rooting hormones - cut two to three node per stem regardless of having shoot or not - as long as there is node, there is a way.

6/ Bushes can be achieved with cheap amazon plant supporting pin. Planting horizontally is a thing and the shoot will space themselves