Adult Albino Bristlenose Ancistrus

One of my adult Plecos and a few fry. I rarely see the adults out except at feeding time. I have a got at least a hundred fry from this aquarium. There are probably a hundred in there now..

Drilling Algae Wafers

When I'm feeding algae wafers to my fish the mystery snails woud get the bulk of it. The big snail would completely engulf the wafer preventing the fish from getting to it. My solution is simple. Drill a hole in the wafer and hang it wher the snail can't get to it.

Drilling the hole turned out to be very easy, The wafers are hard and drill easily. I always use a block of wood to back up the wafer because occasionally they will break while drilling and you will get to hold a spinning bit with your bare fingers.

I use solid core bell wire to hang the  algae wafers. Just tie a not in one end of the wire, slide on the wafers and hang it where the snails can't get it. the wire is stiff enough that it can be bent about any shape you need. In the aquarium I hang it over the side and close the lid. The aquarium top is heavy enough to hold it in place and holds the wafer a few inches from the side. My fish are crazy about algae wafers and put on a good show when fed this way.

The wafers will stay on the wire a surprisingly long time.

Here are some of my red blonde guppies and some sunburst platies attacking a wafer. The video isn't that great. It looks good on my end but gets messed up when youTube processes it.

Here are my red blonde guppies in my out door stock tank feeding on an algae wafer.

Custom Glass Aquarium Covers/Tops

Picked up the custom tops for my 40B aquariums today. Fits perfect. I bought one like these over a year ago and I'll never buy commercial covers again.

The cost $70 and change out the door for two. Almost as much as the $96 I paid for the aquariums.

The cheapest commercial top I could find was $36 plus tax and shipping.  

UPDATE:
But here is the real benefit of using this style of cover. These have been in use for more than two years and I have never had to add a drop of top off water between water changes.  Not even when I let them go for more than a month. There is almost no water evaporation.

Guppies and Homemade Feeding Ring

DIY Feeding Ring - Guppies - 110 Gallon Stock Tank

This is my DIY feeding ring its made from 3/4 inch pvc. Because That's what I had on hand. It works really well and except for needing to tie it down to keep it from move I have no complaints. Commercially available feeding rings are flimsy pieces of junk that,  break sink, let the food get out, and fall apart in direct sunlight. I have a few of these in my outside tanks and have nade them from 1/2 inch CPVC to use in the indoor tanks.

I like feeding rings because they keep the food in one location. The fish soon learn to come there for food.  You get to see them eat and it mkes the lots eaiser to catch.

I uploaded these videos of my stock tank to YouTube a few months ago and forgot to publish them after they were converted. Duh

A few years ago a started a guppy pond in my garden using a 110 gallon stock tank. Much to my surprise it changed the whole garden. All sorts of critters were attracted to the water. Some examples" I now have a population of frogs that spawn in the tank. The are always a large number of dragonflies in the garden and mosquitoes are almost non existent. In the warmer months the garden always has birds. I'm hoping to start a larger tank in the spring. Here are a few videos of the tank I made a few months ago.

Last year I threw out buckets of frogbit almost every week. No frog bit this year. First it got attacked by aphids and the something started eating it. I'm betting caterpillars though I never caught them in the act. Last year I picked hundreds of them off the plants but they didn't show become a problem until it was well established.

This is the best feeding ring I have ever had. It's made frpm 3/4 inch PVC.

Guppies In a 110 Gallon Tuff Stuff Stock Tank

I started raising guppies outside last year. It's incredibly easy to do. You really don't have to feed them but I like to so I get a good look at them. I started out wit a tarp over a compost pile that kept getting full of water and mosquitoes that I put some guppies in to eat the mosquitoes. They grew fast and when I found the 110 gallon stock tank for sale cheap at Tractor supply I just had to give this a try. There is no filtration. The stock tank gets full sun and its full of plants. The only maintenance is keeping it full of water from the hose. If the water gets to green for me I let the hose trickle into the tank until it clears. The green water does not harm the fish but you can't see them if it gets to bad. This only happens in the spring before the plants get going.

 

Accidental Harbor Freight tarp pond on top of a compost pile

I put this blue tarp on my compost pile, hoping to stop weeds from growing in it. It didn't leak, and the rain-filled it up. Then the rains came and filled the tarp with water. The Mosquitoes took over. To control the mosquitoes, I added a few guppies. I added some duckweed for shade and to take care of the ammonia. The guppies proliferated, and their colors popped. When summer came, the water was to shallow and got too hot for the guppies, and  I moved the guppies to a 110-gallon stock tank I got on sale from Tractor Supply. The stock tank pond changed the character of my back yard garden and produced some great guppies.