Thanks for watching! See the full top tips, tricks and hacks for successful fish keeping playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLr8ew8o8WXoBmHMe0jODIj3gr0UQ2gASk.html
Sorry to be off topic but does any of you know a method to log back into an Instagram account..? I was stupid forgot the account password. I would love any assistance you can offer me
@Elliott Mack thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Hey Ben great tips and advice on staying on budget, yet still getting great results in the aquarium. Just received my first roll of pinky floss. Will be adding to the FX4 on my next filter maintenance. Looking forward to the results. I've seen several people recommend the pinky floss with great results, and best of all easy on the wallet. 😎
Bake your eggshells from breakfast and put in a net bag for calcium. You bake the egg for 2 reasons. Lowering the bacteria is one and eggshells crush better after being heated. Save your money from having to buy oyster shells. Cuttle bones are also another good calcium source. Look in the bird care section of the pet shop for the cuttle bones.
Hey I know about using crushed egg shells for invertebrates like snails and stuff, would you say fish would need the added calcium? How much would say you'd need to add for just fish and would you need more if you do have snails in the tank? Like mystery snails
Speaking of all sponge canister media: Based on a forum user's success, I switched my Fluval FX6 and FX4 to all sponge media almost 3 months ago--Poret 10 ppi outer, 20 and 30 ppi inner baskets. The water is clearer and the fish more active than when I was running sintered glass in the inner baskets. I'm thinking of doing the same with a Sunsun that's going into service in the near future.
Exellent video Ben. The big companies spend more on marketing than on research. Where I live guys have been using broken pieces of clay bricks for years and it works. If you also go to the bonsai shops you can get a better quality pumice that the bonsai keepers use, came across this when I went to buy akadama gravel for my fish tank used to buffer below 7.
Tip: if you have any window screen laying around (fiberglass or aluminum), it makes an excellent custom net by just taping or hot gluing it to a metal coat hanger.
Ben Ochart I hadn’t either until I needed to replace some of my window screens. I just happened to be doing that work near my aquarium...glanced at one of aquarium nets...looked at the screen...and thought: this screen is finer than that net. :) It’s not as flexible as true netting of course, but it really removes the finer particles well with a quick, few swipes.
I’m slowly preparing to keep some kind of fish. I have a 90g, 75g, 2/55g, 40g and a 29g just sitting empty. I bought an FX-4 for one of the 55g tanks. I was thinking of starting with goldfish because they seem to be the easiest to keep, but; your cichlids make me want some, too. Thats why I went and got the 90g. It’s all your fault, Ben, lol.
Awesome video. One way to save money is to not, in my opinion, use charcoal or other produced media to absorb medications or tannins, unless you have to. I don’t use these regularly in any of my tanks and have had no issues. I only employ them when needed - like after medicating.
Another great video Ben. You’ve become a trusted friend. I can’t see a new video of yours and not watch it. I always come away with something I find useful. And no drama. Just good content.
Great tips,beautiful fish,due to age I made above tank diy sumps cheap,use pillow stuffing sponge lava rock,quilt batting,no substrate,my goldies are poop machines,seeing your beautiful fish makes me happy thank you! Excellent tips, really
Hey Ben...........Great Vid love the Channel........ just got my first Apistogrammas..........after being in the hobby for many years........lets start small........haha..........Thanks again from the UK...........
As always thanks for the ideas, insights, and acquired wisdom ! One question, does posting videos at midnight Pacific Time mean you have succumbed to the cabin fever of quarantine? 😀 Thanks again, Jim
Thanks for info Ben. Sometimes like with my canisters they can do that when they are packed with media as well and maybe not need service yet. Also if you really over filter your tank you can go much longer depending on how much over filtering you do with filter maintenance. I have a ton of filtration on my 125 and even at 6 months my canisters aren't that bad.
I am a big fan of Swiss Tropicals. I use HMFs in most of my tanks. Some are from Swiss Tropicals and some I custom made. I also use their Poret Cartridges, set a power head on top cut some PVC to size and you get a huge efficient bio filter for even the biggest tanks.... Maintenance is also barely required... Last but not least, I always enjoy your vids, fun and informative.
Edwin from Costa Rica . Hello Mr Ben , I think in these times we all need to save money !!! Thank you for the tips and for sharing your knowledge !!! God bless !!!
Excellent video. I would add using a HOB intake sponge. Will grab a lot of detritus and extend the life of the media in the HOB. Will also add a lot of extra BB capacity and help avoid having to add more filters.
One tip I would suggest is don’t go overboard with filtration if you don’t need to. While adding more and more filtration to a tank isn’t itself harmful, it is harmful to your bank account especially if what you’re adding isn’t really making a difference.
I love these DYI money saving tips. You mention pumice a lot. Something Evan Alexander used a while back is Growstone. Very affordable and is a sintered glass media just like BioHome. It is extremely porous with tiny passages.
My tip, whatever type of filter you use be it HOB, canister whatever, pack it with sponge, put a sponge on the intake, boom, your done. Save money huge. Let nature do its work. Oh yeah, buy some nerite snails too. Hardest working clean up crew ever. ✌️
I never understood why people put sponges on the filter intake of a canister...the inside of the canister also has sponges to catch detritus. I guess if you remove internal sponges and use more bio media, it makes sense.
@@GSP-76 The reason for the prefilter on the intake is it allows you to extend the life of your impeller & also you won't have to do as much maintenance on your filter
@@hoffaoudi1121 That I understand... especially if you have a sand substrate... however, by blocking detritus from being sucked into the canister, your just going to have to do more cleaning manually to keep things looking clean. Canisters are designed to take in detritus with the sponges and filter pads you have inside. I don't use canisters anymore as I went with a sump. I have three filter socks that catch all the junk now but I used to have clean tanks without using prefilters. I did have to saw down the pipe for the intakes on my canisters though as they were very long.
Thanks Ben big believer in journal for tank especially if you have multiple tanks. I can’t tell you how many time I’m like I cleaned the filter like 2 weeks ago and find out it’s been a month.
My biggest tip on saving money is less trips to fish store or if you have to go there in that case just go there and buy what you need and get outta there no wondering around or checking there tanks lol
I layered both my 55 gal tanks with a inch of crushed coral & it seems to be doing the fish (guppies) a lot of good now which is good after losing 1/2 or more of my stock I DID have.
Buying 2-3 sunsun 704bs for the price of 1 fx6 sounds nice, but it will cost more month to month to run the extra filters. So it’ll catch up eventually.
I've been watching old video, I'm looking to see what you use for salt? Cichlid lake salt? Malowi salt? And are they beneficial? I'm thinking a once a month adding a salt for minerals electrolytes ECT.
Hey Ben can you please help? I have the sunsun 3000 it’s band new and everything is running great I saw on eBay they have o rings if I wanted to get some could I got the 704 o ring on it?
Every canister has it own problems it's about what will be cheapest to repair or replace and for that sun sun if unbeatable but they have low flow and the rubber seals like to go bad and leak. Try building your own canister a 5g bucket a pump a little pvc some lava rock and pinky floss and you get a nice filter my first one moves 3600g an hour was about $100 and been running for 2 years without replacing anything it would take 4 fluvals or a dozen sun suns to get that flow and would cost a fortune and def need parts in that time.
@@prometheus4024 what numbers exactly? An fx5 or 6 is rated around 900gph but actually pushes around 600gph (when its freshly cleaned) a sun sun is much less unless you go to the newest one which personally havnt tested but the actual push out of a 704b is around 300 to 350gph. A jabao 15000 dct or dcp if your vigilant can be picked up for around 80 to 100$ and are rated almost 3800 gph a $5 bucket some 1.5" pvc a couple uni seals and some lava rock from home depot and right around $100 total you have yourself a canister. Works great I've tested mine a few times and ranged from 3300 to 3600 gph. Never had a problem with any of it in 2 years almost. built a second slightly smaller one maybe a year ago and just started a smaller 200g sump system using a dct 4000 havnt tested flow yet but shed put any out of the box canister to shame. Been through many filters have my fish room going near a decade and I have 43 tanks running currently. You want reliability and cost efficiency your best bet is not to buy anything designed for aquariums.
@@knrgaquatics8032 the 3600g number. Cool thanks for the reply, I would be scared of the bucket uniseal exploding lol, maybe you can post a video on your channel? cheers.
I stay away from any aquarium product that's not u.l. listed. Your home owners insurance will not cover any damage unless product is u.l. listed. Hear that sun sun users.
3 for the price of 1 sounds frugal. Great for today but that's the action that has put our country in the fix that it is in. Pay me now or pay me later.
I've been in the aquarium service industry for over 30 years. Have to say, SunSun filters are cheatly made, flow rate is horrible and impellars are junk. Eheims are well made. Several of my costomer still have Eheim canisters working over 30 years. I even prefer Filstar filters over SunSun. At least they're more easily clean than SunSun.
Bio balls??? Forget bio balls...get a bunch of bottle caps,coca,pepsi ,water etc...make holes with your drill and there you have your "bio balls"..or go to home depot and buy corrugated tubs used by electricians and cut it in small pieces..Eheim charge you a lot of money for the same thing...Sorry my english ,grammar etc It's not me.Blame siri..
![My Top 5 Money Saving Tips for Frugal Fish Keepers like Me [Cut Costs without Cutting Quality]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tzXLHTbkffk/mqdefault.jpg)
![My Top 5 Money Saving Tips for Frugal Fish Keepers like Me [Cut Costs without Cutting Quality]](/img/tr.png)
Thanks for watching! See the full top tips, tricks and hacks for successful fish keeping playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLr8ew8o8WXoBmHMe0jODIj3gr0UQ2gASk.html
Sorry to be off topic but does any of you know a method to log back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid forgot the account password. I would love any assistance you can offer me
@Tyson Jayden instablaster :)
@Elliott Mack thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process atm.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Elliott Mack it did the trick and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy!
Thanks so much you saved my account :D
@Tyson Jayden No problem =)
Hey Ben great tips and advice on staying on budget, yet still getting great results in the aquarium. Just received my first roll of pinky floss. Will be adding to the FX4 on my next filter maintenance. Looking forward to the results. I've seen several people recommend the pinky floss with great results, and best of all easy on the wallet. 😎
Bake your eggshells from breakfast and put in a net bag for calcium. You bake the egg for 2 reasons. Lowering the bacteria is one and eggshells crush better after being heated. Save your money from having to buy oyster shells. Cuttle bones are also another good calcium source. Look in the bird care section of the pet shop for the cuttle bones.
Hey I know about using crushed egg shells for invertebrates like snails and stuff, would you say fish would need the added calcium? How much would say you'd need to add for just fish and would you need more if you do have snails in the tank? Like mystery snails
great video
Speaking of all sponge canister media: Based on a forum user's success, I switched my Fluval FX6 and FX4 to all sponge media almost 3 months ago--Poret 10 ppi outer, 20 and 30 ppi inner baskets. The water is clearer and the fish more active than when I was running sintered glass in the inner baskets. I'm thinking of doing the same with a Sunsun that's going into service in the near future.
Exellent video Ben. The big companies spend more on marketing than on research. Where I live guys have been using broken pieces of clay bricks for years and it works. If you also go to the bonsai shops you can get a better quality pumice that the bonsai keepers use, came across this when I went to buy akadama gravel for my fish tank used to buffer below 7.
Thank you for posting this. It's very informative.
Tip: if you have any window screen laying around (fiberglass or aluminum), it makes an excellent custom net by just taping or hot gluing it to a metal coat hanger.
Never thought of that but I see how it would work.
Ben Ochart I hadn’t either until I needed to replace some of my window screens. I just happened to be doing that work near my aquarium...glanced at one of aquarium nets...looked at the screen...and thought: this screen is finer than that net. :) It’s not as flexible as true netting of course, but it really removes the finer particles well with a quick, few swipes.
Love listening to people's different ideas 👍
I’m slowly preparing to keep some kind of fish. I have a 90g, 75g, 2/55g, 40g and a 29g just sitting empty. I bought an FX-4 for one of the 55g tanks. I was thinking of starting with goldfish because they seem to be the easiest to keep, but; your cichlids make me want some, too. Thats why I went and got the 90g. It’s all your fault, Ben, lol.
Awesome video. One way to save money is to not, in my opinion, use charcoal or other produced media to absorb medications or tannins, unless you have to. I don’t use these regularly in any of my tanks and have had no issues. I only employ them when needed - like after medicating.
Another great video Ben. You’ve become a trusted friend. I can’t see a new video of yours and not watch it. I always come away with something I find useful. And no drama. Just good content.
Ooooo.... Filtration & Saving money... 2 of my favorite things... Cool Mr.Ben
Good, practical information. I especially like the idea of keeping a log book/journal. Good for reference.
Great wee video ma friend. New to channel. I will be tuning in fae here in Scotland 👍
Great tips,beautiful fish,due to age I made above tank diy sumps cheap,use pillow stuffing sponge lava rock,quilt batting,no substrate,my goldies are poop machines,seeing your beautiful fish makes me happy thank you! Excellent tips, really
Hey Ben...........Great Vid love the Channel........ just got my first Apistogrammas..........after being in the hobby for many years........lets start small........haha..........Thanks again from the UK...........
As always thanks for the ideas, insights, and acquired wisdom !
One question, does posting videos at midnight Pacific Time mean you have succumbed to the cabin fever of quarantine? 😀
Thanks again,
Jim
Thanks for info Ben. Sometimes like with my canisters they can do that when they are packed with media as well and maybe not need service yet. Also if you really over filter your tank you can go much longer depending on how much over filtering you do with filter maintenance. I have a ton of filtration on my 125 and even at 6 months my canisters aren't that bad.
I am a big fan of Swiss Tropicals. I use HMFs in most of my tanks. Some are from Swiss Tropicals and some I custom made. I also use their Poret Cartridges, set a power head on top cut some PVC to size and you get a huge efficient bio filter for even the biggest tanks.... Maintenance is also barely required... Last but not least, I always enjoy your vids, fun and informative.
Thanks for reminder. With this quarantine lock down i have been itching to service my filter everyday 😂😂
Me too 😊
Do not do unless you have to.
Edwin from Costa Rica . Hello Mr Ben , I think in these times we all need to save money !!! Thank you for the tips and for sharing your knowledge !!! God bless !!!
Great tips Ben. That’s y u r the OG of fish game. Much respect. Thanks for the tips 👍
Excellent video. I would add using a HOB intake sponge. Will grab a lot of detritus and extend the life of the media in the HOB. Will also add a lot of extra BB capacity and help avoid having to add more filters.
One tip I would suggest is don’t go overboard with filtration if you don’t need to. While adding more and more filtration to a tank isn’t itself harmful, it is harmful to your bank account especially if what you’re adding isn’t really making a difference.
I love these DYI money saving tips. You mention pumice a lot. Something Evan Alexander used a while back is Growstone. Very affordable and is a sintered glass media just like BioHome. It is extremely porous with tiny passages.
Mister 10 Tips
🤣🤣🤣
My tip, whatever type of filter you use be it HOB, canister whatever, pack it with sponge, put a sponge on the intake, boom, your done. Save money huge. Let nature do its work. Oh yeah, buy some nerite snails too. Hardest working clean up crew ever. ✌️
I never understood why people put sponges on the filter intake of a canister...the inside of the canister also has sponges to catch detritus. I guess if you remove internal sponges and use more bio media, it makes sense.
@@GSP-76 The reason for the prefilter on the intake is it allows you to extend the life of your impeller & also you won't have to do as much maintenance on your filter
@@hoffaoudi1121 That I understand... especially if you have a sand substrate... however, by blocking detritus from being sucked into the canister, your just going to have to do more cleaning manually to keep things looking clean. Canisters are designed to take in detritus with the sponges and filter pads you have inside.
I don't use canisters anymore as I went with a sump. I have three filter socks that catch all the junk now but I used to have clean tanks without using prefilters. I did have to saw down the pipe for the intakes on my canisters though as they were very long.
Thanks Ben big believer in journal for tank especially if you have multiple tanks. I can’t tell you how many time I’m like I cleaned the filter like 2 weeks ago and find out it’s been a month.
Araganite is at Petco for 5.00 and change for 10 pound bag, good enough for 20 gallon long. Buffers alkalinity so beneficial bacteria can colonize.
Saving money is always good.
My biggest tip on saving money is less trips to fish store or if you have to go there in that case just go there and buy what you need and get outta there no wondering around or checking there tanks lol
I put my UV light on a timer, the UV has no need to run in the dark and the recommended life span of my light doubles.
I layered both my 55 gal tanks with a inch of crushed coral
& it seems to be doing the fish (guppies) a lot of good now
which is good after losing 1/2 or more of my stock I DID have.
Buying 2-3 sunsun 704bs for the price of 1 fx6 sounds nice, but it will cost more month to month to run the extra filters. So it’ll catch up eventually.
Great video again!! What did I do before Ben OChart???
i use quilt batting but make sure it does not have the flame retardent in it, as that will kill fish etc
I will be going out of my way to find products not made in China. I know that I will pay more, but it is worth it.
Agreed
Why buy an fx6...then use pumice with it..? A better suggestion would be good media in a cheaper filter..
I've been watching old video, I'm looking to see what you use for salt? Cichlid lake salt? Malowi salt? And are they beneficial? I'm thinking a once a month adding a salt for minerals electrolytes ECT.
Not necessarily a filtration money saver but a buffer money saver. I use Baking soda to raise my ph.
Jemco.com has the sheets and everything else you need I order from them all the time great place tell them Eric from Cincinnati sent ya know
A double question: when do canisters "calls" to service it? Can we clen them too often, more often than is convenient? Thank you. 🧓🏻
To saving money I do some Diy's
Hey Ben can you please help? I have the sunsun 3000 it’s band new and everything is running great I saw on eBay they have o rings if I wanted to get some could I got the 704 o ring on it?
Hi I was wondering if running a uv light in my canister will it kill beneficial bacteria in my biohome media ?
I bag my own carbon in mesh bags.
Every canister has it own problems it's about what will be cheapest to repair or replace and for that sun sun if unbeatable but they have low flow and the rubber seals like to go bad and leak. Try building your own canister a 5g bucket a pump a little pvc some lava rock and pinky floss and you get a nice filter my first one moves 3600g an hour was about $100 and been running for 2 years without replacing anything it would take 4 fluvals or a dozen sun suns to get that flow and would cost a fortune and def need parts in that time.
I think you posted something similar like this before, where are you coming up with these magical numbers?
@@prometheus4024 what numbers exactly? An fx5 or 6 is rated around 900gph but actually pushes around 600gph (when its freshly cleaned) a sun sun is much less unless you go to the newest one which personally havnt tested but the actual push out of a 704b is around 300 to 350gph. A jabao 15000 dct or dcp if your vigilant can be picked up for around 80 to 100$ and are rated almost 3800 gph a $5 bucket some 1.5" pvc a couple uni seals and some lava rock from home depot and right around $100 total you have yourself a canister. Works great I've tested mine a few times and ranged from 3300 to 3600 gph. Never had a problem with any of it in 2 years almost. built a second slightly smaller one maybe a year ago and just started a smaller 200g sump system using a dct 4000 havnt tested flow yet but shed put any out of the box canister to shame. Been through many filters have my fish room going near a decade and I have 43 tanks running currently. You want reliability and cost efficiency your best bet is not to buy anything designed for aquariums.
@@knrgaquatics8032 the 3600g number. Cool thanks for the reply, I would be scared of the bucket uniseal exploding lol, maybe you can post a video on your channel? cheers.
HI BEN; GREAT TIPS......
I stay away from any aquarium product that's not u.l. listed. Your home owners insurance will not cover any damage unless product is u.l. listed. Hear that sun sun users.
3 for the price of 1 sounds frugal. Great for today but that's the action that has put our country in the fix that it is in. Pay me now or pay me later.
I've been in the aquarium service industry for over 30 years. Have to say, SunSun filters are cheatly made, flow rate is horrible and impellars are junk. Eheims are well made. Several of my costomer still have Eheim canisters working over 30 years. I even prefer Filstar filters over SunSun. At least they're more easily clean than SunSun.
Quite informative. I too do not wish to buy anything from China if I can help it
Por-a not por-et
Bio balls??? Forget bio balls...get a bunch of bottle caps,coca,pepsi ,water etc...make holes with your drill and there you have your "bio balls"..or go to home depot and buy corrugated tubs used by electricians and cut it in small pieces..Eheim charge you a lot of money for the same thing...Sorry my english ,grammar etc It's not me.Blame siri..