5 Simple Aquarium Tips That Save You Money

‎ The fishkeeping hobby can be pretty expensive, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy having aquarium fish if you've got a smaller budget. Cory shares his favorite money-saving hacks to get the best bang for your buck.

WHO WE ARE
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At Aquarium Co-Op, we focus on your aquariums. We specialize in freshwater tropical fish, aquatic plants, and the overall betterment of the freshwater fish keeping hobby. Our goal is to help you with your first pet fish and graduate you to an advanced aquarium hobbyist. If you'd like to take it to the next level, subscribe to Aquarium Co-Op and check out our weekly videos.

Cory McElroy is employed by Aquarium Co-Op LLC. He also owns Aquarium Co-Op LLC. Therefore, all content is sponsored by Aquarium Co-Op.

#Aquariumcoop #Aquariumfish #Fishtank

[mardiweber]

Gotta love someone who has a brick and mortar store and an online business yet still lets people know about money saving tips!

Great tips! THANK YOU!!!

[Merichguy]

I find watching these short informative videos FAR BETTER than a 2 hour long live stream. Thanks Cory.

[Backscratchandhalls]

Cory: "My goal and everything we try to do is for the betterment of the hobby"

Haters: "That's just corporate talk to push your products and brand."

Cory: Literally tells us to save money ON HIS OWN PRODUCTS

Haters just gonna hate

[Twinkley]

I use the first 3 hacks thanks to binge watching your YouTube videos and a few other channels too. 👍🏼I accidentally fell into the hobby 1year ago when my older daughter got a tank in her room. So I started to read lots of information on websites and watched lots of YouTube videos, because I love to learn as much as I can for any pet that’s under my roof. I now look after…well kinda took over her tank😂, have my own tank, and I’m getting a 3rd next week. I also have guppy and molly fry, bbs hatchery and micro worm cultures going too. It’s all very addictive 🤭

[alisonnicholson]

Great tip about cutting test strips in half, thanks Cory. I use an old reward card for algae. Knew that 1 as find some algae scrapers flimsy. Ooo plant watering spikes saw those on Amazon I'll add them to my basket. Thanks Cory. Great video. Some really good money saving hacks

[kurtisstutzman]

I must be one of the few, but I use all these tricks/ methods...probably comes from my DIY-ed-ness... I actually sharpen my old cards with one of those store bought knife sharpeners(Fishing dept @walmart)... it just puts a nicer edge on the card... And being a landscaper, 99% of my substrate comes from my wholesale nursery place...MUCH cheaper and it's right across the street from me...! Keep up the Co-Op awesomeness...! Thanks for being you...!

[ScruffyCityAquatics]

I’ve heard most of these from years of watching you on YouTube, but this video is great for sharing with new hobbyist. Thank you for the great content!

[marypaigeflynn]

One of my favorite hacks that you shared was cutting test strips in half. Something else I truly love is the quality of the Aquarium Co-op test strips and ammonia strips. We get a great amount for the value and I recommend them to everyone! Thanks for another great video Cory!! I hope you're having a wonderful and blessed day🙏♥️🌿🐟🌿♥️

[LordMerji]

Ha! I knew 3 of the 5. The test strip idea is really good to know, I didn't even consider cutting them.

[hamaquatics]

I've been watching for quite a while so have used most of these hacks. I have l397 plecos which did not like the watering tera cotta stick, but I found getting a 5 foot length of 2 inch bambo and cutting it into caves worked great. Shortly there after they started breeding. Thanks for the tips Cory, keep up the great work.

[xphilthethrill]

Love that you just jump right in it no bs

[brandonb]

I'm just imagining Cory pulling an algae covered license out of his wallet lol

[RALPHGCREW]

Aquarium coop is back miss these diy videos and tours

[aljanecko]

I love your DIY videos Cory, it’s how I say interested in the hobby.

[taiaquatics]

1. use a coffee grinder to turn almost any species suitable food into fry food. feed along long with live food to get the fry hitting it as soon as possible. 2. pre-soak powder food in a squirt bottle and just shake and squirt into the tank. great for fry and seems to help most fish's digestion (prepare portions for each feeding)

[ASR_]

The CC trick is great, I also use ski/snowboard wax scrapers some of which have great curves to get in rounded acrylic corners

[ndbyers]

I knew about the credit card hack and the rock yard hack. I really like the idea of cutting the test strips in half.

[PaulZyCZ]

Great tips! I knew about the flower pot (coconut shell works too). I also know to put flakes in the water to make it sink. With some pellets it's a must to soak it first (I lost few fish to congestion). To clean the algae I'm using dish washing or magnetic sponge, skewer and fork against stringy algae and a toothbrush to clean the rocks (credits for the last go to George Farmer). Of course it depends on amount of algae, normally I just need to clean the glass and pipes with the sponge once a month (aside of regular water change and filter maintenance). Tea sieve helps with duckweed.

Also garden hose adapter for a kitchen tap. The tap looks slightly different with a different pearling bit (made from a stainless steel), but it's a great thing to have for big water changes. Also garden watering cans for smaller water changes. Terrestrial plants love this waste water, but sometimes I use another hose to drain it.

Good point with the rocks. I prefer more aquascaping ones, but it's better to buy some of the hardscape elsewhere. I'm setting a 190gallon tank and for the substrate I went to a hobby market, where I got some some pool filtration sand, (crushed) lava rocks, gravel, pond compost and just few bags of a no-brand aquarium river sand. I could probably get them even cheaper elsewhere. Yesterday I saw a nice mangrove root in a LFS, which I'm getting. It's expensive, but it should sink and it looks great. Otherwise I'd be getting some birch or willow branches (or something similar). Ask your local pleco enthusiast about it, they might have even better idea here.

[rosemarydudley]

Thank you for the c/card tip. It doesn't scratch the glass either. Also, at the garden centre you can get all sorts of substrates, stones and rocks, even sand as long as it's well washed.
Regarding large stones and rocks etc. I always think that the more you put into an aquarium, the less water is in the tank. So maybe a 25 gallon will only hold 23? gallons.

[scorpionspets]

I'm definitely going to try and use these. Also, you can cut off plastic bottle pieces in order to clean algae.