Up Aqua atomizer is tiny

Hands-on with the UP Aqua Inline CO2 Atomizer

The U.P. Aqua CO2 atomizer is a tiny gizmo to inject CO2 into your planted tank. It works with a canister filter and pressurized CO2. I recently purchased the U.P. Aqua CO2 Atomizer to replace my no-name internal CO2 diffuser.  I chose the UP because it had good reviews on Amazon, and I wanted something … Continue reading Hands-on with the UP Aqua Inline CO2 Atomizer

Use Inexpensive Equipment for Automatic Aquarium Dosing

If you regularly add anything to your aquarium like fertilizer for planted tanks, you know what a pain doing it every day can be. There are sweet precision dosing pumps available online, but they are expensive. There is a cheap pump out there called the Aqualifter.  It's less than 20 bucks, but the problem is … Continue reading Use Inexpensive Equipment for Automatic Aquarium Dosing

Cheaper Flourish Excel: Generic at a Fraction of the Price

If you have live aquarium plants in your tank, you are probably familiar with Seachem Flourish Excel (or just Excel). It's a liquid-based carbon source that helps boost plant growth and can help reduce algae.  I swear by the stuff, but it can be seriously expensive. It turns out it's the same chemical as found … Continue reading Cheaper Flourish Excel: Generic at a Fraction of the Price

Beautiful 3D Backdrops to Dress Up Aquariums

I think one of the hardest things about doing a nice aquarium is what to do about the background.  I'm frugal, so I've used black plastic trash bags taped outside and then plants and decorations to take emphasis away from the fact I'm using a trash bag. Perhaps you want something a little more... professional. … Continue reading Beautiful 3D Backdrops to Dress Up Aquariums

10 Gallon Aquascape Build With $7 Worth of Home Depot Material

I recently completed a fun project.  I took my old, unused 10 gallon aquarium and built a volcano themed aquascape using about seven dollars worth of materials from Home Depot. Here's how I did it. I had an existing empty 10 gallon Marineland aquarium setup from Petsmart that I tore down after establishing my main … Continue reading 10 Gallon Aquascape Build With $7 Worth of Home Depot Material