There are some tools that you need when practicing the hobby.
The tools you absolutely need is the siphon, net, and at least one bucket. All these are obtainable on Amazon. what could be good to have is the tweezers and a scissor. And what is nice to have is the multi-box from Eheim.
We will go thru when to use these tools.
For water change
Water change is something you will do a lot. It’s the reason you don’t want to try to save money on these tools. Spend a little more on these tools if you are able to and you will have a tool lasting you a long time!
The tools needed when doing a water change is the siphon and a bucket. No more tools are needed!
The siphon is important to have since it’s the tool moving the water from your fish tank to your bucket. It’s good if the siphon has a blockage of debris to prevent the siphon to be damaged by a piece of gravel getting stuck in your tubing.
A siphon with a block is the one from LL Products on Amazon.
A bucket is important when doing water changes. What should you otherwise transport your water in? There are mechanisms where you connect the siphon with the water outlet. It’s nothing I have tested and therefore are not able to recommend anything about.
The bucket you use could be a random bucket. Be sure to know how much it holds and make sure you only use it for your fish tank.
A nice thing to have is a multi-box when doing water changes. On the multi-box which you have on the edge of the fish tank, you put everything you will put into the tank and you put everything you bring out of the tank.
The multi-box has saved me a lot of hassle when replanting and trimming my plants by holding everything for me. You even put your tools on it to have them nearby when you need it.
The box that I have is the one from Eheim which you can get on Amazon.
Scissor and Tweezer
Scissors and tweezers are best bought in a kit. In that way you save money. The tweezer is a super handy tool to replant your plants to be sure the plants are secure in the substrate.
The scissor is necessary for trimming the plants. It could be curved if trimming at hard to get places or if trimming mosses or other low growing plants. It could be straight, like mine when cutting stem plants for example.
What sizing of the net?
The net is used for picking up leaves and other debris from the water floating around. choose the net size according to the size of your fish.
The net is also used to pick up fish with and it’s your number one tool to remove or move a fish from the tank without making a mess.
I use the 6” net (15 cm) from Pen Plax. It’s a cheap net and you don’t have to spend a fortune on a net. You can get the same type of net that I use on Amazon.
Are algae scrapers necessary?
Not really, I have one but don’t use it really. It’s great to clean the glass when you get the green tint on the glass from the algae building up. be careful though!
If you get too close to the bottom with the magnetic scraper you could get some sand or gravel underneath the scraper and you will get scratches on your fish tank glass.
I would say it’s safer to use an old membership card to remove algae from the glass pane and not risking getting scratches from the sand under the scraper.
