ntayler
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2017
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- What state or country do you live in
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I just started to feed my corals...bought the Kent marine Sea Squirt, however I did not like it. Reason being, once you compress the turkey baster bulb and release, water gets sucked in and dilutes the food mix (probably only an issue with the small stuff like coral frenzy, and maybe gravity would make the large stuff settle back down toward the tip, but as of now I only have the small stuff).
I thought Julian's thing would solve this issue as the syringe mechanism stays in place when compressed and therefore does not suck back in tank water if released. I surely didn't want to spend $30 on it, so I made my own today using items that I already had. My tank be stupid deep (30"), hence the length.
Super easy and quick, can be dry fit, however I used a bead of acrylic glue on the tip to make it a bit more finished and rounded.
Pieces needed:
-Plastic syringe. I used a 30ml, but also have a bunch of 10ml Kaiser syringes lying around from when the kiddos were younger. 30 ml I got at the plastics store for $2 (used for applying acrylic glue with a needle attachment). The 10 ml can be had for free from the pharmacy with kiddo meds, or from petco/petsmart for a couple bucks, or from any drug store etc. Other options could be syringes for injecting food (or jello shots lol).
-airline tubing. everyone has it. I used black silicone airline tubing because I liked that it was a bit softer than the regular airline tubing, but totally unnecessary.
-rigid airline tubing (aka 1/4" acrylic tube). I used it for the tip because it fit tighter than a softer piece of regular airline tubing, but again probably not necessary.
-3/8" acrylic tube. I had some laying around from other projects, it was about $8 for a 6 foot length when I got it from the plastics store.
-1/4" ID vinyl tubing from HD/lowes. Outer diameter is 3/8", so it fits nicely in the larger acrylic tube.
-Reef safe glue of some kind if you so desire.
You can see here how the feeding end is fashioned...short piece of airline tubing inside of a short piece of 1/4" ID vinyl tubing inside of 3/8" ID acrylic tube...push in tightly for a snug fit (the rigid airline tip was better than the soft airline for tightness, this may vary depending on brands):
And again I put a bead of acrylic glue to finish it up a bit...totally unnecessary for functionality.
Same process for the other end (airline into vinyl into acrylic tube) and then cut the airline tubing to desired length and slip onto syringe tip. Easy peezy!
I'm sure there are many other materials that can be used. I was determined to only use what I had already, since I already blew money on the Sea squirt (which I will still use for blowing stuff off in the tank as does extend to a good length).
I thought Julian's thing would solve this issue as the syringe mechanism stays in place when compressed and therefore does not suck back in tank water if released. I surely didn't want to spend $30 on it, so I made my own today using items that I already had. My tank be stupid deep (30"), hence the length.
Super easy and quick, can be dry fit, however I used a bead of acrylic glue on the tip to make it a bit more finished and rounded.
Pieces needed:
-Plastic syringe. I used a 30ml, but also have a bunch of 10ml Kaiser syringes lying around from when the kiddos were younger. 30 ml I got at the plastics store for $2 (used for applying acrylic glue with a needle attachment). The 10 ml can be had for free from the pharmacy with kiddo meds, or from petco/petsmart for a couple bucks, or from any drug store etc. Other options could be syringes for injecting food (or jello shots lol).
-airline tubing. everyone has it. I used black silicone airline tubing because I liked that it was a bit softer than the regular airline tubing, but totally unnecessary.
-rigid airline tubing (aka 1/4" acrylic tube). I used it for the tip because it fit tighter than a softer piece of regular airline tubing, but again probably not necessary.
-3/8" acrylic tube. I had some laying around from other projects, it was about $8 for a 6 foot length when I got it from the plastics store.
-1/4" ID vinyl tubing from HD/lowes. Outer diameter is 3/8", so it fits nicely in the larger acrylic tube.
-Reef safe glue of some kind if you so desire.
You can see here how the feeding end is fashioned...short piece of airline tubing inside of a short piece of 1/4" ID vinyl tubing inside of 3/8" ID acrylic tube...push in tightly for a snug fit (the rigid airline tip was better than the soft airline for tightness, this may vary depending on brands):
And again I put a bead of acrylic glue to finish it up a bit...totally unnecessary for functionality.
Same process for the other end (airline into vinyl into acrylic tube) and then cut the airline tubing to desired length and slip onto syringe tip. Easy peezy!
I'm sure there are many other materials that can be used. I was determined to only use what I had already, since I already blew money on the Sea squirt (which I will still use for blowing stuff off in the tank as does extend to a good length).
