Tips or hacks?: Zeiss hatchery

[Wmarian]

Hello

Still fine tuning using this thing, and wondered what ideas others are coming up with.

Access: One issue noted in Zeiss hatchery reviews: getting your hands and a container underneath the low stand....for me, I just lift up the blender from the stand and hold it over a bowl or container. The valve is easy enough (so far) to open one handed. (Just make sure the container you are filling is big enough). Of course, I am doing half liter batches....doing a full 2 liter batch would feel like too long to stand there while it drains. 

Has anyone figured out if you can attach airline tube and a valve to the outlet or some other fix for this? Or some alternative to the stand that doesn't involve drilling holes in my kitchen wall? Guppy guru has a you tube video showing how he hangs it on his fish room wall using pvc pipe; and Cory appears to have hung a small rail in his fish room to hang three hatcheries on.

Hatch Rate/Time: The other thing to fine tune: the amount of time for hatching. I have had clean batches where virtually all the hatched eggs float leaving a clean batch, when I leave it long enough and add a tiny bit of baking soda at the start. But the amount of time seems as if it will be unique to brand and age of eggs, and might be quite a bit longer than 24 hours til all/most eggs have hatched. And if you aren't patient, you have many unhatched eggs mixed in with the brine shrimp, because it seems unhatched eggs don't float to the top? Temperature seems to impact this, as it worked about 4 hours faster for me with a warm light on.

Tips and tricks for complete hatching/clean batch of shrimp?

Other tips or tricks for the blender hatchery?

 

[MickS77]

For emptying my batches I hang it on the side of my utility sink. I place the strainer in the bottom of the sink and open the valve letting most of the container drain through the strainer. I pull the strainer out of the stream before the shells all drain out, doesn't take too long. I don't think the stand is meant to be used while collecting the BBS, I think its there because otherwise it wouldn't stand on its own.

[Tre]

I can’t wait until these are back in stock....though I’m deeply fond of the bubbling noise of 4 one liter bottles bubbling in my dining room for hungry betta adults and fry. >< ahhhh college. 

[Wmarian]

People have been saying the blender doesn't work with an air stone, but I haven't had a problem there that I have noticed. Can anybody explain what the problem is?

[Craiger]

[StephenP2003]

On 7/19/2020 at 8:05 AM, Wmarian said:

People have been saying the blender doesn't work with an air stone, but I haven't had a problem there that I have noticed. Can anybody explain what the problem is?

The airstone sort of creates a void in the area below the airstone near the spout, where some eggs are likely going to settle and therefore never hatch.  Even with the straight airline, I'm still seeing a lot of eggs settle in the sides/corners. Right now I'm running one airline up the spout and one in the air tube, and that solves the problem.

[Bill Smith]

I jam an airline up the spout; it's a very tight fit, and it doesn't leak.

When I'm ready to drain, I use a low flat tupperware-style container below the spout and pull the tubing out.

[Bill Smith]

Here's my other hack:

I stole this idea from one of the hatcheries at Brine Shrimp Direct, and screwed some dowels into the stand so I could elevate it a bit:

[MattyIce]

Not sure if Tip/trick but i started making a concentrate salt water the day before hand using a quart deli container.

1/4 cup rock salt, fill the container, put a lid on and The next day everything is dissolved. 

Add the salt concentrate, add a second quart of water, temp adjusted to bring the mixture to around 81, and add the eggs.

With a cleaned blender i have a solution started for the next day and am ready to add the eggs to the blender in a min or 2.

I guess the tip is more, figure out a simple system for making the salt mixture, equipment and process, and you can save a lot of time.

Edited August 1, 2020 by MattyIce

[StephenP2003]

Speaking of salt, if some dummy added eggs into water and ran airstone for 24 hours before realizing he forgot to add salt, should said dummy dispose of those eggs? 

[MattyIce]

I hang an air stone in my hatchery, near the bottom, resting on the side opposite the bubbles.   

i just use it to cause turbulence in the water current at the bottom of the hatchery, I don't hook it to air,  the turbulence helps prevent eggs from settling on the bottom.

To note, I am only hatching about one Teaspoon of eggs at a time, it might not be as effective with larger amounts of eggs.





 

[Jefft51]

It helped me to hang the container inside a heated aquarium to keep the temp up and constant. When the shrimp hatch, I hang it on the outside and put a spacer between it and the aquarium to make it sit straight. There is a little ridge on the Zeiss that stops the spacer from sliding down.