Fluval breeder box

[ccc24]

Any thoughts on it? Is it functional? Work well? I’ve seen plenty of videos on YouTube but how have actual experiences been? 

[Guppysnail]

I like it but I put pantyhose or am cut a piece of fine sponge for the outflow as small fry swim right through the grate.

[ccc24]

Thanks. Do you happen to know what the dimensions are off the side of the tank? I found a listing online but I’ve had those be wrong before. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/3/2022 at 10:25 AM, ccc24 said:

Any thoughts on it? Is it functional? Work well? I’ve seen plenty of videos on YouTube but how have actual experiences been? 

I hooked mine up and it's definitely as loud and as silly and as goofy as many youtube videos make it seem.  I also think it's probably one of the single best "HoB Blank canvas" devices in the hobby and it's something I wish had a modern version made out of new materials that worked a bit better and fixed issues.

A few tips and some advice.

1. Make sure you clean the air intake with something hard and sturdy to remove hard water deposits. The intake is slightly too narrow of a dimension and will fail over time.
2. Hook it up to a HIGH QUALITY air valve like a metal one and adjust the flow accordingly. If you do this, it will be silent and will be very nice instead of as loud and goofy as mentioned above.
3.  There's a billion mods for these things and I highly encourage you to check them out to incorporate some of these ideas into your setup for breeding.  I purchased the large one and plan to leave the first and last containers with foam (something to stop fry and ease the intake) so that I don't have any issues with anything.  This is one of my favorites, and you definitely should watch to the end to see the concept. Yet again, another way to set it up without using any additional air pump.
 

On 7/3/2022 at 11:03 AM, Guppysnail said:

I like it but I put pantyhose or am cut a piece of fine sponge for the outflow as small fry swim right through the grate.

I'd suggest literally just silicone it too, it's dumb that it's a "feature" to be able to switch gate sizes when it does nothing but cause issues.

Edited July 4, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[gardenman]

I love the Fluval/Marina breeding boxes. I have three of them and they're great. I mostly leave them up all of the time and running and life thrives in them. (I put a few small plants in them also.) All kinds of very small wriggly, jumpy, darting things end up living in the box and slowly trickling into the bigger tank. When and if you get fry the fry can snack away on the life in the box. If you don't have fry, the stuff in the box slowly works its way into the tank where your other fish can chomp them down. 

[Cinnebuns]

I love mine. I agree with some comments here that tiny babies can fit through the gate. I had some mystery snails get through. I fully recommend tho!!

[Odd Duck]

1. A small piece of sponge or any kind of floss stuffed into the opening of the inflow tube does wonders for making the bubbling/burbling quieter.  It will need to be changed/cleaned occasionally.

2. Small fry will definitely exit even through the finest “grate” so something like a piece of pantyhose or other fine mesh over it will help.

3. Small pea puffers (and presumably other like minded fish) can jump out of the box over top of the silly little gate, so keep that in mind with jumping inclined species.  A bit of craft mesh taped over the opening over top of the overflow gate would likely stop that silliness.

4. Even the largest one isn’t really enough of a refugium to supply much to a tank, might be helpful for a single pea puffer, not enough for even a small harem.  Tried it with bladder snails and Daphnia on a pea puffer tank.  Bladder snails didn’t crawl out fast enough.  Daphnia flowed out too fast and we’re gone in only a few hours.

5. It doesn’t flow fast enough to stay warm enough if your room temp is too cool.

All that said, it’s a great detention center for a larger pea puffer that misbehaves (ask me how I know).  It does add some micro fauna for baby puffers to eat, not enough for a dozen.  It’s definitely the best hang outside the tank breeder box/emergency containment/micro refugium.  I especially like it for sorting fish since it circulates tank water through so it doesn’t get yucky while you’re sorting.  I run it fast for that. It flushes away the stress hormones that can build up after catching while your sorting is going on.  Sides are nice and clear so you can tell which fish you want to do what with - sell or keep, etc.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 7/11/2022 at 1:33 PM, Odd Duck said:

1. A small piece of sponge or any kind of floss stuffed into the opening of the inflow tube does wonders for making the bubbling/burbling quieter.  It will need to be changed/cleaned occasionally.

2. Small fry will definitely exit even through the finest “grate” so something like a piece of pantyhose or other fine mesh over it will help.

3. Small pea puffers (and presumably other like minded fish) can jump out of the box over top of the silly little gate, so keep that in mind with jumping inclined species.  A bit of craft mesh taped over the opening over top of the overflow gate would likely stop that silliness.

4. Even the largest one isn’t really enough of a refugium to supply much to a tank, might be helpful for a single pea puffer, not enough for even a small harem.  Tried it with bladder snails and Daphnia on a pea puffer tank.  Bladder snails didn’t crawl out fast enough.  Daphnia flowed out too fast and we’re gone in only a few hours.

5. It doesn’t flow fast enough to stay warm enough if your room temp is too cool.

All that said, it’s a great detention center for a larger pea puffer that misbehaves (ask me how I know).  It does add some micro fauna for baby puffers to eat, not enough for a dozen.  It’s definitely the best hang outside the tank breeder box/emergency containment/micro refugium.  I especially like it for sorting fish since it circulates tank water through so it doesn’t get yucky while you’re sorting.  I run it fast for that. It flushes away the stress hormones that can build up after catching while your sorting is going on.  Sides are nice and clear so you can tell which fish you want to do what with - sell or keep, etc.

I learned #5 up here. I do have it handy when needed but usually run it with a 80gph micro water pump on the tube vs the airline to limit the heat loss with 4 watts of heat and a little more and constant flow

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:25 AM, ccc24 said:

Any thoughts on it? Is it functional? Work well? I’ve seen plenty of videos on YouTube but how have actual experiences been? 

Mine is functional and i use it when needed but I often default to the ziss box for the easy factor.

Ziss has lots if flow , i can see it and feed it easily, and its in the main tank so uses that volume of water for stability.

The external one has to hang off the back of my tanks here, is less observable for me, has more temperature and parameter fluctuations based off food and flow rates.

The in tank ones have a mesh that keeps my baby puffers in but lets some baby brine work their way out. As a result when I'm feeding cry in the box the rest of the tank is conditioning off bbs that get through the mesh. 

[nabokovfan87]

I think we all can agree, how nice it would be if someone took up the task of making a kit, upgrading this thing from the old design, improving the input and outputs a bit.  I did see a video a bit ago on a knockoff brand that did have some tweaks and fixed some of the issues.

I think it's a good tool to have in your fish tubs for longer term use when you need it. Especially for QT/Observation when you just need to give a fish a break, but not necessarily meds.

The main use for mine is likely going to be attempting to grow moss / susswassertang without risk of it getting tossed into the HoB filter.