Easy siphon brine shrimp hatcher

This will show how the combination of an upside down Coke bottle, plastic elbow, silicone air tube and a stop valve can be put together to create an effective and efficient way of hatching and siphoning brine shrimp without excessive eggs (cysts).

It facilitates easy siphoning with the absolute minimum contamination of cysts. Simply use nature’s natural separation of empty and hatched cysts, which float to the top, and un-hatched or dead cysts, which sink when left to settle. By using our method you can eliminate nearly all of the unwanted cysts in your initial siphon for brine shrimp.

Features

Dead and un-hatched eggs fall below the elbow outlet and settle on the lid, reducing the amount siphoned.
Elbow stops the airline kinking or squashing and stopping the air flow.
Stop valve controls airflow, allowing for easy siphoning and disconnection.
Stand bottle vertically and set air flow at a medium rate with around 5mm bubbles.

Benefits

Easy siphoning.
Space saving: hang on wall or in tank.
No dead spots in water flow.
Eggs don’t settle on the bottom.
Low cost.
Design minimises salt spray.
No need to place siphoning hose into the container which causes disturbance of hatched, and un-hatched eggs.
Effective, efficient and clean method.

Equipment and Tools Needed

1 - 1.5 litre plastic Coke bottle
1 - plastic elbow
500mm silicone air tube (not PVC)
1 - inline 2pc stop valve
Knife and/or 50mm hole saw
5/32 drill bit (or suit elbow)
Hot water

Method

Remove loose seal in bottle top
Drill 5/32 hole in bottle top or to suit the size of the elbow for a very tight fit.
Put top in hot water to soften it then push elbow into place.
Fit the length of silicone air tube to the elbow and the other end to the valve.
Finally, using the hole saw or knife, cut a 50mm hole into the bottom of the Coke bottle.

By cutting the hole in the base and not cutting the whole base off, you keep the strength of the bottle’s design and reduce the amount of salt spray.

Peter Manser & Stuart Lord, Upper Hutt Aquarium Society

This was taken from another of the DIY posters produced for the FNZASC’99.
Both Peter and Stuart’s names keep appearing with regularity in the breeding lists so they must be feeding their fry well on all the brine shrimp they hatch in their hatcheries.