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Hi Wayne, great article. When I initially discovered hydra in my tank, I thought they were quite pretty and were a good sign that everything was right in my tank. After a few weeks I seemed to have have at least 50 of the suckers, and even though I liked the look of them I was concerned as I'd had a couple of berried CRS drop and within a week or so, and after initially counting 15 shrimp lets, I had maybe only 3 or 4 left. I watched a few of them suddenly dart away when they came in contact with a hydra and was convinced that this may have been the cause of the shrimplets disappearance/death. After doing a bit of research here, and also on google, I found many "cures" including fenbendazole, an anti-worming treatment used in animals. I am a pharmacist by trade, and wondered whether Mebendazole, which is found in Vermox, Combantrin would work as well. I had a ready supply of that at work, and made up a very dilute solution in some distilled water. The tabs are 100mg and the solution I made up and added to my tank (a imacquarium - about 10L) contained about 5mg of mebendazole. It worked a treat, and no hydra have been seen in the last few months. The shrimp survived and I've had 2 broods since then, and have 3 berried at the moment.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how to drill holes in a tank for overflows/bulkheads so I thought I better Put everyone’s mind at ease and show people how easy it really is. The first thing I do is paint the back of my tank with a few thin coats of outdoor acrylic paint. This saves me trying to add some sort of cover or back ground later. I paint a final coat once all the holes are complete. First thing to do is position where you want the hole. If you are doing multiple tanks be sure to measure the position exactly the same on every tank so it all look nice and neat. Then because I painted first I can then simply turn the hole saw bit on the paint and get a mark where the hole will go. If you are drilling the bottom of the tank or choose not to paint then you can simply get a piece of timber, cement sheet, particle board etc anything that’s strong enough to hold the drill bit in place, and pre drill a template hole and simply hold this in place when you drill each hole. Now you have the hole marked (or template drilled) you need to fit the drill bit back to the cordless drill. Where people mostly go wrong from here is they don’t set the correct drill setting. Normal drill setting for drilling everything except glass Turn the setting down to the lowest setting The lowest setting allows you to hold the drill bit and stop it spinning with no effort at all. We need to use this setting because as you get to the point where the drill bit goes through the glass, you don’t want it to grab and break the tank/glass. You want the clutch/tension of the drill to stop. This will save you everytime. Hold the drill very steady and use 1 hand on the handle and the other to stabilize the movement (hand on the tank and drill leaning against you hand for support) start the drill at full speed before touching the glass with the drill bit. Slowly lower the spinning drill bit holding it on a slight angle, onto the place the hole needs to be drilled. Not much pressure is needed at all, just enough to hold it in place and let the weight of the drill do its thing. As you start to drill into the glass you need to get about 2mm into the glass before you straighten up the drill Once you are at about 2mm deep holding the drill on a slight angle, Very slowly start to straighten up the drill until you are completely vertical. This needs to be done slow with little pressure pushing down; remember to let the drill do the work. And you should slowly start to get a complete ring on the surface of the glass. Remember you can stop at any time and continue latter simply by starting the drilling again as you did from the start. Once you have the ring in the glass that is about 2mm deep all the way around this is when you start to use just a little pressure and start to rotate the drill angle around the hole. Try to keep it even all the way around the hole and don’t just stay in one spot. Keep doing this until you feel the drill first pass through the glass on one side of the hole. This is where the drill can catch and break the glass if you don’t change the setting on the drill as explained in earlier steps. It will look like this Once you have reached this stage start the drill again off the glass and hold it on the same angle as you did at the start. Slowly with no pressure other than the weight of the drill lower the drill into the hole where you have goon through the glass already and simply rock the drill gently from left to right only. Don’t go over the top of the remaining glass holding the glass in place. All you are trying to do is work away at the edges of where it already is through the glass. Once you slowly work away at the edges of the hole only, you will eventually wear away the remaining glass holding the centre piece in place and be able to go right through. Keep the drill spinning and slowly use the edge of the drill bit to clean the edge of the hole so it’s smooth and free from sharp edges. Keep the drill running until it is removed and free from the hole. Get Your bulk head or fitting you will be using and make sure it’s a good fit and there are no glass edges left to stop the fitting going in properly. Now clean away the glass dust. I use a wet rag as it picks up all the dust easily. Then you are ready to install the tank or put on the final coat of paint. Now I also made a video to show how easy it is in real time ïŠ shouldn’t take longer than 3-4 minutes a hole If you follow these easy steps. Enjoy!!! http://youtu.be/39oogNtSriU