(upbeat pop music)
- Hey, it's Thomas here
and today, we're going to be checking out Neat Aquatics
feeding portal for net tops.
If you're tired of trying to feed through your net top
and having to clean off caked on flake or frozen food
or don't want to have to lift the top off
and out of the way,
every time you need to feed or dose your tank
and love the idea of a simple little feeding hatch
that takes just a few moments to install
and will save you from all of the hassle
or potential loss of fish that jumped out,
because your net top wasn't sitting perfectly
when you put it back on,
then check out the feeding portal from Neat Aquatics.
These guys just never stop impressing me
and this thing is a must have
if you've got that top net top.
Net tops, oh net tops,
what a love, hate relationship we have.
Don't get me wrong.
They serve an incredibly important function
and they keep our fish safe from jumping out of our tanks.
And most net tops do it in a way that's unobtrusive
and otherwise doesn't look bad at all.
The problem is they just always seem to be in the way.
Sure, taking the top off to do water changes
and bi-weekly or monthly maintenance, is really no big deal.
But most of us need to get into our tanks daily,
sometimes more than once a day, to feed our fish
or add two part and other additives.
And yes, you can certainly try to make precision pours
through the netting,
but eventually it just gets caked up and gross.
And ultimately that's why we keep lifting it
off to get these things done.
And the worst part about moving a net top
is that it can be easy enough to forget to put it back on
or be in a bit of a rush
and have a corner, not sit perfectly flat.
And it feels like every time that happens a fish,
which is usually your favorite one,
ends up crispy on the carpet.
Neat Aquatics did what they do best
and came up with a simple,
affordable and effective solution,
that makes feeding
and dosing through your net top clean and attractive.
The feeding portal is 3D-printed perfection
using 100% reef-safe material.
It's really easy to install on just about any net top
and gives you a comfortable,
three inch diameter opening to feed through
with a lid that has a three eighths inch grid to
allow light to pass through while keeping your fish safe.
So let's get it out of the box
and I'll show you how it works.
In the box you'll find the Neat Aquatics feeding portal
some reef-safe, bolts and nuts
and the instructions.
One thing I love about Neat Aquatics
is the little details that they put into their products.
And this is a great example of that.
They use an orange retaining band to
hold the portal together in the packaging.
It's obvious at first glance
and has a little pair of scissors on it.
So, you know, to cut it off,
I personally really dislike tape
and a lot of companies use it
to hold the products together in packaging.
Skimmer lids to cups is a great example of that.
This is just a really pleasant experience.
The second you take it out of the package
you know exactly what you're supposed to do with it.
It doesn't leave any glue marks
and it's ultimately just hassle-free.
The feeding portal is basically three components,
the collar which comes as two pieces and the lid.
You also get a bag of eight,
small reef-safe nuts and bolts to hold everything together.
You can install the portal
anywhere you want on your net top,
but if you're netting isn't perfectly taut
and has some waves to it perhaps,
like this one right here,
then picking one of the corners is usually your best bet.
First, press all of the nuts
into the back of the bottom portion of the collar.
You'll see a little raised circle on each nut.
That part is going to face outwards.
Place the bottom half of the collar
under the netting where you'd like the feeding portal to be
and then place the top half of the collar above it,
so that the holes line up.
You can start threading the screws in by hand
just until they start to pinch the netting.
Then in a crisscross pattern,
you can tighten the screws a little at a time
until they're all finger tight.
And the feeding portal is firmly gripping the netting.
You can test this by gently pressing the netting
in the center of the feeding portal
and seeing if the netting outside of the portal
is being pulled into the center.
If it is, you'll want to tighten it up a bit more.
Finally use a sharp blade, like a flat razor,
to carefully cut the netting
out from the center of the portal
and place the cap on
and you're done.
You now have a small and easy to use feeding door
and you can stop fussing around with your net top every day
or making a mess of it or forgetting to put it back on.
I also really liked that the feeding portal is reusable.
So if I decide I need to replace my net top for any reason,
in the future, let's say I'm maybe just not satisfied
with the first one that I put together
and I want to replace it at some point.
I can always put the feeding portal on this net top.
And then when I get around to building the new one,
I can just take it off of this one
and stick it on the new net top.
I don't have to buy another feeding portal.
Neat Aquatics has really nailed it,
when it comes to simple, smart
and effective solutions for reefers.
They often solve a problem,
most reefers just accept
as being the way it is
and solve it not only brilliantly,
but also affordably, which is huge.
There's probably a handful of mistakes,
that you're currently making
that Neat Aquatics has already got a solution for.
Ryan and Randy actually have an awesome video on that.
You can check out right here.
They go through all of the different products
and what they do,
how they solve them
and basically help you not have to deal
with those annoyances that you've been dealing with,
just because you didn't know how to fix them.
Like for example, your RO/DI unit making a whole big racket,
because of the pressure pump,
they've already solved that too.
Check it out.
(upbeat music)