Why a “Poking Stick” is an Essential Piece of the Reefkeeper’s Toolbox.

[Globalbutterfly]

This is one of my favorite poking sticks and they are free! They are the little yard sign stakes the lawn service puts in the ground after a service. Take the dogs for a walk in the evening and grab a few on my way home.

The top part is a great “swisher” and sand rearranger and the bottom is just good for all kinds of poking & prodding.

 

[LuizW13]

I use the end of a scraper i use for the back wall of my nano.

5 stars for mentioning Steve Irwin </3

 

[Johniejumbo]

Great. Now I want general Tso’s chicken. And to watch crocodile hunter. lol great write up. I’ve been using a plastic ruler for a long time.

 

[Pivitol]

I use one of these
https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Hillman-Group-48-in-Reflective-Rod-Orange-848638/202051800
I have a 3ft deep tank so the length works for me, those with shallower tanks can cut them in half and use them like chop sticks or have a spare.

 

[WilRams]

I use a green acrylic rod. One of my most used tools. Recently my clowns have started getting feisty when cleaning the tank. I use the rod to defend myself.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Pokey Stick may also be substituted as Hangy Stick in a pinch when creatively adding a filter sock to your system! Pokey Stick not long enough? It snugly fits in the end of a turkey baster to reach those deeper depths as well. Thanks Pokey Stick!!

 

[wesman42]

This was mine for a couple of years, good for spearing pests

I thought this was a firecracker at first.

Guys, we MUST be missing something [emoji23]

 

[Flexin]

My poking stick started off as a long handled glass scraper with a foam handle. The foam has been removed and so has the blade. It’s been my poking stick for over a year.

Mostly used to upright a frag plug by pressing the end back into the sand . It will sit straight up again.

Second major use is stirring up the sand bed.

Third, keeping the clowns at bay when in their territory (by the purple tip Frogspawn).

 

[AdamNC]

When my cat broke the feather off her fishing stick I repurposed it as my poker. 18” long and it’s the perfect size for my 29 gallon and my 40 gallon.

 

[cracker]

Here are my specialized pokey sticks. I use the 2 at bottom the most. fork on a stick for flipping snails & sliding corals. The other an acrylic rod from a window blind with graduated marks so I can get a good measurement on how much water I have in a brute can .

I use a section of old fishing pole for a sock holder

Ok not a stick but her name is pokey

 

[Katrina71]

Home Depot sells fiberglass snow plow whips for a few bucks. My most used tool.

Pic?

 

[Katrina71]

This whole time I've been ashamed of my redneck wooden skewer sticks. Who knew there are so many of us?!

 

[Sealion]

I also use the bamboo kebab sticks, and a longer s’mores stick. It has great reach for flipping snails and hermit crabs

 

[savetheocean]

If you use a wooden stick, make sure it stays dry and don't leave it in the tank. Mine rotted away.

 

[dmunyon8]

Where’s the best place to get one of the LFS model acrylic poking rods?

eBay! I bought some a few months back...
https://www.ebay.com/p/5-PC-1-4-Dia...ucent-Colored-Rod/1377465291?iid=291758689475

 

[dmunyon8]

I'm still laughing ! great post. I have all kinds of specialized poky sticks . ( Thanks Adele) For the 180 I have a stick on a stick bamboo & chopstick siliconed to one end. I got the classic plastic fork on a stick,great for up righting snails. I have the spatula on a stick for stirring the sand bed. I even have the penguin on a stick for blasting the rock ! They are truly great tools !
Ps the penguin is tricky, if it gets away, eats all the fish & makes a terrible mess.

I never thought to put attatchments on my poking sticks, great idea!

 

[doodledreads]

I use the plastic stick that came with an old orchid plant. It is long enough for my red sea nano, slim and strong. I made an end sharp to make it 'pokey'

 

[SandJ]

I, too, have a poking stick. It is a piece of small diameter rigid airline (maybe 1/8”), with a small piece of flexible airline on one end. This serves two purposes: one is it gives me a softer end to work with if I am preforming delicate work like getting a hermit out of my leather coral. Second is I am able to insert a pipette into the flexible airline. Then I can use the tool to blow sand off corals, spot feed food, or if I am very careful I can suction it onto a rouge mushroom (I call them tumbleweeds) and get it out of the tank.
And there have been several times a razor blade has gotten away from me in the tank. It usually disappears under the sand or behind a rock. To retrieve it, I wrap a strong magnet in Seran wrap and rubber band it onto my poking stick. Then I can run it around the sand and find the magnet. If the blade is behind/under a rock, I put the magnet on the flexible end and it bends to go around the rock.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I'm also a member of the poking stick club.

I have several, depending on what I have to do. My first option are my 15" stainless tweezers for grabbing things. My second poling stick is a 12-24" extendable turkey baster that I use for blasting detrius off the rock, coral or to turn the sand over in low flow spots. And my favorite poking stick is a 24" acrylic tube what I use when I want to target feed pellets to a coral, herd a fish towards the net, push a coral frag back up after my turbo dozer snails finish rampaging over the sand bed, flip a trochus who can't right itself, or to suck up something the turkey baster cant so because of its tiny tip.

It also doubles as a really good launcher for high velocity spit wads when I want to annoy my wife from across the room...

 

[Greybeard]

Colored acrylic rod... LFS guy gave it to me. Thanks, Seth

As for 'other tools'... the poking stick is handy, and good for certain tasks. Those purpose made aquarium grippers, IMHO, are worthless. Cheap stainless medical style hemostats work pretty good, until they rust. There is one company selling stainless hemostats that have been dipped in some sort of plastic. They're pricey, but work well. Best tool in my plastic shoe box is a few sets of cheap plastic salad tongs of various types and sizes. No, they don't last long, but you can buy a 6 pack of them on Amazon for a few bucks.

For me, rule #1 in marine aquaria has always been nothing good happens fast.

Rule #2: Keep your grubby mitts out of the blanking aquarium!

Tongs, hemostats, and yes, even poking sticks help in this endeavor a great deal