Blue goldfish
12-21-2003, 12:54 PM
I see there's a lot of ideas for DIY and money savers. Well here's a few from me.
First off i have used the 50lb bag of pea gravel and it is lovely in my 55gal goldfish aquarium.
The shop lights fixture that's 4' works great. I got mine from Walmart for $7!! That was a steal.
For aquatic plant substrate i use the pea gravel and silt collected form a local creek. You may say contaimination and all that but here's a way to fix that. Boil the silt outside on the grill. But add water. Don't just boil the silt itself. The heat will kill and bacteria and parasites considering that creeks are most often spring fed one way or another and it's mostly cold. After this let it cool off to room temp add it to tank. You only need enough to cover the bottom of the tank 1/4". Not very much. But it'll take some tinkering to figure out how much to add depends mostly on the plants, and the number of them. My plants went nuts in the substrate. It may not work the first time. It takes some tinkering but works great when you figure it out. The down side. IT IS MESSY, but other than that, can work great.
For carbon don't throw it away after using it once. Let it dry out. Place it in a mesh bag or use your fish net. Take a hair dryer and heat it up. Not too hot. Just warm. This somehow reactivates the carbon. And wallah you can use it again. Don't ask me how this works but it does.
5gal dill pickle buckets. Kinda smell but after a through washing can be used for water towing and such.
Well there's some of my ideas for saving money. I'm on a tight buget and have done great so far and saved tons of money.
Except when it comes to fish food........my fish are spoiled.
First off i have used the 50lb bag of pea gravel and it is lovely in my 55gal goldfish aquarium.
The shop lights fixture that's 4' works great. I got mine from Walmart for $7!! That was a steal.
For aquatic plant substrate i use the pea gravel and silt collected form a local creek. You may say contaimination and all that but here's a way to fix that. Boil the silt outside on the grill. But add water. Don't just boil the silt itself. The heat will kill and bacteria and parasites considering that creeks are most often spring fed one way or another and it's mostly cold. After this let it cool off to room temp add it to tank. You only need enough to cover the bottom of the tank 1/4". Not very much. But it'll take some tinkering to figure out how much to add depends mostly on the plants, and the number of them. My plants went nuts in the substrate. It may not work the first time. It takes some tinkering but works great when you figure it out. The down side. IT IS MESSY, but other than that, can work great.
For carbon don't throw it away after using it once. Let it dry out. Place it in a mesh bag or use your fish net. Take a hair dryer and heat it up. Not too hot. Just warm. This somehow reactivates the carbon. And wallah you can use it again. Don't ask me how this works but it does.
5gal dill pickle buckets. Kinda smell but after a through washing can be used for water towing and such.
Well there's some of my ideas for saving money. I'm on a tight buget and have done great so far and saved tons of money.
Except when it comes to fish food........my fish are spoiled.