Decorate your tank for cheap!!!

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stingray4540

stingray4540

Hello, Hello, Helloooo!
Oct 18, 2005
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San Jose, CA
www.geocities.com
I know that a lot of people here already know this, but I'd like to let any newbies or anyone who hasn't thought of this, know that you don't have to spend a small fortune on decorating your tank.
I just set up an 85 gallon tank, and it cost me less that $15 to decorate. I'll try to get pics soon. All the rock I have in there, cost less than $10, and I got a 50 lb. bag of 30 grit sand for $4, at orchard supply. (30 grit is basically play sand, but all the grains are close to the same size so it's a little less "dirty" than playsand) Any homedepot, lowes, etc. should cary playsand for less than $5.​
For the rock, go to your local rockery and pick out what you like. If you don't know were one is around you, look in the phone book under, rockery, or masonry supply. If you are still having a hard time locating one, call a local mason and ask were he gets his stone. It is so much cheaper than getting it at the lfs.
Example: Lace rock (aka bowl rock) LFS= $3.50 lb., Rockery= $.35 lb. In my case, they only weighed the 25lbs of lace rock and just let me have all the slate and flagstone. Most of the other rock goes from $.18lb. to $.35lb.​
Driftwood: can be collected at the beach, or any local streams, rivers, lakes.

Tips:
Sand - rinse thoroughly to prevent cloudiness in your tank.
Stone - Rinse well then: Boil for 3 min, or bake in oven at 400F for 1 hour. (baking is easier for larger rocks)
Driftwood - Same as for Stones. If your peice is small enough I recomend boiling though, this will help release tanins and waterlog the wood so it will sink.
DO NOT:
1. Collect wood or rock from polluted areas, or areas known to contain chemicals.
2. Pick out rocks that have rust on them, they contain metals that can leach into you tank.​

I hope this is helpful, especially for those (like me) on a tight budget.
 
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CatLover

CatLover

Rummy Nose Tetra Fanatic
Jan 4, 2006
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Texas
Check out an article called "Aquascaping the Aquarium" by Mark McEwan. Read paragraph called- "other factors worth mentioning" LINK DOWN BELOW

I would be really nervous doing that. Where I live, streams and stuff are really dry and dirty. I wouldn't put rocks or wood from those streams into an aquarium in a million years.

-Does the boiling remove all pesticides and stuff?
-Does driftwood collected from saltwater beaches have salt deposits in it?
-I used to live in Virgina, and there was no such thing as a non-pulluted beach.
-I was reading an article- don't remember where, I wish I did - that talked about how many miles you would have to go out away from a beach to get water or materials that were not polluted by people riding jet skis and stuff.
-I know a guy who had a summer job at a building supply/ wood/ rock yard and their sand often contained small pieces of grass, dust, GLASS -this could cut the mouths of your bottom feeders- etc. Never struck me as very clean

I could go on and on. Maybe its okay, I don't mean to bash your ideas, but be careful.

Hope it turns out okay for your fish.
www.aquariacentral.com/articles/aquascape.shtml
 
J

jadefoodog

AC Members
Dec 15, 2005
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cool beans . i like it. im waiting to go get soem driftwood when i get my 55g.
 
CatLover

CatLover

Rummy Nose Tetra Fanatic
Jan 4, 2006
220
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Texas
Maybe I'm just paranoid :read:
 
O

OddFish

AC Members
Oct 6, 2005
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I gotta say that I have read anything I can find on this topic and there are pros and cons. I work in a lfs (full pet shop but with a bigger fish selection than even the sole lfs) and I see the good and bad of it all. I think the biggest points are to choose carefully and clean carefully and quarantine first. We have a dude that had a tire in his tank for a while- yes, one off a car. Now he has a toilet. While his taste makes you go hmmmm it hasn't caused any troubles with his impressive fish.
I have probably half and half found outside and bought at the shop stuff in my tanks. With some care, research and judgement it is all good.
Right now I am boiling some slate from the creek behind my house. I have used wood peices from there too and they actually leached less and sunk quicker than the purchased stuff....one peice of bought in stuff is still bleeding into a tank at work and it has been 8 months.
 
YuccaPatrol

YuccaPatrol

Over-filtered
Oct 17, 2004
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Yes, CatLover, you are just paranoid. Rinsing and cleaning of found driftwood and rocks is just fine. I collect all of my driftwood and rocks from local streams, rivers, lakes, and at the beach and have some of the nicest driftwood you ever saw.

I''d be a lot more worried about putting fake decorations with unknown paints and plastic chemicals in my aquarium. God only knows what could be in the paint being used in a sweatshop in China that makes aquarium decorations.
 
patoloco

patoloco

De seguro no sabes lo que dice aqu
Oct 20, 2005
1,221
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Costa Rica
wetpatoloco.tripod.com
Obtaining decor from non-fish-stores is a lot cheaper.

For example, in a LFS around here, you can buy a 2 lb. bag of "aquarium gravel" for around $2. In the green house (where you buy plants and garden stuff), they will sell you a 50 lg. bag of "garden stones" in around $4. And it's the same product.

Also, I researched and built me a tank, it's hood and stand. It costed me around 40% of the tag price on a standard lfs. (There are some pics in my signature :) ).
 
stingray4540

stingray4540

Hello, Hello, Helloooo!
Oct 18, 2005
1,016
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San Jose, CA
www.geocities.com
Catlover - you are paranoid (no offense) I only wrote this because everything in my tanks (of which I have 3) is not from the lfs.
In my original post you'll notice that I specifically stated not to collect from polluted areas. Chemical pollution is more of a problem than any other kind of pollution. Chemicals can't be "killed" by boiling, just about anything else can be though, so if you follow my instructions you should be safe.
Sand: again like I mentioned in my original post, buy bagged sand. Playsand is a world wide, accepted substrate for aquaria. The only thing you should be getting from the rock yards is rocks.
Wood: I kind of assumed people would use common sense when looking for wood in nature. obviously, if the area it's in is dumpy, then don't get stuff from there. If the area is part of a florishing ecosystem them feel free to collect from there. E.G. Clear stream with fish in it = good, dirty stream whos surface may reflect different colors (oily) and is void of fish or other aquatic wildlife = bad.
If you use common sense, you can easily, safely decorate your aquarium for next to nothing.
 
J

jadefoodog

AC Members
Dec 15, 2005
357
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ok most driftwood is from malasia. yeah the same malasia that makes most toys cell phones car parts well they manyfacture most everything we buy. in such a small industrial country you cant tell me you acctually think their water is less poluted than ours. truth is they probably do less to clean theirs than we do ours . we just assume because we purchased it that its clean.

id rather use local stuff cause then i know what im getting. i know it was well cleaned / sterilized and i know it came from a place where the fish were alive and healthy
 
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