A brag for my thrifty boys *fish tanks*

[iggysbabysitter]

My boys (13 and 9) wanted pet fish, but we don't have the $ for anything as elaborate as the set ups our friends have. My 13 year old showed me what he wanted, and we did the research for min requirements. Then he went straight to kijiji for the 80 gal tank he needed for his ropefish $40 for a secondhand 80gal low (an odd size, but soooo spacious!), babysat to earn the $20 per fish (expensive little guys!) and asked for the airpump and hoses for his birthday (ouch! $60!) then again hit kijiji for free gravel and other items he would need (filter parts that I used to make a decent bubbler). The best part is he used his inherited rock collection as features in the tank (one piece is a 1.5 foot long 300 million year old reverse imprint of 3 footprints by an amphibian from when Nova Scotia was a part of Africa- the museum in Halifax inspected and gave info on it... if it had the 4th footprint they would have used it in the museum. so cool for my paleontologist in training). Now we're saving up for the $200 stand to put it on. Yup, we have a beautiful tank, but have to lay on the floor to see them well. LOL

My 9 year old gets nose bleeds, and rather than get a boring old humidifier for his room I handed him a 20gal that was given to me last year, gorgeous green gravel for $3 at a thrift shop, $1 undergravel filter and air stones from a thrift shop (new! Wow), and $2 worth of diamonds from Dollarama... he funded it all himself! He also got my lizard lamp and the scoop of feeder guppies DS13's ropefish refused to eat (about 16 for $2) and now has a dozen more babies The most expensive piece? The new airpump from Walmart.
I tossed a couple of 20 cent goldfish/comets into the big tank and they are so relaxing... better than any sleeping pill.
I love that my kids have learned to be resourceful!

[army_girl29]

pics please!

[iggysbabysitter]

This is DS13's 80gal low. You can see one of the elusive ropefish (brown snake-like thing), 2 goldfish and 2 butterfly koi. The rock in the middle is the fossil footprints.

[iggysbabysitter]

This is DS9's 20 gal guppy tank

[iggysbabysitter]

My goldfish tank (40gal). Yes, that is a pop bottle in the corner, I made a homemade bubbler filter

[army_girl29]

Awesome!

[cheekysaver]

What a nice clean tank! Your kids are doing a great job!

[avoncallingu]

It's been great reading your post because we bought goldfish in the summer for our pond and soon they'll need to come inside as our pond isn't deep enough to accommodate them for the winter. I've been trying to find an aquarium and the needed accessories CHEAPLY! I'd be interested in knowing how your filter works. I'm proud of your boys, too!

[iggysbabysitter]

It's been great reading your post because we bought goldfish in the summer for our pond and soon they'll need to come inside as our pond isn't deep enough to accommodate them for the winter. I've been trying to find an aquarium and the needed accessories CHEAPLY! I'd be interested in knowing how your filter works. I'm proud of your boys, too!

I love science and biology... building the filters is sooooo easy when you understand the actual concept of the filter (it's not all about getting the poo out of the water, it's just a house for the good bacteria, a simple vacuum will deal with the poo).
The pop bottle is a bubble filter (any tall plastic container, drill holes at the bottom, more at the top, stuff the bottom half with filter floss -aka stuffing from any clean old toy/pillow/sponges- add an airstone and hose to the middle- the action of the bubbles pulls water up and out the top, pulling new water in the bottom, the filling catches any dirt but more importantly houses the good bacteria that eat the ammonia/nitrates as the water flows by... when it looks dirty you have a good colony of bacteria)
I just researched "moving media filters", and how the concept is being used by sewage treatment plants, bought 2 juice jugs, some straws and a new air hose... in a week I'll find out if $5 worth of stuff will do a better job than the $70 filter that burnt out a few years ago. This way is so simple it's crazy, there's no machine to run, just use the existing air pump.

There are so many tutorials on the internet/youtube for DIY aquarium work! Like the $20 gravel vacuum hubby's dog ate last month... I replaced with a 1cm air hose through a hole in the lid of a water bottle with the bottom of the bottle cut out= same results.
As for finding an aquarium for the fish... if a reasonable sized/priced tank is not going to happen, why go traditional? I used a sturdy tote (sold as a laundry basket/toy bin with rope handles) on my patio for my guppies all summer and had planned on bringing them into the house to stay in the tote... the neighbors pond fish we are babysitting would have been dropped into a large bin as well and treated as a small pond (but this option is pretty much only good for dry houses as the evaporation is intense).
We spent a week looking on kijiji for cheap tanks for the ropefish, but ended up putting a want ad up for it, and got 3 good hits. Don't be afraid to ask around, you'd be surprised what people have laying around and just aren't willing/remembering to drop off at the donation bins (like heavy glass tanks... or that giant bin of reptile junk I have in my basement... got to get rid of that someday...) If you are willing to do repairs to a tank the options really open up (most people don't want to fix a leak, they give it away for other uses)... I was given a leaky 60 gal with no braces a few years ago for my lizards and mice, someday I'll rip out the old silicone and make it fish safe with a new adhesive silicone and new top trim/brace.

[Inlovewithblue]

Nice work & great learning for the boys - if you want something, you need to earn it or be inventive in how you get things.