Low budget Decorating?

[celbrise]

I have a 53gal tank with a single Green spotted puffer i am trying to upgrade the appliances for it just recently i bought some gravel, thermometer, and a airpump and other stuff as well. problem is my tank is really bare their is literally nothing in it. Their used to be fake plants but my puffer often kept uprooting them or trying to bit them and they were old anyways so i threw them out. I still need to get more things before i can actually decorate my tank nicely so i was wondering what are some things i can use to decorate my tank? possibly something i have laying around the house that is safe for aquarium use. my puffer is literally bored constantly swimming up the side and down.

this is of course temporary i will be decorating it by next year with proper decoration

[bertie 83]

Terracotta pots are a good cheap decoration. A pack of miliput and small inert stones are another.

[Iliveinazoo]

You could get a large inert stone from the garden centre, break it down a bit with a hammer and chisel and grind any remaining sharp edges down. It wouldn't be cheap if you haven't already got the tools though...

[celbrise]

yea i don't think i will be able to buy stones. stones at garden centers here are really expensive due to shipping i live in Hawaii the cheapest thing would be rock slabs from aquarium stores but even then those are pricey as well. i have tera cotta pots i probably will pit in but what about plastic pots for gardening? are those safe to put in a tank? you know those black/green/red plastic pots you use for gardening. i think they are made out of recycled plastics.

[bertie 83]

Most to all plastics are normally fine so long as they are not painted.

[celbrise]

alright thanks i think for now i will use a lot of the plastic pots and some tera cotta pots until i get money to buy slate rocks and bog wood

[RTR]

I have never minded terracotta pots in tanks.

I also have used quite a few terracotta roof tiles in tanks? Are those locally available at reasonable rates? I have used more of the half-rounds than the flat tiles.

[celbrise]

i think we actually have a LOT of tera cotta roof tiles they look bent though like it's for the middle of the roofs where the point is at. and they don't look orange they are greyish. not sure if they are teracotta or not though

[JRC3]

I use a lot of terracotta pots. I knock the bottoms out and soften the sharp edges with the wire wheel on my bench grinder.

Here's a pic from a few years ago when I first set up a 29g for my F8. http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk16 ... CI0350.jpg

Even though I have fake mangroves in his 55g now there is still a cluster of 4 stacked pots and he loves going through them.

[celbrise]

Nice i got the same size pots well mine are used though from gardening so it's a bit dirty but i washed them and not pesticides. How did you get the bottoms out? i assume a screw driver and just hammer it on the ground.

[JRC3]

How did you get the bottoms out? i assume a screw driver and just hammer it on the ground.

Actually I used a 1/2 drive socket with an extension added as a handle and added weight. I wanna say I used a 1 1/4" socket and hit the pot bottom from the inside using just the extension as a handle with no hammer. I had a pot or two break before I got the technique down but I used those pieces to make perfect open ended caves for my kuhlis. Be sure to wear gloves and wire brushing the edges is messy as hell and will require something powered. In other words a hand held wire brush probably isn't gonna cut it.


In retrospect I probably should've just used my tile saw...But I just thought about that.

[RTR]

Terra cotta pots which have been used for soil mixes do need to be pre-soaked with multiple water changes, much like "fresh" driftwood. Suchpots tend to have mucl mineral build-up in the terra cotta itself, and toxicities have been reported.

I use new, unused pots only, as an overnight soak starting with hot water seems to be quite enough for those.