What's a really cheap way to decorate?

[laughing]

I have an empty 20 gallon "tall" tank.

I'm highly considering making a sorority out of it. Although, I have no idea to decorate it cheaply. My previous idea would take about $70. I'd really like to save that project for later!

Currently I have 1 female, but I want to buy another female from PetSmart right now. So of course I'd find a 3rd somewhere to add them in together. I'd really like to jump on it now because I have a betta coming next week and this would give him a 2.5 lighted & filtered tank.

Any ideas??

(By the way, it's okay if it looks "ghetto" for now!)

[iamtetsuo]

River rocks from your local home improvement store would be cheap. Same with ceramic pots. Cheaper? Hardwood logs from a local river or forest (boil them for a long time though). Same for river rocks but don't boil the rocks!

Java fern is usually very cheap. So are some other live plants.

Scour craigslist for people selling aquarium equipment, chances are they have some leftover decorations too.

Make your own caves with glass jars or pvc pipe and aquarium epoxy.

[laughing]

I forgot about hardware stores!

$5 for 50lbs worth of sand, whooo!! ;)

I think I could do well with PVC piping.... Maybe I could get moss growing on there?

How exactly do you "treat" PVC? I could put in a whole bunch to make a "playground" effect and grow moss on there...

[bettafish15]

You just rinse the PVC really well in warm water :)

[PewPewPew]

I wouldnt put any non-hard wood in there..

Be careful the turns in the pvc arent too tight/too many in one shot, they seem to get a little confused! XD

For plants (non-live), try going to local craft stores for fake flowers. Go for ones without metal inside them and ones that arent scented and have no "powder" like suff to stimulate the insides of the plant. Let em soak for a few days in warm water (add in 3-5tsp/gallon of AQ salt if you want) to clean and make sure no colors leak. Michael's has good prices and usually have coupons online that can take even more money off your price! I have silk flowers in mine, theyre cute. Leaves look good, too!

[naturegirl243]

Somewhere on here someone had a glass jar for a cave but what they did was bought some aquarium sealent and glued gravel all around the jar with it to make it look more natural and to make it more private and cozy for the fish.I'm sure it woulden't cost much to do that.

[PewPewPew]

^ just be careful with clear things, they cant tell sometimes when there's just empty glass and freak out because they cant get out! XD (I had a few glass shot glasses, they went in and then couldnt figure out how to get out..)

[naturegirl243]

Originally Posted by PewPewPew

^ just be careful with clear things, they cant tell sometimes when there's just empty glass and freak out because they cant get out! XD (I had a few glass shot glasses, they went in and then couldnt figure out how to get out..)

yeah I've heard that about shot glass and other glass things, but if she glued the gravel on the outside it would be dark and a jar is pretty big so they could turn around in it and see the only opening.

[Littlebittyfish]

My fish really loves that gravel covered glass jar cave.. Coconuts make awesome caves too...My one fish never was a cave fish...Until I put a coconut in his tank...

[Jupiter]

You can never go wrong with terra cotta pots either! Less than a dollar each. And if you don`t want to bother with live plants, you can always get fake plants for the dollar store or a craft store for much cheaper than what they sell at the petstore-just be sure there`s no wire.