Keeping Aquariums can be a rewarding activity that provides you with many years of enjoyment and stress relief. Even fish tanks are beautiful and engaging gifts for any house party, but what if your friends do not know you are not an avid fish-keeper, and they gift you a 20-gallon tank to keep some Gold Nugget Plecos or Arowana in it? Or maybe you had been an active fish-keeper in your early days and have amazing fish tanks at your home, which you do not want to restock, as you lack time in taking care of the pretty pets.
Do not worry! To give your redundant fish tank a new lease of life, we are here to take you through the best ways to recycle your fish tank and all of them will be fun-filled.
Coffee Table
A glass-made fish tank of 30-35 gallons weight must be heavy to hold enough sand, water, gravel and different items of decoration. Simply make it your coffee table and put a beautiful flower vase or show-pieces over it. Your ideal place to have a safe conversation is ready! The best ways to recycle your fish tank are discussed below.
Clean the fish tank very carefully so that there is no scratch over it and use a scraper to remove any displeasing group of algae or unwanted substrates. Polish the tank and gently scrub the outer walls of the tank with a soft cloth dipped in warm water.
The glass fish tank will be the base of the coffee table, inside which you can keep crystal clear water. Put some small, coloured pebbles in the bottom or you can put some Sea Crushed Coral or Seachem Flourite Black Clay to highlight the interior of the table. Preferably add white shells for more brightness.
Finally, make the top with glass, driftwood or mosaic to design the amazingly created table. Add some sofa and chairs and enjoy a beautiful conversation over coffee. For those who want to want how to recycle fish tank, this is a great way to do so.
Growing Food: a beautiful concept of Aquaponics
Recycle fish tank with Aquaponics; a less maintenance procedure of fish-keeping and growing food at a time. Keep the fish without any filtration as the plants will do that for you. Just keep a pump to circulate the water through the grow-bed so that, plants get fed with that.
Before adding any fish, fill the aquarium with dechlorinated water and keep the circulation on for four weeks. This helps to create colonies of beneficial bacteria, which process fish waste into nitrate as the food of plants.
Build a media bed where plants can grow and keep it over the top of the tank. Fill clay, pebbles and gravel for moisture retention. Keep the pH level high and unchangeable so that, it does not impact the plants.
After full circulation, add fish to it and wisely choose fish, which produce lots of waste. For instance, put Goldfish, Mollies, Guppies and Tetras as all these fish produce huge waste and are best for a tank that can hold 20-30 gallons of water. Moreover, your fish need pellets, flakes and frozen food alternatively so that they can produce wastes. More they produce waste; more nitrates will be produced and can be used as plant food. We suggest do not use live food as it might transfer parasites in the tank.
As you choose fish wisely, choose plants thoughtfully also. It is best to keep leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, watercress, kale and basil and ensure all their roots touch the water level.
Remove dry, dead leaves and keep the plants clean to enhance the show of your room.
So now you understand, Aquaponics is a combined system of restoring fish and plants at the same time!
Herb Garden
Still pondering upon the fact on how to recycle fish tank? Do a fun project with your family and transform your unused fish tank into a fairy herb garden. Let us quickly follow the steps to know the process.
Scrub your tank in hot water and liquid soap but make sure you put it under running water to wash soap residue clearly. Allow it to dry after which, keep pebbles and colouring stones at the bottom for almost a thickness of an inch. Keep a covering of a thin activated charcoal layer to keep the inside fresh and prevent humidity. Keep almost six inches of potting soil and lighten it with perlite so that the breathing of plant roots is not restricted. Moisten the soil evenly but do not make it soggy.
Remember you must select a large tank so that you can keep a gap between plants while arranging them. Tank plants need space and light to grow, for which, you must place the tank in bright sunlight. Arrange the plants according to their size. Put small herb seeds in front, medium-size plants in the middle and large ones at last. If you like, embellish with figurines and driftwood.
Remember, you must feed the herbs every two weeks during spring and summer and use a small amount of water-soluble fertilizer to maintain strength in plants.
Gorgeously Designed Reception Room Table
You can recycle fish tank and make your office look contemporary! This is very simple to make as you do not need any costly material as well as you can reduce the cost of decorating your office interior by reusing your old 100-gallon fish tank.
Clean the tank with a scrapper and then fill it with crystal clear water. Simply put LED light chains and decorate the interior of the tank with different shades of bright neon lights. Keep some pebbles, coloured gravel and sand-stones on the bottom. Put Java Moss and Java Ferns along with Pygmy Chain Sword plants. These have a narrow canopy of leaves, which create a sensation in your reception table. Do not put anything else as this will overlap the simplicity and suppress the beauty of the tank table. In addition to that, keep the lid of the tank firm with mosaic and white-stone plates.
Night Life
Get a nightlife and bath in the enchanting and pious glow from water candles. Nestle these in your unused tank and keep them in the corner of the room to increase the softness of the ambience. You can even suspend it in mid-air as a chandelier to get a magical atmosphere.
You need to assemble the unattached parts of the old aquarium and can paint the walls with acrylic flat paint. But we will suggest you, keep the walls transparent so that when you keep the candles inside, they will reflect more brightly. Add river stones at the bottom to enhance the beauty of the tank. You can keep floating candles, for which you need to fill the tank with water and place the candles gently on it. You can also put normal long fat candles as we use during festivities and put them inside the tank; keeping the lid open. But always remember to keep the flicker low so that you can avoid any unwanted accident.
If your tank has a hard base made of driftwood then detach it from the glass body. Nail the joints and glue the corners so that you can hang them from mid-air as a chandelier. Use a sturdy chain to hang it. Positively put artificial battery-operated candles so that you can avoid any accident, even if the candles drop off from the ceiling.
Turtle Tank
You can always avoid restocking an old aquarium with fish but surely you will have fun recycling it by keeping turtles in it. However, you must ensure if you pet turtles, the tank must be waterproof, deep enough for turtles to submerge and can hold at least 55 gallons of water. Let us peep through the process of the fun activity.
Clean the tank with soap, bleaching powder and phenol so that no residual bacteria of the previous pet can harm other species. Keep the pH level from 7.4 to 8.0 and a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. Then put the turtle in it and tighten the sturdy lid.
Keep soft sands and pebbles inside the tank along with some Java Fern, Greenpro Anubias and Brazilian Pennywort Bundle. This will keep the turtle healthy and active.
When you keep the turtle tank in the middle of the hall, it would double the beauty of the interior. You can surely use it as a centre table and keep objects of festivities like a pumpkin on Halloween and a Christmas tree on Christmas. Do not forget to keep UVB basking light to keep your turtle tank bright and enchanting.
These fun ways are always appealing to perform as this help to provide an entirely new environment to your interior. Recycling is the main objective and you must ensure to implement the right ways to materialize the concept. We hope the ideas provided in this article enrich your thoughts and can whet the juice of creativity. How else can you repurpose a fish tank, if not these?
