5 Money Saving Tips from a Frugal Fish Keeper #2 [Comparing Home Depot to PetCo Items & Prices!]
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
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Here's a follow-up to my prior "Top 5 Tips" video for saving money for frugal fish keepers like me. In this video I take YOUR comments and suggestions and put them to the test.
Take a look at these money saving tips along with a few bonus suggestions and feel free to share in the comments below what tips you've come up with that have helped you to save money while continuing to provide the best quality conditions for your fish.
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![My Top 5 Money Saving Tips for Frugal Fish Keepers like Me [Cut Costs without Cutting Quality]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tzXLHTbkffk/mqdefault.jpg)
![My Top 5 Money Saving Tips for Frugal Fish Keepers like Me [Cut Costs without Cutting Quality]](/img/tr.png)
Thanks for the tips. Nice neon sign by the way
You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by my friend.
I purchased 44lbs of dragon stone from Lowes for about $70 delivered to my home. Filled my 55gal perfectly at a fraction of the price I would have paid at the pet store.
I like the river rock/collecting option. We live right on Lake Ontario, so I walk the shore and pick up rocks and driftwood from time to time
Hey Rikostan, thanks for watching!
How do you prep the stuff you pick up from the great outdoors? Do you do anything special with it, whether it's rock or driftwood or whatever. I've done that when I was a kid but I haven't tried it in 30 plus years
@@TheOfficialSteelReign Hey dude! I do the vinegar test os softer rocks, if it bubbles, I don't use it because it will do things to your water. As far as other treatments, I will rinse stuff really well and I'll spray rocks with peroxide. Dritwood I just soak for awhile and pop it in the tank.
Use hot water or boil driftwood makes it not float and removes tannins. I imagine works the same for rocks
Actually Cory from Aquarium coop gives the tip to cut the test strips in half! 😃
That’s awesome😀👍🏻
LOL! That's when the qere pushing the Tetra strips. They probably have backed off thar tip since releasing their own. 😉
I only have river rocks in my aquarium. All of them were collected from the wild. Always I let them boiling 2+ hours.
Thank's Ben!
Another awesome video! All my tanks use the Vigoro pea gravel you showed as possible substrate. I made sifting cups out of old green been cans (short fat cans work best), various sized drill bits for the holes and a Dremel smoothing blade. You can break down the bag of pea gravel into various sizes for different applications. Largest size for say a 75 G, smaller size for a 29 G, smaller for 10 G and micro for a Nano tank. It takes a bit of time, but you end up with completely natural looking, smooth rock in any gauge you want. Hard to beat 50 pounds of rock for $3.
Thanks! That’s a great idea 😀👍🏻
Wow. I have bought the pea gravel several times. It is very dirty but you save and your way would def. work. Thanks so much.
Wow nice stone and pebble and grit, sand supplies, I'm gonna do that. So much better and more choice! All really good tips! Glad you are a fellow hoarder! I also have all the spare plumbing and sponges too! Thanks for using my comment!
For sand substrate I use tube sand. The color is great. The size is great and it costs about $5 for 80 lbs. Usually sold in the fall as ballasts for extra weight in trucks and cars.
As an avid hoarder myself, your ^equipment drawer^ looked well thought out and arranged.
Very good tips in this video.
great vid
The footage of you rock collecting was really cute
Thank you
Good stuff Bro....Hoorah!!
Thanks!
This is awesome! I never spend more that 15 mins at Home Depot so I never get a chance to see these items.
$11 for an entire bag of rocks I mean that’s absolutely incredible.
Just goes to show how inflated the market for fish equipment is at these big box stores.
Again awesome video. Now my wife won’t be as mad when I tell her how much I spent on scaping supplies 😭😂
“Happy wife, happy life” 🤣🤣🤣
I love great money saving tips. One day, I want to get a huge tank like what you have and attempt to build my own sump. Yours is awesome!! One tip that others shared with me when I was talking about using black sand, I was told to get the medium grit blasting sand from a Tractor Supply store. It cost me under $10 for a 50 lb bag. Petco has their bag (that I'm convinced is the dame stuff) 20 lbs for $20. You have to rinse the hell out of it, but it's worth it. I know you are not into growing aquatic plants as your fish would devour them, but it actually grows plants fairly well.
That idea to cut the test strips in half was actually said directly by Cory from Aquarium Co-op years ago so I doubt that he wouldn't like it like you said lol. One reason that it's not a good idea is that the more oxygen and humidity in the air that the test strips are exposed to degrades their accuracy, so I would recommend only doing it if you're going to use the cut ones right away like if testing multiple tanks.
On the topic of lighting, any tank small enough to be lit well by a desk lamp can probably be lit for under $5 if you check a local thrift store for lamps comparable to the clip lap you showed.
I have found so many beautiful rocks in the field next to my house. Lots of agates from rock picking excursions also. Have not bought an aqua scaling rock yet!
Great vid. I like using small pieces of black natural slate on top of my dirt 45 gallon. I’ll go to the landscape company and they will actually let me take the broken pieces and layers that became separated, for next to nothing. I’ll take them home, and chisel them up to my preferred sizes and lean them up in a strategic manner to provide my community dwellers little places to get away when they want to.pleco loves it.
I use sand blasting sand from a blasting supply shop you can get from small stones to very fine grain. 2 good things about it is there is no dust in it and cost about $9 for a 50lbs bag.
That's good to know another good option is child safe play sand at home Depot 50lbs bag for $5
Put three bags in my 120
I just bought two bags of blasting sand for my 60 gallon 😊😊😊
I gather my rocks from creek down back I can always find something interesting there
Hi Ben, I see you have some more beauties. I had one of those Lethronops from James for years. They tend to grow up to 6-7.” Thanks for sharing
Hi Denny! He’s a pretty fish.
Hi! thank you for this. Also, i do believe Aquarium Co-op has a video about cutting those test strips in 1/2,. :)
I'm new to the aquarium hobby and between doing returns etc. I learned very quickly that this was going to get very expensive...Quickly‼️🤣 Well i just want to say that currently i'm about $600.00 into my 12 Gallon Long Shallow tank and had it not been for your youtube video on Lighting i would've been in another $200 or $300 EASILY‼️😳🙌 Thank you so much Mr. Ochart.
A lot of good tips! A lot of long time fish keepers learn all the short cuts and money saving tips. Or go broke! It’s nice that we now have a way to share those ideas. Prime time aquatics has a good video on buying rock from Lowes. They sell that dragon stone under another name way cheaper. Very nice rock.
I watched that video and when Jason got to the petrified wood, all I heard were 'dinosaurs' so I ordered a box. My wife thinks I have rocks in my head. They later doubled in price but are now out of stock.
Another great video! Also lava rock at $5 a bag is great bio media. Fill up a sump or canister for $2. Also blasting media is great and cheap for sand while still being 36 grit not super fine. Bioclean can be used to replace the expensive dr. Tim’s waste away. Cut detritus and discolored water down in my 300 monster tank
Good point!
Tip - I sew quilt batting to make a sleeve, stuff it with pillow stuffing, I have on top of the tank sump so I place on top of lava rock and sponges then, I just toss it when it is dirty. Bag of queen size high loft,quilt batting last for 5-6 months but I only have 2 tanks.
I spray paint dollar store foam board usually blue/black so I can flip it to accommidate new fish.
Lowe's has brown rock and similar available to order on line and pick up locally. 85 $ for 44 lbs I think it is, and some nice aqua scaping pieces for sure. Lifeguard brand
One thing to watch out for with some of these rocks (like the Ash River Rock) is that they will be sealed, typically with wax. I snagged a bag that I absolutely loved for my river tank only to find out they were wax coated. You can boil them to help get the wax off, but its a messy project. IIRC the bag made no mention of the coating either.
I have boxes for Aquarium wood a box full of spare equipment and boxes of left over sand and pebbles you never know when it will come in handy. :)
menards sells pool filter sand for about 9 dollars for a 50 lb bag really nice quality. also leslie pool supplies does as well for around 13 a bag.
I live within an hour of you and I have lots of those rocks like you found, but they have sharp edges and when I tried to file them they splintered. I didn't feel like they were safe for my fish. But I had no idea that Home Depot had those smooth river stones! I have spent a small fortune on those on Ebay!!!! Thanks for the tip!!!
The ones I found in my yard or in the river?
@@BenOchart In your yard. They are really pretty, with the oranges and browns. But they seem to "splinter".
I use xl sheets of black paper I get at Walmart or the $1 store for my backgrounds. Under $3 for a 75g. I also make my own tank dividers for my bettas out of plastic mesh that I get in the crafting section of Walmart and report binder sleeves. Cost about $1 per divider vs the $20 or so each that they charge in pet stores or online. They also work much better and hold up longer than the ones specially made for fish.
Yo Ben I found a eureka red at my local Petco and got one !! I had to BEG my wife to let me get it and it wasn’t until she saw yours that she was finally on board and now I got one!!
Glad I could help 🤣
You're correct about the dragon stone at petco being expensive, but it is highly sought after by aquascapers and home depot doesn't have it. it is a heavy yet brittle rock, truly unique actually. very easy to break apart and reform/reshape with silicone. otherwise, nice tips and informative vid.
I checked today at home depot they're 10 pound dragon stone were 36.99, 20 pound was 59.99. Petco's 15 pound dragon stone was 33.99 and the 20 pound was 51.99.
On my African Shell Dweller tank I used pool filter sand for my substrate from Menards. $10 for a 50lb bag.
oh you have a gold mine at that river; id never buy rock again; i use a wire bbq brush for cleaning my rock; then boil them for little bit;
Ur not going to like the clip on light grab one from Walmart they are around $12 it's an 18inch under the counter light it's quite bright and worth the money they have different sizes available also
That's what I was just about to suggest. 2 of my three aquariums have that as lighting and they are working great for my plants. Though the 12in one is bulkier than the 18
if you freeze sponges they can be cut or drilled with power tools
Pea pebbles work from HD, just make sure to rinse it.
I think that's were I ended up getting it from for my 210 gallon in later videos.
What do I do for my colored background I superglue magnets to the rim of the aquarium and buy inexpensive cloth from the cloth store you can change it beige green any color you want glue magnets to the back of the fish tank where you can't see them hang of the cloth put another magnet on to hold it in place
Not a bad idea! I’ve been using a product called Velamax
Well I went to home depot in Minnesota and asked the Coworkers where I could ohko dragon stone and they looked at me funny saying idk if we have that look in the nursery landscaping outdoor section so i searched the entire place but found nothing. So I tried to call them the sameday and asked if they had the rock and they thought I was was doing some kind of prank call. But I did find rock gravel for 5$, lava rock pieces for 10$, play sand for $8 and ash river rocks for $18.00.
Have to be cautious with rock probably best to do an acid and scratch test on them, they can change the ph and hardness( more so hardness you never know that’s the issue). Soft rocks will dissolve into the water making it more difficult to achieve the results you want especially if you are looking to have softer water with lower ph. If you are getting a certain ph and hardest out of the tap/ (RO or distilled) you have a neutral substrate that is aquarium grade, and the ph and hardness isn’t the same as the tap/ (RO or distilled) once added to the tank, it’s probably the rocks
You can acquire acids of high potency then vinegar fairly easy from what I understand the apI test kit even come with an acid as a water test that you can drip on the rock that would give a better result then vinegar, also the hardware store probably has acids that are designed as solvents that would work
I bought my first fish about a month ago and put him in a 3 gallon Aquaponic tank. The first thing I bought other than a plant to put into the tank was a small 3 way pipe fitting. My little Betta loves to go through it. He usually just goes from one end to the other & I can see him go through from the front hole of the 3 way. lol Well, I found out real quick the smaller the tank the harder to keep the chemicals at the right levels. I don't have a green thumb so sprouts grew real well for first couple of weeks then not so good when I planted second & third batch. With everything said I decided to give up on plants and bought a 10 gallon tank that I'm working on setting up now and will wait a few weeks until the water is ready then put my Betta in it along with 5 or 6 Cardinal Tetras maybe in the future. I thought having a fish would be easy. Not as easy as I thought. Hoping over time It will become easier for me. I have my small tank on my desk and I catch my Betta people watching me at times. lol
I just started looking into the more natural rocks for "scaping" and decor, are the HD bags aquarium safe. Ive seen similar small bags at dollar tree that some say not for aquarium use or not fish safe. I know those large bags are used for fountains and ponds and even lawn scapes. Is there a way to know for sure i won't harm my fish? I'm probably over thinking this. But appreciate any feed back.
I'm just wondering how to fix that clip-on light to an aquarium? Where do you put it?
Amazing how prices soared. That Mexican rock for example, is now $34.00 and thirty pounds, not forty. The Dorado pebbles is now $15.98 and thirty pounds, not forty. And the Pea Pebbles only increased by $0.50, but its half the weight🤷♂️ as before.
Instead of elbows and couplings for pvc try using just the pipe and a heat gun. You can heat the pipe and bend it and expand it to fit over the next piece of pipe
Plasti dip spray the back. Easy to peel later
We like to go out and collect Manzanita wood and volcanic Stones we can put in hang-on-back filters we can get the volcanic Stones anywhere from Boulder clear down to little tiny ones the size of the end of my pinky fingers
Can you do driftwood by the river and how to cure it? I see termites in all the wood by the river
I left it out in the sun for a couple months, power washing it several times, and then scraped it clean with a metal brush and sand paper making sure to dig out and remove any super soft spots that might be bug nests.
Pea pebbles from home depot come in a lot dirtier. Order online for pickup from petco and you will save a lot of money, especially on substrate.
I'm told you can get bigger feature sized dragon stone... although I think they sell it under a different name... at one of the big box stores. I have yet to find it though.
Lowes has it online. I know cause I've set up 3 tanks with it.
@@djones2154 Well, there's why I can't find it when I go in. It's an online thing. Actually, I tend to shop the other two box stores for some reason. Do they call it dragon stone?
@@TheOfficialSteelReign under life guard rock
How Would t
You clean driftwood that you find near a creek.
I believe people scrub and boil it
What can I put under rocks so they don’t break the aquarium glass
You can cut to shape something like this and it will help to support the rocks and spread the weight: www.homedepot.com/p/PLASKOLITE-4-ft-x-2-ft-Suspended-Egg-Crate-Light-Ceiling-Panel-1199233A/202025149
What about cheap driftwood ? Where can I get some
Check out ZOOMED moopani wood.
Ok, Ben, but how do I know if these rocks have so many minerals? NO good for my fishtank
But what about chemicals have been used on the ones from the home depot, there's a lot more you might need to be conscious of depending on your livestock, whereas from a pet shop you have a pretty good idea its safe for its intended purpose.
Are the rocks at Home Depot safe for the tank?
I think so. Just give them a good rinse.
Does HD really have Dragon Rock?
Someone said LOWE’S has it
Lowes / landscape rock on line free delivery at a buck a pound
I have a Lowes 10 miles away. I’ve got to check them out.
@@BenOchart you have to go on line. Dragon rock 40lb box's blue stone extra .I ordered mine over the phone and it delivered to my door. 1200 pounds of rock for $120. Yes 1200 lbs! I am slowly building my hobby room. I moved a 75g just the outher day
Be careful collecting rocks. Some places it’s illegal to remove rocks. Nothing like collecting rocks to save $50 and have the park ranger roll up and fine you $1000. Also make sure to test rocks to make sure they’re aquarium safe. You can ruin whole fish tanks with bad rocks.
Being that time of the year glad it was a fly fisherman and not “freddy “, “jason “, or “leather face”😮😉😏✌️✌️👍
🤣🤣🤣
No reaction to that poison ivy?🧐
Never use spray cans, only roll or brush the paint on the background. Spray cans will produce unwanted overspray you can’t control. If that gets inside the tank it can be toxic. Also overspray on the sides or front panels will be a pain to clean.
By masking all that off I had no issues with overspray. That being said I have since gone exclusively wilt Velamax backing
Lol hording stuff comes naturally as a fish keeper you dont even have to try 🤣 i have a whole section in the side of my back yard full of fish stuff ! Fish tanks, filters, heaters, air pumps, stones, substrate, lights, literally everything haha
We’re just a bunch of horders🤣
I’m a Pest control applicator, never use rock from the yard. if you didn’t put pesticide down,maybe the people before you did.
Bleaching? Boiling? Nothing would remove the pesticide?
@@BenOchart Hi Ben, Love your show… The scary thing is you don’t know or no good way to test to see if you removed the Pesticide. And I would hate for anyone to try this and lose a large amount of fish. Just small Traces of pesticide can kill.. kinda look at it like this, It’s always a shot in the dark when you don’t quarantine you’re fish. Why take the chance..even some Home Depot rocks are outside where the pest control is for lawns care. I do have a Question maybe you can help me with, would you know about the cycling of Tap Water Vs Reverse Osmosis Water?? Would one cycle faster then the other??
Thanks Ben,
Be careful taking rocks and plants from rivers, it is illegal in some places.
i went to earth first to get our gravel and rocks
2 $ for a 5 gallon bucket gravel you pick any kind
pea pebble too
Stop throwing rocks at fly fisherman ben
🤣🤣🤣 he was scaring the rocks away 🤣🤣🤣
If you don't have a drawer or shelf dedicated to misalanious fish tank parts you are not a fish keeper. 😁
I used acrylic art paint on my 125s, scrapes of easy. $2.50 and less than to half of a big bottle covered both tanks in 2 coats... and I still have more for further tanks!
I like acrylic paint. Easy to peel off too.