# Plastic in fish tanks



## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

is it okay to put plastic in fish tanks i was wondering so i could possibly set up a tank with all plastic to raise awareness about the garbage patch in the pacific ocean. if not plastic tell me what materials i could use i want fish to be happy in the tank also search the garbage patch and get back to me....thanks!




























:x:x:x:-x:-x


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## LilSums (Aug 2, 2010)

Wow those were phenomenally sad pictures :*( What kind of plastic do you want to put in? Because a lot of decorations (fake plants, etc...) are made of plastic & are made to be with fish. Hard rubbers also are safe but harder to find, I used to have a little hard rubber scuba team in a previous tank & it caused no problems nor could to fish nip pieces off. Otherwise the typical ceramic, wood, or resin decorations are safe. I don't know what look you're going for but hopefully that'll hep you find pieces?


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

i want something that would look polluted but the water is actually not so i was wondering if everyday plastic, glass, or any other items that would be okay


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## noahhill (Jul 31, 2010)

Any food safe plastic will be fine , like soda bottles plastic forks and things like that . and plastic food storage tubs and the like should be boiled first to remove oils and acids left over from foods . I have used soda bottles in or around my tanks for a long time with no probs .


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

wow im amazed that turtle is still alive... Its like when you wrap a tree and it continues to grow around the wrap.

Glass is fine so long as it isnt sharp. As for bottles im sure their fine but I do know that cheap ones (coke bottles, bottle water etc) begin to leak chemicals after they reach a certain age, which is why your not supposed to save them and re-use them for yourself.


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## dan3345 (Jan 27, 2010)

arent the first two photos faked? I thought they were.. And the second could be just taken after hurricane. I dont know..


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

yeah except they found like 15 birds like this soooo not fake idk about the turtle but i dont think so and no there are parts that bad we learned about this in school and i thought it was horrible and also we learned that plastic doesnt degrade completely it just gets smaller and smaller keeping the plastic in the environment but yeah its a very sad thing search it up..all the garbage is there its because of the ocean currents and stupid people that pollute


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

can i use any type of adhesive and how about rubber bands? also would like to put in a glass bottle and marbles for the bottom


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

As stated glass is fine if clean and has no sharp edges. You would want the opening to be big enough for a fish to get in and out of without getting stuck. You can use rubber bands but not for long as they degrade pretty quick. I would go for something else. If you are just aiming for a "junk" look you can actually use the plastic rings that go around the bottle tops as long as they are smooth (not with the little spikes that a lot of them have). The fish would play in and out of those. There is a lot of plastic stuff you could use.

If you want to go for a "dirt" look you can get brown substrate/sand and use silicone (100% silicone... 100% dried) to adhere it to various surfaces. There are some really good options to pull off your idea. A great one BTW.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

dan3345 said:


> And the second could be just taken after hurricane. I dont know..


And that makes it any less horrendous why?


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

I think you could actualy do a lot with this tank if you publicize it correctly.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

i take it string would work...that would be helpful if it would work


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## robj6767 (Aug 31, 2010)

If you do the thing with silicone, it has to be aquarium grade silicone.


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## Cam (Nov 9, 2009)

..And it is going to keep happening until the world government decides to do something. Eventually the ocean will be plastic and we will just drive straight from Florida to West Africa.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

thats why its up to us to get people informed! we need to save the wildlife from people


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Cam said:


> ..And it is going to keep happening until the world government decides to do something. Eventually the ocean will be plastic and we will just drive straight from Florida to West Africa.


*shudder


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

whats a very hardy fish i can put in this tank?


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## Cam (Nov 9, 2009)

Um, yeah. Nothing is going to change anyways.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

yeah id much rather drive around in electric kids cars...im trying to help out the environment here something little is better than nothing so you dont really need to reply to this post..(sorry to everyone else people that are selfish and dont care about anything but themselves kind of gets me mad)


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Most plastics are fine for fish. Things like rubber bands, and other flexible or small things I would not use. The reason is that fish are stupid and will try to eat whatever is in their tank. 

Silicone can be used if it is 100% Silicone and does not say Anti-Mildew or Anti-Mold (or Anti anything) on it. This is what aquarium silicone is, but it does not have to be aquarium grade. 

What size fish are you wanting to put in this? Almost any community fish will work ok. Depending on the size of the tank, cichlids might be a good choice since the garbage will offer a lot of hiding areas for them.


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## FishBreeding (Aug 13, 2010)

prob just a 20 gallon so idk if i could fit a convict or a group of dwarf gourami


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Convicts are pretty tough. 

Stuff like PE, PP, & PET is pretty safe and inert, basically "food plastic" is good. Avoid vinyls and stuff that has plasticizers since they can come into the water. Skip the shampoo bottles and stuff like that, and anything that could have toxic residue. Stuff that is made deliberately biodegradable like some trash bags is likely to degrade in your tank (but not in the landfill because there's no sunlight). Might not be good for fish, but an interest experiment to see what degrades in water. Hard plastics are safer than ones the fish can bite off.


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