Can you use other containers to hold fish? I was temted to buy a 50 gallon rubbermaid to hold my fishies. Can this harm them? Its way cheaper than buying(or even making) a tank.

deffinutly i have heard of lots of people uyseing rubbermaid tubs to hold fish... mostly for quarantine tanks though... but i could see it working as a working tank....

Hey there! I'm currently using a 50gal rubbermaid as a home for common goldfish, Nemo. But when buying one, make sure to get one without wheels on the bottom, and also use rope or something resistint to hold both long sides togethor or it will bow out. The reason I bought one was because I don't have any room inside my house for more tanks and because nemo is 9in. long! ,but yah, overall I haven't had any problems except you need to have something over it to protect it from the rain if its outside.

Thanx for the insight. I completely forgot about securring the sides. I'll make sure to do that. I wasn't planning on using one with weels as it seem to me it would be too heavy. Is that why?

Check out your local feed store or farm supply. Many times they have good buys on tubs that are used for water troughs for farm animals. I have a 40 gal. Was inexpensive and extremely sturdy. Don't have to worry about it bowing. I would just look for one with more area space than depth.

how much do rubbermaid containers cost on average?

a 55 gal costs me 19.97 Can. at nooppee. Not that much compared to an aquarium

This may sound nuts, but some of the koi folk use swimming pools as QT tanks or temporary homes for koi. Check these out at Wally world.
http://www.nnnnnn.com/catalog/product_lis...A14521%3A110274

Wish they had a smaller one... I would like to set up an indoor pond and that would be a cheap way to do it..

Those pools would be awesome.

Betty, those pools are actually very practical, although the filter doesn't quite cut it for the fish. Imagine, a 1000 gl pond with a 500 gl/h filter - the fish would die left and right!
I bought Julia one of those where the outer top ring needs to filled with air, and when the water rises inside the pool, so does the ring, and its actually very sturdy. Julias was worried the whole time that her swimming pool is going to be turned into a fish pond, but we assured there that it wasn't possible since there is always chlorine in her pool.

AquaticEcosystems sells those pools as ponds for a lot more than nnnnnn does, although I am not sure if the material isn't a bit sturdier...

Wouldn't the material be sturdier for human-made pools. Fish don't really.......I don't know how to put it but ya know what I mean

There's nothing stopping you from getting a bigger filter or more for that matter. If plants were possible in that, there'd be no problem. I mean, the ocean manages fine without a 121228800000000gph filter.

Especially since the swimming pool is already plumbed with a bulkhead.

Diane Walstad only uses mechanical filtration in her natural planted tanks. They're heavily planted with a topsoil substrate/gravel overlayer and moderately stocked. I just set up a 30 gallon tank that way that cleared 2.5ppm ammonia in less than a day with no increase in nitrIte and I couldn't detect any increase in nitrAte.

what wrong with the rain getting in? ponds get rained in!

Small ponds/tubs can overflow with too much rain.

i saw a flyer for a 4000 gal pool at my library and i was wondering if i could use it as a place for my fish and now i know... the good thing was it was only going for 300 bucks..

That sounds great, I don't see how it could be bad for them. Great idea. Good luck


-Alex