I've been having difficulty with space especially since my goldies spawned in 4 of my tanks so thought i'd better start looking at big tubs for the future. I found this great place hidden away today that specialises in ponds and koi so dropped in for a look around. They had so many wonderful plastic tubs at the back in so many different sizes and I found a terrific round one that would fit on my verandah but the problem was it cost $395 - and this would only be an interim measure also, so well and truly out of my price range right now After thinking I'd have to stick to my 25 gallon rubbermaid I started to leave and as I was walking along, there was another of the round tubs (1200mm diameter and 450mm deep = 135 gallons) shoved at the back... I thought I caught an affordable price marked on it but had to move all the other tubs out of the way and then I saw it $85 .... and yet it was identical to the other 5 that were marked $395 So i lifted it out and took it to the checkout where to my surprise, the lady said "that'll be $85 thanks" Stupid me though asked how come it was so much cheaper then the identical ones marked at $395 so she asked me to show her... She frowned and said it must have been marked incorrectly but as that was their mistake not mine, I could have it for $85

So I also got a lovely lilly and some of that funny stuff that floats on the top and set it up. It took me 1.5 hours to get all the fry out of the tub because I stupidly put substrate on the bottom so catching the bottom dwellers without crushing them was a real challenge... Then I placed them in the tub and now (doh) I can't see them because the tub's black

Anyhow I took some quick pics before the sun went down:









And I counted 42 fry - so hopefully this will be enough room for the time being. Now I just have to think about filtration

Wow Jen, what a bargain!!

Looks amazing too. You can put a stocking over a normal filter and run it on low if it has a slidy thing to alter the flow.

I know Sands - I was that pleased

I've got a couple of spare hangon filters but the lip is too deep and one Fluval 303 canister which will be too strong so will have to go out and buy another one *sigh*. That'll have to wait until next payday... I was thinking of getting a pump/fountain to help with aeration so am spending my time effectively tonight on eBay

That looks soo nice there Jen! And a fantastic bargain..congratulations. Its always worth a good pokearound in some of these places as they do have older stock thats been forgotten.. I also like to check out the used
furniture/thrift shops as they sometimes have decent tanks and tubs- I love your "some of that floaty stuff" what is that?! Reminds me of the dried seaweed that people eat here on rice

I hope you can get some more great bargains on e-bay to finish setting up .

Looks great! Now we just wanna see the fry!

Hmm $395.....I wonder how come it's so expensive. An LFS here in Perth sold a very similar gallonage tub for $195 and that's standard pirce

Great looking tub Jen.Now lets see the fry grow up.Love your lily in middle of the tub.Don't forget fry pics as they grow please

Thank goodness for people's mistakes,no? Gosh Jen,you spend money like you actually have it!
For a quick throw together,the tub allready looks wonderful! I love the Lily and the FrogBit,or Duckweed-what ever it is
It's a real shame that you can't use one of the filter's that you allready have.Nah,that would just be too convenient and cheap.
That's how all my luck seems to be so I know how it feels. Well,being that the tub is black,I guess now you sit there with camera in hand ,waiting for them to come up and feed.,because I want to see the little bugger's! They should grow fast.They'll have alot more room than your Rubbermaid had. I'm so excited!!!!! You did good girl!

I LOVE it when that kind of stuff happens. I just makes everything that much more enjoyable, no? I bet you tell everyone how cheap it was! (That's what I'd do anyway, hehe!). How big are the fry? If you have a spare powerhead laying around, you can make a filter to save money.

Oooh yeah, I always tell people when I get a bargain With a mortgage that's akin to highway robbery - people think i'm strange because I put food on my animal's table and eat toast for my own dinner (I suppose it's one of those enforced diets ) ... My mum's idea of bearing gifts is usually Spirulina disks, a massive bag of Eukanuba (for my pooches) or filter media for she knows I appreciate this more than anything

As for the fry, I just went out there and had to squint real hard to even see them - they look so miniscule in this thing, so pictures are going to be a challenge

And Riz - we're talking Sydney prices here and worse still, northern beaches so consider yourself lucky. I think EVERYTHING is highway robbery here.....

My 900 litre tub (240g) was around $550 from the koi farm, so I'm thinking $395 would have been the going price, you sure did score a bargain, congratulations Jen - and it looks so pretty.

I have often puzzled over filters for those tubs too, short of a pump and gravity return filter box, which I use, the only other thing I can think of is an internal filter. Someone made their own filter box and I can't remember who, was it Erika?

Yeah, I made one.....a rendition of one Andrea did. Mine's been re-vamped about a million times.

Ha!! Thats happened to me a few times too. Its great huh?? It looks marvelous and Im looking forward to fry photos.

Wow Jen! What a bargin. You GO!!!!

It look's great too, Hopefully you'll be able to snap a couple good pic's of the Fry, Would love to see them all in there!

Congrat's, Great new's..

Thanks guys

Looking at filtration, I may just have to get a couple of sponge filters because the pumps all seem to be too powerful - it'd suck my little guys up before I could blink

There's not nearly enough ammonia generated to start off a greenwater project right now but I'm hoping the water stays relatively healthy until I can do another 50% waterchange (in 3 days)...

With all those fry,you better start looking for bargain priced tanks! You'll be lucky if you even get the toast now. I wish the people that did buy me gifts would think like your mom does.I swear my daughter refuses to go that way,because she knows how much I'd like it.

Sharon - the only reason my mum starting doing this is because it stops me from going around and begging to her

I think I have a new bargain tank - a nice 6ft number that the my hairdressers mum wants to get rid of and the price is $0. Mind you she said it looks like poop but at this point I'm not fussed. But then I have to factor in more filters etc

I'm getting a bit worried because my goldies are still chasing each other around the tanks so I'm busily drawing up a new housing plan for these guys - boys with boys and girls with girls... So tonight is moving night for all of them

0 is a wonderful price!!! Who cares what it looks like! I have gotten quite a few tanks for low or no price in the last year,and that's great,but trying to buy filter's for everything is always so darn costly. I have a 75 gallon sitting here empty because of that.That is soon changing though because someone just sold me two almost new Emperor 400's for 45 bucks.
What have you been feeding those Goldie's Do they have no shame?

$45 bucks? Sheesh that's an excellent bargain and think of the room a 75 gallon will give (and the additional backbreaking waterchanges )

No, these guys have no shame - they do the unthinkable and while they're at it, they send me to the poorhouse in the process

Good job on price. Those little tiny floaters are called duckweed and the other isn't a lilly (at least none that I've ever seen) it looks like some sort of Arrowhead.

Thanks Debi and I just pulled the tag out of the bin and it says Dwarf White Calla - Childsiana and then goes on to say an attractive dwarf calla lily that bears lovely flowers. Truth to tell though, I wouldn't know one plant from another but I do like the pretty white flowers that hopefully will appear

You're welcome. It is very pretty. Take a picture or two when it flowers.

Your set up looks great, Im sure there going to be fine.
Id love to have a nice round tub like that haha.

Goodluck with the new pond

So thats duckweed...well, I learn something new everyday at kokos!

Jen, I am so envious all these bargains coming your way - 0 is a great price indeed-and the tub outside is perfect, just what Im after in fact. Will you be bringing it or the fry in in the winter months?

Oh and a very good idea separating the "boys from the girls" Are you sure you know which is which exactly? (One mistake will cost you more toast )

Thanks guys and LOL Trinket - the only reason I get these bargains (I think) is because I'm always on the hunt for them

It's like there's an invisible sign plastered across my head that says "help me help my fish"

Can I use that invisble sign for a bit?

Sorry to hear that you lost so many fry. As bad as I may sound,it's probably best in the end.Only the strong will survive,& there'll be less fish to find placement for.
I too get so upset about losing fry.Someone sent me a trio of green swordtails.I haven't had anything like those guys in years because they're live bearer's.I realized after I saved the first batch of babies,that I should have let nature's take its course
Those Swords have now spread to 3 different Trop. tanks allready.
And here I am trying to cut some of these tanks down.

I had to laugh about the outlet problem Jen.I thought that this place had alot of them until I put my tanks up.
Now when I need a plug real quick,I gotta figure out one that I can actually pull out to use.I can't even make toast without pulling a fish light plug.

Lol - I know. I trip over the 6 x powerboards I have attached to every available outlet

So how many swordtails do you have now?

looks great!

Thats really cool...where can I get one...lol? I've tried our farm and fleet, menards, lows....nothing what type of filtration would I have to get for something like that and where would I put it?? I've showed my husband your pics a million times tonight...that looks really good

Well,I think I have 13 power strips going if I didn't leave any out. As for Swordtails,I probably have close to 3 dozen of them.That wouldn't be bad except that they get pretty big.Females are big and fat and a good 3 inches long,so it doesn't take long to fill up a tank. I haven't seen any babies until that one that recently somehow survived,and now he's too big to get eaten.