Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday AM Quick Tip #116: Those Fish/Coral Plastic Bags Belong Right Here
Unless you bring your own cooler or plastic container to your local fish store, you’re going to be taking you new saltwater critter home in plastic bags. And if you are shipping in your fish and coral like I do, you’re DEFINITELY going to be getting a lot of plastic bags! Reusing these bags works great if you have enough uses for them. Some local fish stores will take them back, but most won’t.
That leaves throwing them away, which could harm fish and wildlife. Todd chimed in with an easy solution that will keep nature happy and your house clean.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Top idea … I was just starting to wonder what I’d do with the bucket full of bags I’ve got…
I’m starting to accumulate poly boxes … I’d like to see a great use for these!
Great idea. Now if we can get the rest of the world to follow our waterways will be beautiful.
+1 to the above! 🙂
A Question for you. I have an 800 litre tank and I let coraline algae grow over the weir and side wall and sometimes the rear wall. I use a bubble magus doser for kh, calc and mag. If I were to scrape all the coraline off the walls at one time, would that not then change the amount I should be dosing?. It also grows in the sump as I use 2 t5s to keep frags happy. My main lights are 3 maxspect razors and I use a dsb,75 kg of live rock a curve 7 skimmer and also the sump refugium. I try to run ulns by the addition of nopox. My nitrate and phos are near 0 permanently. My corals are colouring up nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo321ERjNwo&list=UUiwCg5yUm0ZuC6xeQM3JVMg&index=2
Hope you like it… now what about the dosing levels?
John
oh you are so behind the times , we have been recycling plastic bags like that here in England for ages. And as for what to do with poly boxes , well I sell mine on ebay ! !
Great idea, why didn’t I think of that!? LOL
Steve…over here in the dark ages USA we can recycle plastic bags but mostly ONLY if they have a recycle number on them. The plastic bags that fish/corals come in never have a number on them so I always thought I was out of luck. Now I have a solution! The poly boxes (we call it styrofoam over here) have recycle numbers but few recyclers will take them. Therefore I give mine away for free. Maybe making a couple of bucks off ebay selling them isn’t a bad idea!
hi enjoy your tips, coraline algae growing well on my 125 lt boyu tank .woke up this morning to see my female tomato clown feeding my anemone with my shrimp,which was head first being pushed down into the anemone .what a shock, have pair clowns and one blue damsell ,one yellow gobie,what other fish could i get thanks paul
not like that here , we can recycle any kind of plastic now , no numbers, and the styrofoam boxes sell well on ebay as fish transporters.
Like you say, a little money in your pocket is better than putting it in the bin
Never thought to chuck them on fleabay … Cheers Steve …
As regards the plastic bag recycling .. our local council doesn’t take them as part of the standard twice monthly collection but our local co-op apparently will take them along with standard plastic carrier bags… I didn’t even know the bin was there without some research!
So look and ask folks … your recycling point is never too far away… 🙂
Planters for the green house was one suggestion for the poly boxes … and winter for keeping bulbs etc … Thinking outside the box … I’ll get my coat…
I have a 180 gal tank with a 30 gal fuge, which I run on a reverse cycle from the display tank. Fuge light is an Energy Smart 26 watt (replacement for a standard 100 watt) bulb. Nitrates & phosphates are zero. My fuge has chaeto in it, but it is also has just as much hair algae tangled in the chaeto & floating in the water. There is no algae in my display tank. Is this a problem? Is my light wrong?
Not exactly fish related, but speaking of plastic trash… The plastic rings that 6-packs of cans come packaged with pose a real risk for wildlife as well. Even if you are able to recycle them in your area, please take a scissors to them and cut open all the rings first before putting them in the recycling bin. Inevitably some always escape the trash/recycling and get out into the environment. The rings can strangulate or injure wildlife that gets it trapped around their neck or leg.
How you going to clean them out with an eye on where my rinse water goes?
a few drops of acetone will reduce those styrofoam boxes to tiny puddles.
reduces volume if nothing else.
break em down to tiny beads, and they can be used in potting soil to increase porosity and hold water too.
There’s always the option to repurpose them to hold beverages on ice. Handy in a boat while fishing, or when packing for a vacation.
Hi Mark
Love all your shows and tips. All very helpful.
One more thing that would be very helpful is were you get your fish I would love to get them of the Internet as you can get better variety I love those cross species clowns you have but over here in Australia we don’t get the same rang of fish as you guys so need a site were I can get fish that will deliver down under