Decorate your aquarium with children’s toys

There are many alternatives when it comes to decorating your aquarium instead of buying them in a store. You could search your house for unique items that you no longer need, or you could raid your child’s toy box. Yes, you heard right. Children’s toys can be used as fish tank decorations.

What makes children’s toys perfect as tank toppers is how detailed most of them are. These toys usually depict characters from famous cartoon shows and action movies and would make the perfect theme in your fish tank.

Since they are made for children, this should mean that they are safe and do not contain any toxic materials. This is especially true for more established brands, but I would be a little wary of toys made by smaller, lesser-known toy companies. It is common knowledge that there have been toys originating from third world countries that were made with materials considered toxic. But being a good father, I’m sure he would have checked the safety of toys for his children before buying them. Child safe generally means fish safe. Even so, we will still have to take into account some precautions before placing them in the tank water.

Children’s Toy Safety Check

The first thing we want to make sure is that there are no metal parts anywhere on the toy. Metal oxidizes in water and can seriously contaminate it. These metal parts may be in the form of screws, springs, or other components. Delete them if there are any. Do not leave even a small piece of metal in the toy, even if it is deep inside. Water seeps into the deepest recesses of any object and gets into the metal part.

Do not leave batteries in the toy. You may think it’s great to allow it to have some automation, but it’s dangerous for your fish. A battery is a cylinder that contains some of the most toxic chemicals and will leach into your water. This applies to toys that are said to be waterproof. Being waterproof and being submerged in water for indefinite periods of time are two entirely different things.

Check the paint job on the toy. Toys from established brands have their paint molded into the plastic. This makes them less likely to pollute the water. However, toys that have colors painted on them are something to avoid. Over time, the paints will leach into the water and poison it. To tell if the paint is molded or painted, you can run a blade across the surface. If the paint comes off as dust, it’s most likely painted over.

Finally, make sure there are no sharp parts that could hurt the fish. If there are any, blunt them with a file. These sharp points and edges can cause injuries that can result in death.

preparing the toys

Once you have found the perfect toys for your aquarium, you must first prepare them before throwing them into the water.

First you need to wash them thoroughly. First soak them for a couple of minutes in diluted bleach. Make sure the bleach is fully diluted, or you could bleed the paint. Soaking them in bleach kills any microorganisms that will definitely be on the toys.

Then wash off the bleach well under running water. Never use any kind of detergent to clean anything you might put in the aquarium water. The detergent will leave a residue that will contaminate the water, no matter how hard you try to wash it.

Once rinsed, air dry the toys in direct sunlight. The sun’s ultraviolet rays kill any balance microorganisms on the toy. Your toys are now ready to be used in the aquarium.