I recently got and email asking me how much it would be to make a hatching tub and a custom background. I thought it was a great question, and so I’ve posted my response here:

 

How much it would be to make a hatching tub and a custom background?

Hmmm, it’s a tid bit tricky due to cost of tools and tank size. If you have all the tools, it’s a lot less. Little tanks need less foam, silicon, coco, ect.

Tools are usually a one time expense and can open the doors to a whole world of crafting! I’ll try to give you some ball park prices, assume a 1-2 dollar variation depending on the store you use and your state.

Number = estimated dollar amount

These are your 3 essential tools

Utility knife – 3

Caulking gun – 5

Saw – 8

 

Other stuff

Tub – 1

Plants – 1 each ( or a hell of a lot more if you don’t use dollar store plants)

Dishes – 1

1 tube of Glue/silicon/caulk – 5

1 can of Great stuff – 7 (15 for black)

Cork (med) – 8

* Use found wood that you bleach and bake for the free version – no sappy trees

Coco fiber – 8

Paint – 2

Brushes – 4

Rubber gloves – unknown – my bag is so old

Foam – 8

*If you get foam from Home depot or Lowes you’ll need to buy the whole sheet ($15 ish). If I do that, I make sure I have the dimensions for a few cages/other projects I have in mind and I have them cut up the entire sheet just how I want it.

Pots for plants – I try for free. But plastic pots from a nursery, ends of pvc pipes, scrap bamboo, the caps from the great stuff, plastic cups from the dollar store all work.

 

I’m poor so here’s how I would do it.

Hit the dollar store first, buy everything from that list that you can at the Dollar store. Then figure out what you need from the hardware store and compare those prices with amazon. Check out craigslist and free sites as well. Almost anything is free if you’re willing to wait and look around 🙂

I think buying wood is a rip off so if you can’t get it from craigslist or someplace crazy cheap, just go harvest your own. Get old, very dry, dead stuff w/o bark. No sap too! Scrub it down like crazy with bleach. Then bake it at 280 degrees for 45 mins.

You also don’t NEED to embed wood into the background, it’ll still work fine without it.

 

Good luck and let me know if there’s anything I didn’t cover.

How can I afford to do all these crafts?

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