How to Make a Water Bottle Aquarium

If you're looking for an eco-friendly craft project, make a water bottle aquarium for your pet fish. Your kids can have fun helping with this simple craft project, turning a bottle from landfill-ready trash to reusable fun. Make a water bottle aquarium and display it in your home or place it in your child's bedroom to help them practice caring for a low-maintenance pet. This would also make an ideal craft project for a teacher who wants to add a class pet to her classroom without a lot of extra cost.

Things You'll Need

  • Large water or soda bottle
  • Scissors or box cutter
  • Heavy tape
  • Sand
  • Gravel
  • Water
  • Aquatic plants
  • Aquarium decor
  • Fish
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Cut a water bottle just below the curved top. Use scissors or a box cutter to cut the entire top portion off the bottle. This will make a tall tube with a base which will serve as the structure for your aquarium.

    • 2

      Place heavy tape, such as electrician's tape or duct tape, around the top edge of the bottle where you have cut it. This will keep it from scratching you as you use the aquarium.

    • 3

      Fill the bottom of the aquarium with sand, up to approximately ½ inch. Fill the next ½ inch of the bottom with gravel.

    • 4

      Fill the aquarium with water, keeping the level approximately 2 to 3 inches below the top edge.

    • 5

      Poke water plants into the gravel and sand at the bottom of the aquarium. Add any floating aquarium plants you have as well.

    • 6

      Wait for the sediment to settle and then add a fish to your water bottle aquarium. Be sure to add only one or two small fish, as any more would be crowded in such a small aquarium.