Hi as the title says i am trying to liven up my dwindling fish tank. It is a large tank and i would like the following,

Fake plants
Slate
fish
sand (preferably white?)
or anything else you may be able to offer.

my budget is about zero so it would need to be cheap.

thanks

I could help you out with real plants,sand is cheap or it used to be at toys r us.
i have used slate from old slate mines,got mine from the horseshoe pass llangollen,soak in boiling water scrub well.

I have lots of sunset platies but they are all very tiny at the moment,a few months then you can have some.

For plants and things like that, check the Burleydam, they reguarly have slightly damaged stock at bargain prices; I got about £80 of fake plants/rocks (at regular pricing) for around £25 last year iirc! Hardly any difference except the odd leaf pulled off etc!!

If you need any slate from The Horseshoe Pass picking up I'm there all the time, just tell me what size you need and I'll stop on the way over.

You should also look into lighting as well.Different bulbs do various things.Certain bulbs will encourage algae to grow wich bottom/mid tank feeders need to feed on.Other bulbs will encourage the media in the filters to grows wich helps to break down nitrates and help to keep down the Ph levels.Other bulbs make your fish look more colurful and will indeed help breeding.As for plants.2 down falls on live and plastic.Live won`t last very long as your fish will ravage them.Plastic will attract nitrates and send your Ph levels through the roof.I would favour live plants as they feed your fish and oxygeneate the water as well.As a tip.use salt in your water when you do a water change.Most tropival fish are from backen waters wich is slightly salted (such as the amazon).The dosage is half oz per gallon of water.Can also be used as a tonic to your fish and can kill certain parasites.Hope this info helps.

I wouldnt get your live plants from the burleydam, i made that mistake and now my aquarium is full of snails. Ive possibly got some ornament etc, ill root them out and give you a shout.

sorry but lights have nothing to do with growing good bacteria in your filters. nitrates are what is produced from the bacteria eating the ammonia and nitrites,regular water changes are the only way for keeping nitrate levels down aswell as live plants.

plastic plants have no effect on ph levels,ph level comes out of your tap water.

algae grows with any light,too many hours on is the problem.
be careful with the salt also

Get an assasin snail,andy's aquatics have them somrtime,but if your desperate you can have one of mine.

Plants have a massive efect on ph levels,especially if you have an under gravel filter.As the palnts sit aloft the filter wich absorb ammonia from the filter and exchange it into nitrates.Also I was giving advice on media wich is naturally collected inside an electric filer eg (fluval 4).Not an under gravel filter wich is fed by an air pump.

ph levels are in your tap water.nothing affects it really .
fish poo,wee good filter bacteria eats said wee/poo which then turn into nitrites,then the nitrates(note the spelling)are produced,this is why you should do regular 10% weekly water changes to lower your nitrate levels.
nitrates are nothing to do with ph levels,ph is in your tap water,it may drop a little if you add bogwood

Yes i have 1200 tetratec external filters and also some fluvals in others,undergravel filters are crap not used one since about 30 years ago
Yes there are many different light,different spectrums,some more blue,some have a red tone,lights are only for us to see fish and to grow live plants
But hey only trying to give good advice,i've been doing it 30 years or so,had plenty of breeding fish and i haven't bought a plantnow for about seven years as you say each to their own

Thanks for all your help here folks. The DR, I never get up to the pass, in fact i dont even know where it is. if you could grab me a load of varying sizes so i can make a trap for the little baby fishes to hide that would be great. I am in the process of getting a tank with several cilchilds.