At least for me, it's very hard to get anywhere in a discussion with my parents if the words "new" and "aquarium" are put together in the same sentence.

So, young PT'ers, how do YOU expand your hobby with parental control?

haha, it took me a while to get permission for my 20 long. but i didnt really do anything special. i just rearranged my room and found a free tank, so i have the tank now, just gotta get the equipment. but i only have one set up right now. so itsnot as bad as some. but i do have 40+ orchids, and they dont really care, they support me. but they wouldnt let me get ahuge tank, because they know how broke i am haha

my parents pretty much make me pay for everything. Just set u a 55 gallon and dont have a light or plants..... and only have like 30 bucks.... haha but I go to my lfs hang out and bag fish and the owner gives me store credit and free used stuff for helping

I pay for everything I buy so no need to worry about parent's permission. Bad part is that I'm limited to what I can/cannot buy, but I don't pay rent so it's fine.

My parents are pretty open to the idea of a new aquarium. In fact my mom keeps bringing up the subject of maybe getting a another aquarium while I just downsized a ton (I currently have no fish). I am thinking of doing a rimless 15g igwaumi tank and a 40g breeder super high tech collectoris tank.

Well thank goodness my dad likes fish, but man when I even bring up the words "new plants" they go nuts. They just don't understand that in order to have a nice collection of crypts you have to buy a lot to start off with, as they grow so slow. Fish wise though my parents pretty much let me get whatever as long as i have money.

My parents are pretty lenient. My parents know it's their fault I got into the fish/tank keeping hobby, because they bought me a Betta for x-mas one year. They know that it takes more stuff to keep fish than other pets, and that I grew up keeping small pets so I'm responsible. Mostly I do a lot of research, get only a few things at a time, and try to pay for it myself.

Regardless of whether i can pay for it or not, my parents always use the "we don't want more water in your bedroom" argument. It's really a miracle when they agree to a new tank.

I don't. My parent cheer me on.

I don't really blame parents who limit things like that. If for some reason the tank is left in their care and something goes wrong, they might not know how to fix it. If they do know what they're doing, then I don't know what to say.