PVC, brine shrimp, and fake rock

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JonnyKhan

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 13, 2008
Messages
20
Hi. This post is about some ideas I had that I want someone to shoot down before I try them.

1.) Jawfish ant farms. Getting a couple lengths of PVC piping, coating them in aquarium sealant inside and out and rolling them around in the substrate. They'd become sandy tubes which could be almost invisible when buried. Blennies, gobies, jawfish and various bottom dwellers and mobile inverts could hide in them. Pressing PVC that was halved, drilled, or partially cut away against the glass, the creatures could be viewed while in their burrows.

2.) Brine shrimp used to cycle a new tank. They would immediately be a live food source for the first fish moving in, and they might develop self-sustaining colonies in the tank. Even if that isn't feasible, why not just dump brine shrimp eggs into your tank occasionally so that the eggs will hatch and the shrimp will be born and eaten naturally?

3) Lightweight, fake base rock. My aquarium store sells these foam "backdrops" that attach to the back of an aquarium and are shaped like rock and coral overhangs. I don't like them, but I do like the idea of foam rocks. Could I just buy a fifty pound block of that material and cut it into the sizes and shapes I want? Then I could just stack the live rock on top of it, making a natural looking aquascape that won't break through the floor. Eventually, the beneficial creatures in the live rock would live in the porous foam(or whatever it is).

So, I'm sure that someone has already thought of these and given up on them. So, please let me know the reason so I can give up too. Thanks!
 
Hmmm, interesting.....

1. I think you will find those specific critters may possibly ignore the PVC and make their own burrows. You can try it and see how it works out. I have a feeling they won't like you peeking into their homes.
2. Brine shrimp are inverts, and probably won't live through a cycle. A raw, unseasoned jumbo shrimp per 30G will probably be cheaper, and they are already dead...As for dumping the eggs into the tank, think about your phs, filter, skimmer or anything else that would suck them up, not to mention your opportunistic feeders.
3. Kurt_Nelson found a place that sells fake rock that can be attached via magnet to the back of the glass. To you question, make sure you know what is in the foam and it won't cause adverse issues. You may want to look into aragicrete (not sure of that is the correct name) but it's cheaper than LR and you can make it in all kinds of custom shapes/sizes.

Of all of your ideas, 1 and 3 with the aragicrete are decent thoughts.
 
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