Cave materials?

[mommytron]

I'd like to make my own rock cave. I have a really tall tank and am trying to think of something tall and narrow that I could turn into a cave by siliconing rocks or aquarium gravel to it. PVC pipe is a thought, but would only have a small hole opening, and I'm wanting something with a large opening in the front. What are my options for aquarium-safe materials?? TIA

 

[glassbird]

There is some pretty big PVC available out there. I have seen 4 inch stuff at the big box stores. You could put several shapes together, including a couple "T"s to give you openings. And you can use a jig saw or hack saw to cut chunks out, too. (Be sure to clamp it down before cutting.) Glue the pieces together with tank-safe silicone, and then paint it with Krylon Fusion. Use a color that will blend with whatever you are going to glue on top. I used a dark brown on PVC, and then used tank-safe silicone to glue brown gravel over the paint. That way, any missed spots do not show.

Just be sure to let the Krylon Fusion dry for at least a week before you start gluing stuff to it or put it under water.

 

[j2112j]

I think it depends on how natural an appearance you want. I used slate floor tiles and hacked them into pieces. I initially had a tall cave with 2 floors and a full back, about 12" tall, but decided to split it up into 3 individual objects.
I used GE I Silicon.

Something like this could be made as tall as you need.

 

[mommytron]

Awesome, thanks for the tips! Can Krylon Fusion be found easily at hardware stores? I'm going to have to start looking around and see what materials I can give to my husband to build a cave for me (he gets to do all the cutting and painting, I get to do the gluing )

 

[mommytron]

awesome caves, j2112j.... that looks like it could be beyond my ability though, lol

 

[mommytron]

this is the paint i picked up .... just want to double check to make sure it's the right stuff and is aquarium safe

 

[glassbird]

Yup, that's the stuff. I mostly use the flat black (sold as "camo" paint, for hunters I guess), but also use the flat brown sometimes. I recently branched out into some of their "special" finishes, with mixed results. The "hammered copper" looks ok, but not a whole lot like the cap. But the textured brown was a disaster. The color is nice...sort of a dark dark brown with a rough texture and tiny gold sparkles...but the spray nozzles can't handle the paint for some reason. THREE cans in a row had to be returned! I got 2-3 sprays out of each...and that was it! PITA!

I think what you have in the picture is satin brown. If you want maximum hiding, try to find the flat brown. (But the satin brown will work pretty well.)

 

[pantherspawn]

Ive been building alot of caves and rock formations using the slate as well, also picked up a bag of river rock at home depot. The unpolished type found in the garden section. Its a little bit harder than it might seem to get some of the formations you want, mostly because the silicon takes so long to cure, but once you get the knack of it, its not too hard.They have 4 different bags of rock, small, med large and xtra large. They only run about 5 dollars per bag and it gives you alot of different options. These are some of the first ones.. def a work in progress. Look much better wet of course.

 

[warvillian]

Are these cave materials for salt or fresh water?

 

[pantherspawn]

The ones i used were for freshwater

 

[glassbird]

Wow! I like the river rock ones! I may have to try that! Be aware though that the silicone that shows will become more visible underwater (I have no idea why, but it is very annoying). Also, depending on your water, it may turn white after a while. This happened to me when I glued a bunch of lava rock together for retaining walls. Eventually, the white was covered in algea and it is now not really visible at all. The one way that I found to prevent silicone from showing up was to sprinkle sand on the wet silicone and really pack it on.

Another thought...for the slate trapezoid in your pictures...make sure that one is far enough away from your glass that if it collapses it wont hit the glass on it's way down! I had a slate "table" sort of arrangement in my tank once, and the silicone gave out...it just collapased downwards, so no harm done. But if it had hit the glass...

 

[Wy Renegade]

Try a terra cotta (clay) pot. Purchase the size you want, turn it upside down, use a masonary bit of the appropriate size to drill the size of opening you desire (drill a side or enlarge the bottom opening). You can also cut the pot in half using a masonary blade or tile saw (half a pot makes a nice cave). Cover the outside using two part epoxy and sand/gravel. If you want to get really creative, buy some expanding pond foam and use river rock and foam to build structure off of the pot.

 

[pantherspawn]

Wow! I like the river rock ones! I may have to try that! Be aware though that the silicone that shows will become more visible underwater (I have no idea why, but it is very annoying). Also, depending on your water, it may turn white after a while. This happened to me when I glued a bunch of lava rock together for retaining walls. Eventually, the white was covered in algea and it is now not really visible at all. The one way that I found to prevent silicone from showing up was to sprinkle sand on the wet silicone and really pack it on.

Another thought...for the slate trapezoid in your pictures...make sure that one is far enough away from your glass that if it collapses it wont hit the glass on it's way down! I had a slate "table" sort of arrangement in my tank once, and the silicone gave out...it just collapased downwards, so no harm done. But if it had hit the glass...

Yeah i plan on doing the sand sprinkle as well.. wanted to wait til i was finished, will just add a bit more silicone.. and the slate, has a bottom on it that will sit under the gravel for stability.. I also plan on running anubais nana and baby tears up and around the slate and just some baby tears or java moss on the river rock. Good advice though, thanks.