The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I'm thinking of taking small pieces of slate and building a small cave for my rams and keyholes. All I would need is silicone to glue the pieces together right?
Yep ... Aquarium safe silicone and some imagination. You can really get elaborate with caves, terraces, columns ... etc. Really does add to an aquarium!
Your best bet are landscaping stores .... I find two types of slate. The ones used to make roof tiles that are fairly thin and thicker slate that's used to make a slate fence or a walkway.
I lucked out an a neighbor across the street had extra he didn't need.
We used rocks from our yard. Baking doesn't do much, so I've heard, but boil and do the vinegar test and you should be ok. That's what we did and everyone is happy actually have my first holding female!
They are currently soaking in a bucket. I can't really boil now since my mom is cooking but once boiled i'll start siliconing some together and i'll post some pictures. I kind of have an idea of what i want to do.
Depending on the size of the rock, you may want to let them cool in the water after boiling. Slow temperature changes are key, cooling them off too quick can cause them to explode.
since i'm boiling one at a time due to pot size can i boil one then place it in a bucket allowing it to cool for a few hours and then start siliconing them together?
I would think so, just pour the water the rock was boiled in into the bucket. This would keep the rock's temperature from chaning too quickly. Just make sure the bucket will be able to handle the temperature of the hot water.
Came across this thread a little late. When siliconing the rocks together throw a little sand on the exposed silicone then gently press it in thus hiding the silicone. Can still be done by adding a fresh layer and pressing sand into that. make sure you let the silicone cure for at least 24 hours before adding it to your tanks.
Hasen't been 24Hrs yet but the silicone is dry. I don't know if i'm going to add a new layer with sand but i might go and get another small rock to hide the side that you can see silicone. It doesn't bother me that much though.
Some rocks are not good at all even if it be rocks from the ocean,they leak chemical and have harsh metal content,another tip to look for is the weight,u really don't want to split your tank by real heavy ones especially toward the middle.