# DYI cave dwelling



## TnAWill (Feb 14, 2013)

My wife and I's(her more-so than me but I did help  ) first attempt at some DYI ornaments.

First here is a pic of stuff we used plus Krylon Clear Polyurithane spray to Seal/Coat everything and PVC pipes.


We started out by cutting pvc pipes of different sizes and doing a ground layer of 4 pipes siliconed together with 2 lava rocks spaced apart siliconed on top of that. We continued just stacking until we got the desired height for our tank. Finally we took 2 lava rocks and spaced them farther apart due to having a zoo-med floating log that we wanted to wedge between them. (idea being ornament would be exact right height.

Once the pipes and lava rocks were stuck together we covered everything in Great Stuff insta-foam to give it more of a rock/cave look. We used the water safe paint pictured above and finally coated everything in the poly-urithane and let dry(forever and a day!).

Here is the finished product, for our first time did we do ok.... Also we found out the hard way this great stuff is indeed great BUT!!! it doesn't sink at all! We then had to forsake the log idea because we had to silicone some heavy granite rock to the bottom and then bury it in the gravel so the odd rock at the bottom didn't show.....lol live and learn I guess!



Here it is in the tank. It's in a 55 community tank right now with some bigger tetras and a juvi EBJD. We still have a few barren places as far as the gravel goes around it we need to scape it better, but at least it's in there and everyone seems to enjoy it! Let me know what ya think.


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## DanniGirl (Jan 25, 2007)

Creative idea! It actually reminds me of coral that one would find in a saltwater setup. It looks neat in a freshwater setup and obviously the fish enjoy it.
You mentioned the bare spots in the tank due to lack of gravel. Instead of adding gravel, have you thought about switching the substrate? Any natural colored sand would look great. In the picture, the blue gravel screams out and detracts attention away from the piece. Either way, the cave dwelling looks neat.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

+1 to looking like coral. Looks good though. Id put it in a bigger tank the one it's in makes it look to big.


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