# Artificial rock cave



## Guest (Jul 23, 2008)

For my own personal experiment over the past week I've been making an artifical rock pvc cave using a crushed (smaller pieces of the rocks in my tank. What I am talking about is either granite or basalt and is commonly used around here as driveway rock) rock glued onto a Y shaped 4" wide PVC pipe.

I'm almost done with it. All sides are covered, I just need to do the finishing touches.

The general idea for me doing this was to see how it would come out and how it looks in my aquarium. If it turns out well I was going to consider either getting a 6" wide piece of pipe to make another one for my hap tank, or buy a couple 6" and 4" pvc pipes, cement them (using pvc cement) together or use silicone and build a cave mountain...kind of like a giant custom texas holey rock I guess.

I'll take pictures when I'm finished. I just thought I'd share that I did this and what my future plans are if it turns out well.

~Ed


----------



## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

In my experience these always look like pipes with rocks glued on. Nothing more, nothing less. I prefer a more natural appearance in my tanks.


----------



## gunner36 (May 10, 2008)

It may be hard to keep away from making them look like pvc with rocks glued on them, but it makes the fish happy. If it makes marduk happy then so be it, he is the one that looks at the tank everyday.

I did something similar with some terra cotta pots glued rocks on the top of it, yeah it still looks like a pot, but when you are sitting looking you cant notice, and the fish love going in and out.

show us picks when you get done.


----------



## Guest (Jul 25, 2008)

under_control said:


> In my experience these always look like pipes with rocks glued on. Nothing more, nothing less. I prefer a more natural appearance in my tanks.


Well my idea was to put dark rocks on top of and around them to try and blend them in more.

Still it's better looking than a plain white pvc pipe...


----------



## beanblog (Jun 19, 2008)

Pics?


----------



## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

I took some 1 1/2" PVC pipe about 6" long and cut it end to end diagonal... getting 2 pieces that were almost a hole circle on one end and tapering down to a small flat on the other... then coated them with silicone and completely covered them with gravel... I will try and get some pics up, worth a 1000 words.


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

I have a rock with a cave in it and the cave has one main opening and five tunnels leading off to back exits for smaller fish to make good their escapes. What I used instead of a pipe was a rubber glove, partly inflated and tied off at the wrist. I covered it, taking care to leave the finger tips and the knot exposed. When it was dry, all I had to do was pop the glove and the glove pieces peeled themselves off.


----------



## xalow (May 10, 2007)

I tried something similar using both aquarium gravel and sand substrates. The sand was white and looked just looked awful, the gravel turned out much better but could have used a second going over to cover all of the white spots.

Someone suggested the idea of boiling the PVC to make it distort and make more natural looking shapes.....I just checked it was "bentcountershaft" which I think is a really good idea but too late for the ones you have all ready completed.


----------



## Guest (Jul 26, 2008)

I have completed it today. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow when it's all dry.


----------



## Marylandwahoo (Mar 18, 2007)

Mcdaphnia said:


> I have a rock with a cave in it and the cave has one main opening and five tunnels leading off to back exits for smaller fish to make good their escapes. What I used instead of a pipe was a rubber glove, partly inflated and tied off at the wrist. I covered it, taking care to leave the finger tips and the knot exposed. When it was dry, all I had to do was pop the glove and the glove pieces peeled themselves off.


Presume this was waterfall foam right? Another option is to squirt a blob of the foam, kinda massage it into a rock shape, then after it cures, use a hole saw or knife to make the cave. I have a couple of these right now


----------



## dementedarego (May 8, 2008)

I did the same thing to make pvc pleco caves. I just used silicone and a fine gravel. It lookied decent for a makeshift job. I think if don properly itwould like nice. Also Black pvc is more discrete and forgiving of missed spots. Chris


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Marylandwahoo said:


> Mcdaphnia said:
> 
> 
> > I have a rock with a cave in it and the cave has one main opening and five tunnels leading off to back exits for smaller fish to make good their escapes. What I used instead of a pipe was a rubber glove, partly inflated and tied off at the wrist. I covered it, taking care to leave the finger tips and the knot exposed. When it was dry, all I had to do was pop the glove and the glove pieces peeled themselves off.
> ...


No foam. It was at an Aragocrete workshop sponsored by the local saltwater aquarium club. The mixture is less than a quarter inch in places, and there has been no chipping or cracking even in the very thin spots.

I haven't tried it on waterfall foam, but on all kinds I've tried, you can easier make holes with a paint brush damp with fingernail polish remover (acetone) than with a knife. Plus the foam draws back leaving a smooth hard plastic surface rather than the soft sometimes ragged foam a knife would leave.


----------



## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

My tank set up was a 55 gallon with gravel substrate. i used pvc and cut into 8 inch sections and then split them into halfcircles. i then siliconed gravel to them. once the pvc was in the tank i started stacking various rocks on top and by the time they had the africans dug up all the gravel it blened very nicely. i thought this would look generic but i wanted so many different africans i opted for the pvc deal just to make them more happy. the big boys shacked up down below and the "inferiors" found what rock caves they could.


----------



## Guest (Jul 29, 2008)

It's been down-pouring here the past few days....yesterday was fine though but I forgot to take pics...will take them today though...


----------



## Guest (Aug 2, 2008)

Any outside pictures came out awful, so I am going to wait until I redecorate my 120g which then I will place it inside and get in-tank photos...

I'll bump up the topic when I have pics ready.


----------

