Tropical Fish Forums

[fishio123]

Looking for a natural looking cave for your bottom dwellers and cichlids without having to pay for over-priced ones at the lfs? Here's a smart DIY rock cave that I tried with success:

1.) I got some small rocks and some that are flat, scrubbed them, examined to make sure there aren't any irons, metals, and harmful things like that.

2.) Use AQUARIUM SAFE sealent to glue together some rocks, and make it form a cave. Rocks that are flat should be use as the "roof" of the cave and bigger, more round ones should be used at the bottom for support.

3.) Let it dry. *It's a good idea to complete the cave in sections. Do one section a day, so there's time for the sealent to dry/stablize before you add more rocks. Or else too much pressure on the un-dry glue might cause the cave to collapse. Learned that the hard way...

4.) After you're done with everything, let it rest for 48 hours. Rinse it once more under water. (I soaked it in old aquarium water, just to be safe). Set it in the aquarium, and let your fishies enjoy the nice shade!

It's simple, but it's good! Feedbacks on improvements, safety, etc., are really appreciated!
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[Arrow]

Hi there fishio123, just finished one of these myself...I found I had to leave it for over a week to cure basicly untill vinigear smell was gone. Just my 2cents

cool post!!

Oh yeah buy aquarium sealent from hardware store not LFS tons cheaper for same stuff!!!

[Ryank327]

One of the aquarium safe sealants I know at hardware store is GE I its in the blue and silver tube. It actually use to say aquarium safe but they took it off cause people started suing when their home made tanks leaked busted and such.
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Slowing taking over my parents house with aquariums...

tanks all FW

1g, 5g, 2 10gallons, 20g long, 30g tall, 75g