How to build caves?

[it4lian]

Well I'm going to be building some caves for my 29 gallon I'm setting up this week and I need some ideas. I think the easiest option would just be small pieces of slate, but then again slate can get kinda expensive. I've been thinking about designing my own cave network thingy out of lava rocks, glued together, but I have no idea what I could use to hold them all together. I'm not quite sure if this would work though what do yall think? Also what are good things that hold stuff together, like glue or somethin, thats aquarium safe. All helps appreciated. Thanks!

[COM]

I have a big cave and a "Pride Rock" sort of thing in my tank. I just leaned three long narrow pieces of a grey river rock (like a slate) together. They are heavy enough not to get moved around.

Almost every aquarium store I have ever been to sells a fish safe silicone. I don't know if there is any difference between this silicone and silicone from the hardware store other than the high price. A little silicone goes a long way so you may just want to stick with the pet store kind to be safe.

Don't use household glues like Elmer's of Krazy. These products break down over time in dry conditions. In an aquarium, they could release volatile chemicals very quickly which would first kill your fish and then cause your rocks to fall down.

[it4lian]

Yeh, I've been leaning towards getting a few peices of slate to make one cave, and then using aquarium epoxy putty to hold about 30 lava rocks together to form about 4 or 5 other caves. Might just by slate though, cause I got the money for it, just my dad doesn't want me to spend a lot on it and I gotta convince him first lol. Thanks

[Christine]

Go to a rockyard... its cheaaaap They laughed at me as I picked through their "trash" IE - rocks so small no one wants them.

[karazy]

rockyards are good, or just keep an eye out for a rock pile. also another think is you can tank a jar and take rocks and silicone them onto the jar

[it4lian]

Hmmm... there's a place that makes gravel and sells it about 5 mins down the highway, maybe they'll have something. I'll get my dad or mom to run me up there tommorrow and see if they got anything. I'm kinda wantin to do the thing with the lava rocks now though lol. Will give me somethin to do over Spring Break since I got grounded today =S. Oh well thanks for the ideas.

[Christine]

my rockyard had lava rocks too... but they were really small

[BV77]

all my rocks are from local rivers or the local gravel pit....no sense paying for something that is here for free


I also used some wood in places under the rocks to give the rockpile added heigth without the extra weight. The wood has been in water for years, so it has little , if any effect on ph

[it4lian]

Wow nice tank btw. Awesome fish too. Yeah I don't really have any creeks around me, we got woods, and stuff, but the creek is full of trash and stuff so I don't wanna really get stuff out of there lol. I'm going to the lfs later today and gonna check the rockyard too. Too bad we ain't got any creeks that are clean around here lol.

[Obsidian]

I honestly would not worry about it if you are willing to put some elbow grease into it. You can just scrub the rocks and soak them for a while in bleach. It honestly kills anything nasty if you do that. But you do have to be willing to actually scrub

All rocks in this tank were free from a river and scrubbed:

[it4lian]

God thats a kick-ass tank too Obsidan lol. Yeh I don't mind workin on it for awhile. Got nothin better to do for the next 3 weeks, and I was planning on just workin like hell on this 29 gallon and redoing my 12 gallon. I'm gonna go search in the creek and woods around my house for some good rocks and stuff tommorow probaly.