Making own cave advice

[sdleigh]

I am finally getting a bigger tank for my common Pleco as she has out grown her current one, but is now out growing her hiding spot (resin hollowed out tree replica) and now im looking or a suitable replacment. I was looking round this site and seen people making their own from slate and silicone, im a DIY fan and like to keep myself busy so i thought ill give it a go...


Few questions so i dont get things horribly wrong

what kind of slate can be used? Just any from a builders merchants or something spercific

how should i wash and clean the slate?

When using aquarium safe silicone, am i using it to litterally stick the pieces together or cover the whole thing(like as a protector)?

Id love p be able to do this rather than picking something off a shelf, so answers to these questions and any other information that you guys could provide would be great!

Cheers Stu

 

[JoePlec]

I am finally getting a bigger tank for my common Pleco as she has out grown her current one, but is now out growing her hiding spot (resin hollowed out tree replica) and now im looking or a suitable replacment. I was looking round this site and seen people making their own from slate and silicone, im a DIY fan and like to keep myself busy so i thought ill give it a go...


Few questions so i dont get things horribly wrong

what kind of slate can be used? Just any from a builders merchants or something spercific

how should i wash and clean the slate?

When using aquarium safe silicone, am i using it to litterally stick the pieces together or cover the whole thing(like as a protector)?

Id love p be able to do this rather than picking something off a shelf, so answers to these questions and any other information that you guys could provide would be great!

Cheers Stu

Roofing slate is best. The Blue/Grey stuff.
Clean it using hot water and hard graft.
Use the silicone on the edges to stick the pieces together. Do not need to give the whole cave a coat of silicone.

 

[scatz]

any slate is fine so long as its 100% natural slate, i used floor tiles to make mine.
you'll want a decent diamond tipped tile saw to get clean cuts if using a tile.
its not porous so i used to just give it a scrub after cutting to make sure any surface dirt/ dust has gone

 

[Jackson]

I have little luck with these things. They seem to fall apart when you make really big ones lol

 

[sdleigh]

lol my projects tend to take the same route... however, i am thinking big! i saw an image on google that inspired me, so the whole thing is going to create a cave/hiding place for my Common Pleco, and also mini caves dotted about it for my tetras and corrys, i reckon about 11" high, 20" long and to sit snugg in corner of the new tank.

I intend to keep this Thread updated with progress, ill be starting in a few weeks, info you guys gave is great and enough to get ball rolling, ill do some pricing up and some sketches to know exactly what im after! Cheers again

Oooo just thought, my dad is a roofer! he could get me slate by the van full for nothing! maybe cheaper than i even realised; now for the silicone though.......

 

[Jackson]

I don't know if the same company is sold where you are but here the stuff you can buy from a hard wear store is "GE silicone I". I think transparent is best. I'm not sure what the white stuff will do. I never used the white one.

 

[RobHarrison]

I made my own cave around that size from 4" Clay Pipe from a builders yard i cut it to size and capd the end with slate i cut. The clay pipe was £10 for a 5ft lengh both ends are chamferd also