Applecart
Fish Fanatic
Having read a few posts here, I decided I'd make my own fishy rock cave.
I bought a 15kg bag of play sand from Argos and proceded to wash it very thoroughly 0.5kg at a time, then dried it in a tray on top of the cooker.
I bought a tube of HA6 fishtank clear silicone, and a can of expanding foam.
My idea being, use some plastic bottles as the basis/interior of the caves, then foam around them, building it up to look like sandstone, then once set, remove the plastic bottles, cover the structure in clear silicone and immediately cover the surface in sand, pressing it down well to fully cover it.
I used 8kg of sand in the end and it looked ok, with two 10cm entrances to the hollow cave. Once a few days had passed, I gave the new caves a final rinse over then tried popping it into my fish tank..... LOL!!!!
With 8kg of sand stuck to it.. there is NO WAY on earth that thing will go under the water!
WOW that stuff is bouyant!
The only way I can see me salvaging my work ( and justifying all the mess I made in the kitchen
) is to gently trim away the foam thickness from underneath and replace it with tile grout in layers, then seal it again.
Or should I just start from scratch again? I'll upload a photo of what I've made when I borrow my sisters camera.
I did this in an attempt to reduce the amount of weight I'd be putting in the tank as it's a Juwel Rio 180 and has a floating bottom, in as much as, the bottom sheet of glass is only supported along it's perimeter and across a few front to back trusses/braces.
I was worried I could risk cracking the glass if I just put a heavy lump of rock in there, no matter how carefully.
I bought a 15kg bag of play sand from Argos and proceded to wash it very thoroughly 0.5kg at a time, then dried it in a tray on top of the cooker.
I bought a tube of HA6 fishtank clear silicone, and a can of expanding foam.
My idea being, use some plastic bottles as the basis/interior of the caves, then foam around them, building it up to look like sandstone, then once set, remove the plastic bottles, cover the structure in clear silicone and immediately cover the surface in sand, pressing it down well to fully cover it.
I used 8kg of sand in the end and it looked ok, with two 10cm entrances to the hollow cave. Once a few days had passed, I gave the new caves a final rinse over then tried popping it into my fish tank..... LOL!!!!
With 8kg of sand stuck to it.. there is NO WAY on earth that thing will go under the water!
WOW that stuff is bouyant!
The only way I can see me salvaging my work ( and justifying all the mess I made in the kitchen
) is to gently trim away the foam thickness from underneath and replace it with tile grout in layers, then seal it again.Or should I just start from scratch again? I'll upload a photo of what I've made when I borrow my sisters camera.
I did this in an attempt to reduce the amount of weight I'd be putting in the tank as it's a Juwel Rio 180 and has a floating bottom, in as much as, the bottom sheet of glass is only supported along it's perimeter and across a few front to back trusses/braces.
I was worried I could risk cracking the glass if I just put a heavy lump of rock in there, no matter how carefully.
