Plastic Pipes As Caves

[dwarfgourami]

I need a number of small pipe-shaped caves for my tank (for the peacock gobies). I want them small enough for only the gobies to fit inside, and so they don't take too much space; I already have a terracotta cave and am getting a coconut, for the catfish.
Flowerpots would be bigger than I want, and so would coconuts, the piece of pipe I was going to use is too small. So I was wondering, would it be safe to use old Interpet medicine bottles if the label was scrubbed off? And/or fish food jars? I thought I might silicone on some gravel and tie a JAva fern to the top or something.
What do you reckon- would this be safe? I suppose they must use plastic that doesn't leak nasties; otherwise they couldn't keep medicine in them?

 

[scott67892002]

go down you lfs and get the pipe they use to plumb in pond filters thats what i used it' like £1.50 for a couple of foot.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks- that's brilliant! I will do that.

 

[Neal]

For caves I just cut some ribena bottles in half, buried them in the sand (I had to add alot more sand), then put rocks around the front of them to make it look natural, except I can't make a tank look good and you can blatently see the plastic, but hey they still do the job! Just burn a hole in them with a lighter then use scissors to cut the tops off.

Neal

 

[shrimpy]

hey. i would be careful with some plastics. i once used an old fish food tub, and found that chemicals leech out of certain plastics and can change a fishs gender i may have to get some of that pond tubing tho.

 

[dwarfgourami]

hey. i would be careful with some plastics. i once used an old fish food tub, and found that chemicals leech out of certain plastics and can change a fishs gender i may have to get some of that pond tubing tho.

Shrimpy, did you find this from experience- did one of your fish (and what fish was it?) actually change gender when you used your fish food tub, or was it that you read about this at a time when you were using it? My query would be, if this is the case, how come things don't leak out into the medicine, dechlorinator, plant food that's being stored in the bottle, making it unsafe for the fish? I would have thought a firm like Interpet would take good care to use inert plastic in their products used for fish tanks.

 

[Neal]

Also, Ribena is a liquid that is intended to be drunk by humans, therefore I seriously doubt anything would be allowed to leach into it, just my opinion.

Neal

 

[lucky62]

I had extra tubing from my fluval canister filter [ after I threw it away ] , I cut it into roughly 2" pieces .........my peacocks often spawned inside it .

I think it's 5/8" inside diameter , but I think anything under 1" , and over 1/2" will work fine .

 

[furryrabbit]

off topic, but nice peacocks , how big do they grow?

 

[lucky62]

off topic, but nice peacocks , how big do they grow?

thanks , about 2 inches give or take .

 

[Lord Zogat]

I just picked up some clear transparent square tubing. It will be easy to stack and provides holes for small fish.

I'll post a pic once it arrives, all I have it the sellers ebay pic.