okay so i started this project abotu 2 weeks ago and ran into some problems, but wanted to share this with everyone cause i think i did a good job.. with some improvising things worked out okay....and my fishys love it.. ; ) i used alot of silicone but that was the only real expense.. vinyl siding was cheap, the black corraggated plasticboard was free and we had the tools to us. zip ties were a couple bucks... we think that if we do this again we may not even need the covering if we use the mortar technique with the rocks since you will not see the white vinyl that way...
1. used white vinyl siding as there was no brown or black available around here anywhere and being i had to order the large size of silicone also i didnt want to add to my expense or ordering siding. we measured and then cut them. i was intially going to to the whole back of tank but decided not to as thought it would take up to much room and wanted more swimming room for the fish as they have not fully grown yet..
2. we zipped tied them together..just drilled small holes and slide the zip tie through... easy
3. from the back while zip tieing the black vinyl corraggated plastic to the front.
i had to remove this pic because of limits on here..but they are on my profile..
4. being we could not find brown or black siding we used black corraggated plastic that is about as think as posterboard.. it scores easy and fits around the curves of the vinyl siding..
6.we siliconed the back of that and also zipped tied it on to make sure it would stay on....as we were not sure if when it tank it would want to separate...
7. close up of zip tie holes ..just drilled through them both and thread the zip time through them.....easy
removed because of limits.... sorry......
8. once we did that we used the hole saw attachement about 2 and 3.8 inch to put in the holes we wanted.
9. we then used the corraggated plastic to make the dividers and siliconed them in and cut off all the extra parts of the zip ties and siliconed them too so that the fish dont get hurt...
again had to remove picture because of limits........
10. siliconing the holes..and also adding the sides to it using the black corraggated plastic...
11. close up....it doesnt look pretty but it drys soft and i dont think my fish care what the inside of the cave looks like.....lol
on profile.......
12. adding the lava rocks..intially i just sanded the outside of the black board to make silicone adhere better and put a glob of silicone on the rock and stuck in the board..but later my boyfriend said it would look better to do a motar look...so i took all the rocks off and put a big glog in sections and pushed the rock into it...created the silicone to come up between the rocks and create a mortar look....it did look much better.
13. this was before i ripped them all off......and did it again...lol
removed because of limits..on my profile.....
14. this is with the mortar look....all done for now...i let it sit for 24 hours and attached fake plastic fish safe plant vines wtih silicone and let sit for another 24 hours....
15. in the tank...close up.... i attached to the tank with zip ties.i just put two holes at top of grotto and ran zip tie through it and then taped it to the back of the tank..it is rather light weight and sits fairly flush with back of tank.....doesnt move and is secure....
16. my yellow lab already checking it out...... they were all going crazy!
removed becasue of limits..on my profile......
17. still working on blending the tank better but wanted to get in there..as they were without caves...i might move it to the middle of the tank..dont know.. but to see it in person..looks great....
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