DIY undergravel caves with pvc?

Hi all.
I was wondering if any of you have ever experimented with pvc or some other "tube like" material to make tunnels or caves under your gravel. I was about to thow away some old clear plastic mustard bottles and decided to instead of go to lowes to buy some pvc I would use these. My plan is the cut the bottle lengthwise (like a halfmoon) and then cut a hole in the side of the piece that is left. Then silcone some matching gravel to the outside of the bottle. Let it dry out then bury the tube against the glass of the aquarium. My idea to to make a small undergravel cave that my raphael catfish and hid in at night. Then if I wanna see him I shine a flashlight up to the tank where the flat part of the halfmoon shape is resting against the glass. Any thought or experiances with this idea? Pics coming soon!

 

hey!!!! welcome! im doing the exact same thing *fist bump* lol. thats how im doing it. im also drilling small holes in the top of my "caves" so that light can come in and i can see my pets even when they are in hiding.

ill post pics once its done as well

 

Now you see, my idea is to run an under gravel tunnel of PVC cut in half going around the front of the glass, so i can see inside the tunnel.
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Something like this.

 

that would be so awesome. i would love to see that in real life. on my tank i would limit it to 3 sides as the tank is up against a wall on one end. the only thing i would worry about with such an enormous tunnel system is cleaning out the debris collected in there. i have no idea how you would go about doing that other than removing the whole system, cleaning under it, then reinstalling. which really seems like a lot of hassle lol but the idea itself is genius :;perfect

 

....That's such a great idea! I don't think I have enough gravel in my tanks to do that, but definitely something to keep in mind. Or even something more simple; maybe make a little mound out of substrate, and make a short tunnel (maybe around 6" long) if your tank isn't big enough for a larger design like SK's.

 

Here is what I came up with tonight once I got off work. I decided to cut the bottom from the bottle instead of cutting it length wise and I'm gunna bury it under a mound of gravel in the back of the tank. I siliconed the gravel incase some of the loose gravel on top of the "cave" gets moved from the fish. This way the bottle will never be exposed. I left the cap off the bottle so a little gravel will fill the bottle but not enough to block my view of the fish. Once it fully cures I will send more pics of the whole thing in my tank! The pics don't do it a lot of justice mostly cus I'm using a camera on my phone!

 

looks pretty good! i would add a few more layers of gravel personally to fill all the cracks. cant wait to see it in the tank!