# DIY Background



## cocoa3212000

Hi everyone.I had a idea to stick pieces of slate to the back of my tank with silicone all the way to the top,to kind of make a under water cliff with overhangs.Was wondering will this hold long term?Also some off the slate seem to have some pyrite (fools gold when we were kids) I was wondering will this hurt fish,can I use pieces that have none or seeing they all came from same place is it all bad? Thanks.


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## Zook

I read somewhere that slate can raise the PH..
100% silicone when dry is really tough,that's what holds aquariums together....


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## cocoa3212000

I have always used slate in all my aquariums without problems,but never stuck with anything just piled.They sell slate a local pet store for $5 a pound,(do not know if they know rocks are heavy!)Some of these pieces have pyrite not sure if i spelt it right.As for silicone being strong I know it is but i thought maybe rocks would get soaked with water and bond would breack down.Do not want avalanche in tank and 72 gallon wave in living room.


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## automatic-hydromatic

water seeping into the rocks shouldn't cause the silicone to dislodge. the silicone will seep into the rock a little as it dries too, and that should strengthen the hold if anything

just make sure to give the silicone plenty of time to dry; AT LEAST 48 hours before putting water in it

then fill it and empty it a few times to wash away any residues from the silicone (good practice, even though it is aquarium safe), and you should be good to go


I'm using pieces of slate to build a cave right now; purchased a big 5-6lbs piece form the local fish store ( they charge $0.80 a lb  )and broke it apart with a hammer. when you fracture it, you get nice thin pieces, some thick (which are good for building stand-alone structures), and a lot of small thin pieces (which is what I'm mostly using to construct my cave, by siliconing them to a structure I made from old black CD sleeve cases)


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## Indiana Hurricane

Cave Grotto Aquarium Background 
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Here's a little Do-it-Yourself project. It's basically a background with a network of caves built-in, and covered w/ lava rock, so it blends in w/ the tank. 

The following materials are required: Brown Vinyl guttering, hopefully you can find some identical to the style used here. I found it at McCoys Building Center, Home Depot uses a different type and I’m not sure it would work, but check around, you should be able to find something similar. Tubes of Black, Aquarium-safe silicone in Caulking tubes, these are available for less than $4/tube at Aquarium Supplies, Cheap Dog Supplies, Fish Supplies, Best Cat Toys and the manufacturer is All-Glass Aquarium. Caulking gun, small roll of Black Vinyl lawn edging, Drill,a 2 ½" holesaw, rubber dishwashing gloves, bag of black landscaping rock (golfball size is best), hacksaw or jigsaw. The total $$$ for this project, background is 6 feet longx15"high, was $7 for 2-10ft gutter sections, $5 for the lava,$5 for the edging, and $16 for 4 Silicone tubes. Under $35 for the completed project, although it will take quite a few evenings of cutting, gluing, and swearing. But looking back, I’m VERY glad I did the project, the fish love exploring the caves, and the tank looks much more authentic, especially after algae growth is prevelant. This pic is one of the pieces I use, it's brown vinyl guttering material, and the underside is white. 







I drill small 1/32" holes and move the bit side-to-side to make small slots to run zip-ties thru, I use the zip-ties to connect the gutters together, and use a 2&1/2" holesaw to cut the cave openings. It's entirely up to you how many holes to drill, I spaced them close together (to be divided later) and then put another pair of holes further down the gutter, this provides alot of seperate caves that will create alot of different hiding places in your tank. 







I then cut out pieces from a roll of black vinyl lawn edging (the stuff used to surround flower beds, etc.) and use them to divide off the caves. Using aquarium-safe black silicone I glue the dividers in place. 







Here's the completed view of the dividers.







Here's the outside face of the gutters, prior to gluing the lava rock. 






Now the time consuming part begins, I but a thin surface layer of black silicone on the entire brown surface, to give it an overall black coloration to match the black lava rock. You could use the maroon lava as well, but the color wouldn't blend as easy. Just put a small amount of silicone on the flatest side of each lava piece, and put together your rock puzzle. This is one of those projects you can do while watching TV, at least it won't seem so time consuming then! Be sure to wear dishwashing gloves, this stuff gets pretty messy! 







Project's almost finished, I still have a few little gaps to fill in. I have an overflow that goes between the two backgrounds. The cool part about this project is it gives the fish about 24 caves to cruise around in, it's lightweight (about 20lbs/side), and I connect it to the tank w/ zip ties hooked thru the holes drilled in the top of the ACRYLIC tank, if you put it in a glass tank you'll have to divise some hook arrangement, or possibly drill small slots in the plastic edge used to frame the tank. If it needs to be removed I just cut the 4 zip ties and presto, it's out! 





Here’s an installed picture.







Here’s one with the fish. 









Related Links

Quick and Beautiful DIY Fish Cave Made From a Coconut!

Make Your Own DIY Aquarium Cave From PVC Pipe

Written and Illustrated by Brad Newton - This project was added from existing web content. The original location for this project was Do It Yourself Aquarium Projects


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## jrman83

I don't see your pics Indiana.


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## Indiana Hurricane

jrman83 said:


> I don't see your pics Indiana.


Check out this link

Do It Yourself Aquarium Projects

Thats where I got it.


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## cocoa3212000

Thanks for info.Going to try to get started on it this weekend.I think it will be a long process,Won't be able to do it in one shot.Got to rub slate on rock to remove sharp edges,and silicone does not dry fast.


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## snail

jrman83 said:


> I don't see your pics Indiana.


I don't see the pics either but I really like the project, thanks for sharing.


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## AtRandom

I'm probably alittle late jumping in on this one, haven't had time to check up the forums as of late! But here's my 2 cents: Slate is inert, meaning that it is non-reactive (should not have any effect on water parameters, similar to the glass of the aquarium itself).
When I've stacked rock/slabs in the past i've never used anything to bind them, I just made sure they were stacked like Legos! But - you probably are stacking them high, and have a very interesting design that doesn't provide such a balanced piece. I've never tried using silicone on rock - as Automatic-Hydromatic said, it should seep into the rock (hopefully). I'd just suggest 2 things:
1. *Balance the structure as much as you can without the use of silicone first*, remember the placement of the rocks. This will give you at least the minimal assurance that there is no stress in any particular places that will give you a JENGA-KAPLOOM!
2. *THOROUGHLY remove any grit/grime/oils/chalk/anything* from the surface of the rock, otherwise your silicone is adhering to nothing and becomes pointless other than simply bracing/filling in gaps between the rocks to make them fit together more (which is still a good thing).

Along the topic of DIY backgrounds and *silicone*, *has anyone ever had difficulty curing silicone between 2 very large surfaces that are squeezed to flush (not exposed to air, light, or water). I believe that ambient H2O/humidity is the agent that causes the curing to take place, but if water never touches it b/c its in the middle of a square foot - will it ever cure? What about a thick 1/4" spread in there?*
Side note, I had made a polystyrene/quickrete background about a month or two ago that looked like an eroded rock wall with striation (like 1 side of the Grand Canyon, less epic), but once I was all done and finished, I realized I had used 1 tube of GE Silicone II somewhere in the mix of 3 tubes, and didn't feel comfortable with putting fish in it, so I had to tear it down. On top of that, I am going to have to rebuild the tank as well b/c I undoubtedly stripped silicone even in the joints.
*When I removed the background, there were large portions of uncured silicone on the panels attaching to the glass, even though I left it to sit for some 3 or 4 days before beginning cement, for a total of ~10 days without complete water submersion.
Best of luck, let us know how it goes!*
Regards,
Craig Standefer
Aquaticopia.com


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