Alternitive to clay pots

[Adonijah]

I'm finally venturing into CA cichlids. I have a piece of wood in there now but I need more cover. I don't think I like the brown pot look, what else have you fellas had luck with?

So far I'm finding it's not as easy and piling some rocks like an African tank haha I'll post a pic from my phone when I get a chance.

 

[hobbyorobsession]

Slate works well.

 

[Adonijah]

Do you by chance have an example of what you mean???

 

[Wolf-Keeper1]

PVC pipping makes real cool hiding spots and give them alternative ways around. Pretty cool. I was going to try it but I've veered away from cichlids.

 

[Adonijah]

I never really thought about fittings. Has anyone put any ABS (Black rated pvc) in a tank before?

Why no cichlids anymore? I have a feeling that when I get a house and get bigger tanks I will probably veer totally into predators!

 

[Wolf-Keeper1]

I still like most cichlids. But I like to think outside of the box. Most people have them. So I like to think outside the box. When most my friends had snakes and spiders I got scorpions. Just my style to be different

 

[Fyurae]

I'm not into cichlids either. I don't know why exactly, but they just don't do much for me. I guess because I've just seen them so much.

Slate scaping:

From this thread on Aqua Hobby

 

[hbluehunter]

If you want to try the black PVC without the PVC look you can cover the fittings with silicone and cover them with the same rocks, sand or whatever you use as substraight in your tank. Just make sure you let it dry for a couple days before you add it to the tank.

 

[Adonijah]

Slate scaping is craaazy! I think I've decided last night I want this tank kinda open. I have my 55g African tank with rocks and it's hard to vacuum because I have three spots where the siphon actually hit the ground. I don't want another tank like that. I'm going to try the abs fittings Ty for the ideas

 

[Madness]

The black and white pvc works great. I have 2 - 6' tanks and I use them in both. You can buy the pieces that have multiple entrances, and then add a couple bends to it. It basically gives your fish multiple caves to swim through. I have one end of my tank with pvc caves all over it. You do need a few heavy rocks to hold them down. I just made a mountain basically on one end of my tank, and on the bottom is 4 different caves leading somewhere. I can post a pic later if your curious as to what it looks like.

If you look at my avatar pic you can see the entrance to one of the caves in my big boy tank. That piece is only 3", my Hoga is too big to use that one, but he has his own which is 4" pvc. He barely fits into that.

 

[Adonijah]

Interesting. So you have fittings and pipe? Sounds pretty dope. Anyone have any tips or tricks for siliconing gravel to pipe? I wonder if I used a credit card if I could get it even all around. Hmm

 

[Wolf-Keeper1]

I would just roll it in some silicone or whatever your using but then again I've never done it so that's just my theory. But when you do get it done snap some pics I'd love to see how it all turns out. I know that possiblities are pretty much limitless.

 

[Madness]

Here is a couple pics of my grow out tank, showing the pipe caves in the mountain.

There are pipe caves all throughout the rock mountain.

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This in a different tank

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[Adonijah]

I love the scaping but doesn't it get annoying that you can only vac your substrate in 4 or less spots?

 

[Wolf-Keeper1]

I love the scaping but doesn't it get annoying that you can only vac your substrate in 4 or less spots?

I see your point. But from my personal experience, everytime I've lifted bigger pieces of decor to vacum underneath. They pretty much came out clean. In thinking that if left over food, poop, and whatever else hits the floor, isn't going to be underneath the decor. Now I'm not saying there won't be some build up of something over time but the need to constantly vacum underneath the decor I think is probably not needed as much as if it where just open.

I don't know if I made any sense.

 

[Adonijah]

Thats just what I go through in my 55. Every so often I get in there with a 400gph powerhead and blow it all around. I think thats why I'm keeping my 75 kinda open. I'll take pics tonight.

 

[Madness]

I don't worry about it. I vacuum where I can, and that works well. I have so much air movement, and filtration in my tanks, I rarely have fish crap build up.