>Caves

1. PVC Caves. PVC pipe makes wonderful caves and hiding places in breeding tanks. The white Pvc is safe for use by humans or in your tanks. It comes in different sizes, can be cut with a hack saw and rough edges smoothed with a file or sandpaper. There are also elbows and connecting pieces that may be just the size you are looking for. ("klewis61" FT)

2. Terraces. Make terraces or levels in your tank with terra cotta pots and glass, plexi-glass or lucite. Makes a neat effect in the tank. See the do-it-yourself section for details (file is finished but not up yet). ("wspierenburg" FT) In-tank or submersible LED lights and lasers can be used to illuminate the interior ‘caves’ or the underneath side of the terraces. - Seeker

>> Terra Cotta Pots

1. Terra cotta pots make great caves for your fish. ("klewis61" FT)

2. Flower pots should be cut in half or secured in place to keep them from rolling over on fish. (A&A?) Using a hack saw, cut a new flower pot in half, sand all edges till smooth. ("klewis61" FT)

3. Terra cotta pots can be decorated to match your tank. Coat the outside with silcone for aquariums and press sand/gravel to match the bottom of the tank into it and let it mature for 2 or 3 days. Keep the silicon pretty thick to hold the gravel, do a small area at a time. Makes real nice little hidey holes that don't stick out like sore thumbs in your tanks. ("klewis61" FT)

4. Terra cotta pots can be siliconed together to make a ‘rookery’ for your fish similar to a sparrow house. Silicon two pots together, side to side. Silicon a third to the first two resting it along the seam when the pots are laid down to make a pyramid. Use that pattern to make as large a cave complex as you’d like. You can use a drill and wooden dowels to secure the pots together instead of or in addition to the silicon to make the structure more secure. - Seeker

5. Tying a piece of java moss to the top of a pot is a good way to camouflage or decorate a pot in your tank. The moss will eventually grow onto the pot. (A&A?)

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>Live Plants

1. If you are planning a planted tank, plant well from the start rather than adding a few at a time, otherwise algae will consume the excess nutrients and may get the upper hand, or you could disturb the roots of the already established plants causing a die-back. (A&A)

2. Use a feeding ring or a breeding trap to shelter tiny water sprite or hornwort. This also holds them under the light. Of course when these fast- growing plants get big enough they threaten to take over the tank. But when they are small they get buffeted by the filter currents and need sanctuary. (jaybird002 & bhlaws FT) A piece of air hose and an in-line connector to join the hose into a ring can be used for this too. Use an air hose holder (suction cup w/ a clip) or fishing line and a suction cup to secure it in place. - Seeker

3. To get rid of snails and algae on live plants, soak them in 2 tablespoons of Alum per 2g of water for 2 hrs. (A&A) (88)

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>Fake Plants

1. For those with large fish species silicon fake plants to say a 1'x1' section of plastic canvas. After the silicon cures bury the canvas in the substrate then cover it. -Anne

2. I find silk or plastic plants at my local dollar store, they look great in a tank and the colors don't run. I usually pay a dollar a piece. Don't buy the ones with metal in the stem. Make sure the stem is all plastic. I have one customer who’s tank is full of these plants and she has never had a problem with them. So I'm sure they are 100% safe for tanks. They look very natural. (python_40_2000 FT)

3. Homemade Silk Plants. Make custom plants for your tank from silk plants used for decorating. See the do-it-yourself section for details. ("klewis61" FT) (File is made but not up yet)

4. When your plastic plants get crushed or deformed, dip them in boiling water and then rinse with cool water to instantly restore their shape. - Adora

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>Fasteners

Silicon is of course the most used fastener for things in the tank. But it’s not appropriate for everything. Here are some others.

1. Hot glue from a glue gun works well for some things. Be sure to use the non-toxic glue sticks for this. ("klewis61" FT)

2. Fishing line can be used to tie things down or to tie things together in a tank. (A&A)

3. Vulcanized rubber bands can be used to hold java moss to rocks or to hold panty hose over a filter intake. They should only be used for temporary purposes as they will eventually rot in the tank and become a hazard for your fish. Be sure to use only plain rubber bands. Colored rubber bands can leech dye into your tanks. - Seeker & Kake (94)

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Filters

1. Choose a filter that’s capacity is higher than the tank in which it’s going to be used. The extra filtration will keep your water sparkling and can let you keep more fish in the tank depending on the species and space. Most filters have a flow control that will let you slow the filter down so current isn’t a problem. - Seeker

2. Clean Power filters weekly if possible. A complete cleaning of the filter only takes a few minutes and gets rid of a lot of gunk that can ruin the filter rather quickly.

3. Use aquarium salt to clean uptake tubes. Pour salt into them, shake, add a little water and keep shaking until the salt dissolves. This gets 95% of the gunk out. ("toy_lin" FT)

4. Use a small, flexible bottle brush to clean uptake tubes. The wire handle will stay curved after the first time, so it’s like dedicating a bottle brush to this, but it’s faster than salt. - Seeker

5. Use a toothbrush to clean the filter box, the impeller and the rest of the parts in/on the filter. - Seeker

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>Filter Media

1. Rinse out filter media when doing water changes using the removed tank water before you discard it. You can also use dechlorinated water, but NOT tap water. Tap water will kill the beneficial bacteria and can cause your tank to recycle. (A&A)

2. You can reuse the cartridges a few times by rinsing them out in old aquarium water or in dechlorinated water. ("tailbreaker" FT)

3. Two Sponges. I use 2 sponges in my piggyback filters on each of my tanks instead of a sponge and a carbon pack. During weekly water changes I rinse out one of them and do not touch the other leaving plenty of bacteria, return the cleaned sponge to the top or the front. The next week I clean the other sponge. - Riot Using this method, you always have a sponge ready to seed a new tank. Makes cycling a new tank a breeze. - Seeker

4. Filter sponges are not the common kitchen sponge. Kitchen sponges will break down if left in water any length of time. Purchase sponges from your local fish store that are made to be used in aquariums. They can be found in different textures. ("klewis61" FT)

5. Use a toothbrush to speed up sponge cleaning. Brush it lightly on the outsides to quickly remove the gunk. Can also be used on cartridges. - Seeker

6. Instead of buying the prepackaged carbon inserts, buy a container of loose activated carbon. Rinse off a handful of carbon, put it in the foot of a cut off panty hose, tie it closed and put it in your filter. You can also buy media bags to use, but the old panty hose will save a few dollars. ("tigergenesis" FT)

7. Zeolite (ammonia absorbing rock) can also be bought loose and be put in a piece of panty hose or a media bag for use in the filter. - Seeker

8. Recharge your zeolite by soaking it in salt water (8 tblspns/1g) for 2 hours. Then it can be reused to remove ammonia. - Seeker

9. Be sure to vacuum out a ugf periodically by pulling off the uplift tubes and pushing the gravel vacuum down over the short piece of tube or the hole. Do this about once every month or two to insure good filtration from your ugf. Kay’s power vacuum works great for this. - Seeker (108)

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Links to the other Tips & Tricks pages:

Intro, Tools & Gadgets

Tanks, Used Tanks, Buying Used Tanks, Cleaning Used Tanks, Tank Set Up

Tank Set Up cont'd: Dividers & Barracks, Heaters & Air Pumps, Substrates, Backgrounds, Decor

>> Decor cont'd: Caves, Live Plants, Fake Plants, Fasteners, Filters, Filter Media << You are here

Cycling, Fish Wrangling: New Fish, Transporting or Shipping, Acclimating, Netting

Feeding, BBS & other live foods, Fish Health, Chemicals, Medicines & Treatment, Salt

Spawning & Fry Care, Dealing with Snails, Algae & other pests, Power Outages

Maintanence, Water, Water Conservation