New tank setup- Rocks or bricks - fish hideout ideas needed for my new tank

"Average_Joe" wrote in message
...
Hello Alll fish lovers,
I have 6 tanks set up now and am wanting to get a new 125 gallon to
replace one of my 55 gallon tanks because my Fish are getting huge and
need a bigger place to live. I have used petco/petmart type purchased
rocks to give my fish places to hide and hangout and also several of
my tanks have slate in them which i build into castles or walls for
them to hide in and they all seem to love it.
My request is i am looking for a different type of rock or something
to build in my new tank so the fish have a place to hang out- I am
looking for ideas on what works good for tunnels or places to hide. I
have thought of red bricks purchased from home depot- you know the
type with the holes in the center so that the fish can get in there
and hide when they want to. I am looking for ideas on what to build
with so that i have places for the fish to go. Any thoughts on using
the home depot bricks? I have used river rock, slate,purchased pet
store rocks and am looking for ideas on something new.

What have you tired?

Thanks ,
Average_Joe

The clay liner used for chimneys might be an interesting building
material. The 8" diameter pieces could be cut in half lengthwise (in
varying lengths of 2 to 10"), and stacked on each other like an apartment
building. Alternately, any of the other liners (square, rounded square,
rectangular) could be broken up and stacked into random patterns. There
was a poster from the UK who lived near a factory which made items out of
clay. Outside the factory, they had a huge discard pile of pieces which
had defects. That would have been an ideal source - cheap and no
creosote deposits to worry about.

Membership in your local aquarium society might turn up some interesting
caches of rockwork which people have discovered in the countryside.
Highway construction usually reveals interesting stuff, or they bring in
large aggregates for under overpasses (there is one in GTA which used
coral-like stones for under an overpass). To fill a 125g, the last place
you would go is an LFS. For any significant amount of rockwork, be sure
to lay a thin sheet of styrofoam (extruded polystyrene works best) on
your glass bottom. The order of installation is i)styrofoam, ii)
rockwork, iii) gravel or sand iii) water. If using live plants, you need
to vary your installation (don't do all the substrate, only add water
part-way, plan on moving rocks around). I use plastic plants as props
when doing the rockwork, then I add 1/3 water, and then the real plants
and substrate, before filling the rest of the water. The bigger the
tank, the more important the sequence ;~)

I've always wanted to find a massive chunk of dried wood (maybe the roots
of an upturned tree), and basically chainsaw out a 60"x18"x24" chunk to
put in my basement tank.

Styrofoam is one of my favourite media for tank interiors, but it
requires a significant amount of planning, preparation and it's a fairly
permanent installation. Here is the one I built.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_o...tmax_styro.htm and others have
done much nicer projects with styrofoam. There is a new line of
aquariums on the market which are rimless. Their plastic canopy slips
over the outside of the glass. This is ideal for a large styrofoam
construct which would be siliconed into place by the base and the sides.
Being rimless, the construct can be the perfect size and slide right in
(with a rimmed tank, it must be angled in, compromising the fit and
reducing the siliconed contact area to the glass).

Bricks or any other concrete products will leech for a while, raising
your pH, gH and kH. Compared to natural rockwork, the effect is
temporary and not too hard to work around. Just be aware of it. Expect
several weeks for the effect to wear off, and plan on doing lots of water
changes. Some people add acid into the tanks to accelerate the process.
All this is done without fish in the tank of course.

NetMax