wtd cheap materials welly area to build caves for my 5ft cichlid tank if anyone can help please pm me cheers

Go to river, pick up rocks, put rocks in tank, Done.

Go to garden centre or similar and take away their broken earthen ware pots, shape to size, put in tank, done.

Get more caves using thinner material too.

Alan is bang on, broken pots or tubes are a great idea.. I have had two mishaps with just building caves out of rocks, rocks move if not siliconed and it can result in trapped fish.... not good :-?

I have built my limestone rockwork around terracotta pots, ok not the most natural look but hey, beats trapped fish, and siliconing is fine and dandy till you want to get a fish out, then it's not so easy having rocks stuck together :lol: Hence why I use the pot caves to build around.

You can also use plantpots.. (plastic or otherwise).. that have a thin covering of silicone.. then rolled in gravel so that the gravel adheres to the pot.

Gives a nice natural look.. and once they start turning a little green.. they blend in real nice.

Be adventurous... experiment a little.

Paying for "CAVES".. is definitely a no no..

Bill.

Check this one out too might give ya some ideas

http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiygrotto/bndiygrotto.htm

Moved to DIY forum from Private Trading area..

Bill

Mod.

I hope I wont get trapped fish, did the "go river, get rocks, put in tank" method

I have a terracotta tube and some limestone rocks you can have if you wanna come get them

Can you still get the terracotta hexagon things that were used as ghetto wine racks by people? They would be good for this sort of thing.

i have done the river rock too but too round dont like spending hours remaking walls when i strip it to catch fish ect meeshelly ive pmed you regarding those bits and bobs thanks heaps any other suggestions i like the idea of sqaure or flat objects like blocks ect so you can stack them like bricks so they aint to easy to tip over cheers for the help all the help is appreciated

So pick up square or flat rocks. There are lots of them around.

ira im not thick looking for other ways then to make it clear and any other constructive replys welcome cheers

here's my version of caves for my african tank. they are sandstone tiles that I broke up with a hammer. You could get waste material from any granite place, in Wellington there is Trethewey Granite & Marble which is the co i used to work for.

looks good ive managed to find aome lime stone rocks and some lime stone chip from a very nice member of the boards and my club so yeah that will be awesome and also tryed that place for marble but there bin had just been emtyed and only had a very small amount but ive got a little bit more so i might go limestone rock and marble possibly watch this space lol thanks all

Rang around to buy those sandstone tiles and no body was selling them?

they dont have to be sandstone, could be granite or marble. granite benchtop companys would be the best as they typically use 30mm thick material & have offcut strips & sink or hob cutouts left over.