I use pvc pipe for my bichirs and syno cat. They love it. It can develop algae fast depending on how long you have your lights on.

I know a lot of people use PVC piping for pleco caves, too.

i use a lot of them, i glue them together to make these flat topped pyramid things then put pots on top. some fish wont breed if they dont fee the can find a safe place… a stressed out fish is not a happy fish.

theres even vids on you tube ow to make them look like logs.

I am hoping to buy black ones and use in my tank since my substrate is black. I have seen lots of cool ideas using PVC in ta nks. My next goal is to make a sand waterfall for one aquarium and it uses PVC to pull the sand up for the waterfall.

A lot of people refer to You Tube as a good source. Is there anywhere else you would recommend for ideas?

I have seen lots of YouTube. I spend lots of time googling. Lol

ABS floats, PVC sinks… most of the black stuff i see around here is abs.

I think they do make black PVC. I will have to go on a search and see. thanks for the heads up.

yes, they do.. just figured i would warn you in case you didnt know…

1 inch would work for nano fish, in that picture of my sunfish that is 2 inch i think.

Hmmm, I was thinking for places for the petricola to hide and maybe my smaller plecos.

i used 1/2,3/4 and 1 ” to make some trapazoids for my pygmy sunfish and they seem to use it.

you could alwasy spray paint white pvc if you cant get black in the size you want.

i think the krylon fusion for plastic if you let it dry for a week.

Thanks!! I will do some research on it. Don’t want to harm my fish- especially my 6 banded distichodus, gold seams pleco and green phantom pleco. They are the most expensive ones in my tank.

I wish he would come out more often. He hides a lot. Even when lights are on night/off, if he senses me by the tank, he scurries off – very phantom like! But, he is gorgeous!

All of my BN’s are like that, until there is some blanched zucchini in the tank then they don’t care.

I have come to the part of my life where i have figured out that nothing and i do mean nothing as much as a pleco….. save maybe my kid (He’s 2 and a half)

I have one who is out all the time, one who is out a lot but will scurry off and this one who hides in one tank. My other tank has two and they are out most of the time.

Yep! I have this one in my Betta tank and he loves swimming in and out of it! Dont know if you’ll be able to see it clearly but yes, very safe for them and looks pretty cool imo.

Sorry for the poor view but this is mine. I bought the sponge from Amazon, went to home depot and bought clear tubing and pvc tubing. They also have free tile samples to use as the weight but I used a spimple ballon weight to keep it weighed down. Bought the air tubing, air pump, and valve at my local fish store. Drilled holes in the pvc pipe that I glud down to the ballon weight, put the sponge over that pvc pipe, cut the clear tubing to fit over tightly the pvc pipe, put the air stone on the air tubing and ran it down the pvc to the bottom, hooked the tubing up to the air pump and turned it on and good to go. It’s that simple. Just remember to let the glue cure before putting in the tank though.

I’m planning to set up a linear piston air pump for my fish room (like Cory McElroy showed in a video a while back). Does anyone have any tips or videos on how to build the PVC “ring”? Thanks.

Jehmco self tapping air valves. They specify the pilot bit size on the site.

Use primer and glue and make sure the surfaces are clean before priming.

Wear gloves and cover the floor. PVC primer always gets everywhere lol.

Thanks for the inspiration. Started with a 20 gallon and watched your videos to gain knowledge. Now I have 8 tanks (460 total gallons), with 4 more tanks coming, and still watch your videos, gaining more knowledge. I appreciate all you do for the community.

We used 1” pvc like (I think) Cory did, and it’s a nice reservoir volume as a result.

Spent a small fortune on fittings, but everything is nicely tied together and it’s easy to tap in a new fitting as required.

I tied everything into the wall with straps and anchors after giving up on trying to avoid them, and love the straight and organized look.

We also use the anchors as guides for our fill lines, which makes running those easy too.

Love our setup, and having it basically done has dramatically decreased our workload of manual tasks.

Good luck with yours!

A shot of coming through the wall. The pump is in the next room, which makes the fishroom quiet and puts the pump on a different electrical circuit (handy).

So I’m setting up a new tank, and I want to put German Blue Ram, Cockatoo Apisto’s, honey Gouramis, and tetras. My problem right now is creating territories, I’ve tried to do research, and I can’t find anything really about how to build them.

Do they claim swim throughs, dense planting areas, caves? How big do such areas need to be to be acceptable? If say… I cover a pvc or something with aquarium safe expanding foam, and anchor it to a rock with fishing twine and let it float above the substrate, does that work or is the gravel integral to their idea of a good place to live? Is it better to have one giant hole/cave filled structure, or several smaller ones? If I build ones big enough to fit a 3″ full grown Ram, will the juvenile babies I have access to now use them? Or are they too big? I’d like to build this right the first time (less expensive that way) and to do that, I need your experience.

Dwarf cichlids are still cichlids, they still need their own room, I want to know how to make their rooms the luxury version, not the $50/ month version. The difference for me in time and effort is probably very similar. That said, what have you found that’s relatively cheap? I have a budget, and the less I spend here, the more fish I can buy.

All of the above. I have a fish that claimed a tunnel, one claimed a tall plant, one claimed an archway. Every fish is going to feel safe differently. Just have as many options as possible. You will probably have to rearrange things a few times.

I have always used PVC on all my previous tanks even used the PVC glue. Let cure and no issues. I used on two large sumps and a water change refill system i build that was over 100ft long going thru an attic.

Pvc conduit is porous… water may leech out over time… it is not water tight, they are designed to let water leech out away from the wires.

It should be aquarium safe but just in case I would bleach it and soak it in water overnight then rinse it just to be safe

PVC is safe, the clear and purple primer cement ? Yes from what I’m told and use and researched. They make aquarium safe silicone. I’m not sure where you live. But most LFS have it and home depot does too.