Saucer Breeding Cave

[RobFortWayne]

anyone intrested in a Pictorial on How to DIY ?

[foamerdave]

A thats a neat littel cave. I would take a look at a "how to" on it

[RobFortWayne]

I did a DIY article back in 2006 for Circle City Aquarium Club..

Since the article was lost awhile back , and I still have most of the Pictures I will try and recreate it here...

[RobFortWayne]

Needs List: with comment and Price

(1)Two Terra Cotta Saucer plates. I prefer the medium sized ones i think they where 3 inch diameter I got them at Hobby Lobby For 4/$1.00 I bought 8 Saucers and i'm glad I did, They break easy.

(2) Silicone. I used GE Window and Door Silicone II, as it is silicone with no additives I have used both White and Clear.. as you will see in following pics it don't matter ( 1 tube $5 but you can get about 50 caves out of a tube)

(3) a Hammer almost everyone has one of these laying around

(4) Sandpaper I had some 150 grit laying around so I used that

Total cost of this project less then $10 and

[RobFortWayne]

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/7401/needed6pi.th.jpg (http://img484.imageshack.us/my.php?image=needed6pi.jpg)

Hammer, Silicone, Terra Cotta Saucers, Sand Paper

The first thing I found to make this process easier was to Soak the terra Cotta saucers in water for at least 24 hours. The terra totta isn't as brittle this way and the dust is kept down to a mininum

Next take the Saucer in your hand firmly and with the hammer start to slowly chip away at one spot on the saucer. Take small swings as the terra cotta will chip off pretty easy and if you swing to HARD... you'll crack the saucer all the way across

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4554/chip19xl.jpghttp://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2684/chip26hk.jpg

[RobFortWayne]

You'll want to chip away up to the edge of the saucer. Once you get to this point Switch to the other saucer and start chipping.

The idea is to make two seperate chipped Saucers that you will line up to make one opening

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/9307/align16do.jpg

[RobFortWayne]

Now is time to take the sandpaper and smooth up any edges. The terra cotta will be sharp where it was chipped away. Smooth them up so your fish won't get hurt :a-okhand:

I let the chipped saucers to AIR DRY over night, my reasoning was to let the silicone adhere to a dry surface.

This is not required as I found out in a later project. What matters is letting the silicone DRY a full 72 hours prior to putting them into the fish tank.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/73/salign20kj.jpg
My Daughter showing me what I was doing wrong while siliconing the saucers together

The picture shows terra cotta dust, this set of saucers where not sanded prior to Air Drying so we had to Sand some rough edges.

[RobFortWayne]

I don't mind getting messy so all i did to silicone the saucers togather was to squeeze a small dab onto the edge of the saucers and run my finger around the end a couple times. My Daughters on the other hand found it necessary to take a Q-TIP ( cotton swab ) and apply the silicone

At this time I lined up the saucers and set off the side to air dry for the required 72 hours. I recommend placing a Book or some other object weighing a couple pounds ontop of the saucer to help hold them together.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4531/done9fo.jpg

Notice there are two diffrent sized Saucers here. the Bristlenose tend to liek the Medium sized Saucers over the larger saucers for some reason. I guess if I had a LARGE bristlenose species they'd like extra room

[RobFortWayne]

The excess silicone can be easily taken off once its dry by rubbing your finger back and forth over top of it. Or by taking some sand paper back and forth across it.

THESE original caves are still being used in my tanks today. My Bristlenose Love them, and I've had Krib spawn in them.


http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5349/mbncave7de.jpg

picture above shows a cave with only one side chipped out.

I think the original time I did this project it took close to 3 hours But a lot of that had to do with my daughters helping. A 6 and a 7 Yr old tend to slow the process way down.

I have made a single cave without soaking it in water prior- all the way up to letting the silicone dry in about 20 minutes..

[RobFortWayne]

Any Comments ? Questions? want to tell me what I did wrong ? just want to tell me off? Let me hear it :neener:

[fischfan13]

Wow, this is a GREAT post!

[RobFortWayne]

I used to have more pictures on www.imageshack.us but for some reason they have been removed or are no longer available..

[foamerdave]

:clapclap: I'll have to give this one a go. looks very e-z to do. Very nice wright up Thanks

[YoungAquaticPhotos]

Looks good Rob!

[RobFortWayne]

Just remember to make small chips at first on the terra totta, get a little heavy handed and you'll have a Busted Saucer..

I think out of the First original 10 saucers we ended up with 2 complete caves.. If you bust the saucer near across the diameter not to fret.. I've siliconed the saucer together It don't look so Nice but it still works.