Is This A Viable Idea For New Decor?

[minikarter]

I'm having a bit of brainstorm at the moment where I want to recreate a kind of littered riverbed affect with some interesting glass bottles and jars. They'll form a kind of small pile at one end of the tank with maybe a few plants poking through..

... imagine seeing a fish colony using our waste for their own homes.. (obviously in a cleaner environment).

The idea would include broken bottles so that the gaps are large enough for fish to go through with plenty of small caves within the glass; obviously with all the edges ground/sanded down somehow so no sharp edges.

One small problem with my idea is that I don't want fish to become trapped in any gaps they may find between the odd shapes and was thinking could I just fill these with sand?

I heard somewhere that having a deep substrate can allow certain types of bacteria to propagate, and just wanted to know if i'd have any problems with this? .. the aim is to simply fill in the blank space between a tightly packed arrangement of decor...

What do you think??.. just looking to pick peoples brains for any thoughts they might have on the idea..
I'm holding back atm and trying to think it through before I get carried away!

 

[JenCliBee]

Broken bottles have very sharp adges which could casue some very nasty injries

sorry just read the rest lol....... still sanding down and trying to create that perfect edge may not actually be viable ot possible to even fully stop injuries occuring.

 

[Geoff1991]

I think fish would injure themselves on broken bottles...

Edit: Beaten... lol

 

[minikarter]

Ah no that's pretty obvious, I intend on experimenting with the glass and sandpaper or some kind of abrasive to make the edges as smooth as possible.. soo assume for the time being that the glass edges are completely safe in that respect...

Cover all of the edges with a generous glob of clear silicone and you should be fine. It will turn the sharp edges in to smooth edges.

..if all else fails I may try this as well! good idea!

..If for some reason I can't get a good smooth edge to the glass then I won't attempt it at all and will just have to think of somehting else!

 

[afishdude]

Cover all of the edges with a generous glob of clear silicone and you should be fine. It will turn the sharp edges in to smooth edges.

 

[matchstickman47]

ive got no clue why youd wana perposely make your tank look poluted. lol
Tainting your water could add a nice effect!

 

[minikarter]

ive got no clue why youd wana perposely make your tank look poluted. lol
Tainting your water could add a nice effect!

haha, noo, i'm not so sure about tainted water as I'd like the colours of the cichlids to stand out! the idea hopefully is that it won't actually look polluted.. call it a scene of nature fighting back .. and I think using some varying colours of glass could be quite interesting without looking too messy
.. I've seen plenty of pieces of art being made out of utter rubbish lots of times..

 

[holidayinn]

One persons rubbish is another persons....er, rubbish lol...Seriously tho, although I wouldn't do it myself, it's a really good idea and done right it could look really good. 'Nature fighting back' - nice concept

 

[Gill]

Sounds like it would be an interesting scape.
To Smooth down the edges of any you want to break up i would use the very fine black sand paper with a little Soapy Water. Works great for glass and easy to do.
You could Use different colored Glass Bottles and Have half broken Bottles for caves scattered around the tank, poking out of the substrate.
I have Seen in an LFS that they use Very Thick Bin Liners cut into long strips and Bunched up as plants.
Also You could use Bricks for Caves and Broken Pots.

 

[matchstickman47]

Sounds like it would be an interesting scape.
To Smooth down the edges of any you want to break up i would use the very fine black sand paper with a little Soapy Water.

you mean emry cloth

 

[degsod]

If you have a canister blowtorch you could use the flame to melt the glass and make it rounded thus getting rid of the sharp edges and saving a lot of time with sandpaper (also less likely to cut yourself)

 

[minikarter]

Sounds like it would be an interesting scape.
To Smooth down the edges of any you want to break up i would use the very fine black sand paper with a little Soapy Water. Works great for glass and easy to do.
You could Use different colored Glass Bottles and Have half broken Bottles for caves scattered around the tank, poking out of the substrate.
I have Seen in an LFS that they use Very Thick Bin Liners cut into long strips and Bunched up as plants.
Also You could use Bricks for Caves and Broken Pots.

I'll try that then with the glass, and yeah that's the idea1 .. sadly I graduated last year from university so I don't drink anywhere near as much as I did... I'd like to use some interesting bottles of different shapes and patterns in the glass, maybe organising a house party is in order with some carefully selected drinks from the supermaret

I love the idea of a broken pot or 2 though.. but would still like to use real plants spilling over

 

[degsod]

If you have a canister blowtorch you could use the flame to melt the glass and make it rounded thus getting rid of the sharp edges and saving a lot of time with sandpaper (also less likely to cut yourself)

 

[minikarter]

If you have a canister blowtorch you could use the flame to melt the glass and make it rounded thus getting rid of the sharp edges and saving a lot of time with sandpaper (also less likely to cut yourself)

Another good plan.. my dad has a blowtorch he uses for welding cars so I can use that!.. another idea I've had would be to maybe see what I could even find down at the beach.. some glass is often eroded from being tossed around in there..

 

[degsod]

sounds good, seeming as you have access to a welding torch you could heat up some bottles til they start to melt, make them misshapen.