PVC Pipe can be used for more than just plumbing your aquarium system. They also make great hiding places for your fish! For some reason, fish don't seem to mind hanging out inside of plumbing. Although it's anything but natural, my fish can never seem to tell a difference. It's a very cheap way to provide some complex looking caves and provide great shelter for your 'wet pets'.

Just go to any Lowe's, Home Depot or hardware store in your area and check out the plumbing section. You would be surprised at how many different pipe configurations there are. In my parrot tank, I have a 3" to 3" 3 to 1 PVC pipe cave. It has 3 inlets and one outlet. It gives my parrots several different 'caves' to play in. Of course, the bigger purple blood parrot has taken up his 'roost' and refuses to let any other fish in. Think of it as a bunker, I guess. :lol: In my 10 gallon, I have just added a similar sized piece of PVC pipe. While at Lowe's I decided to stop by the plumbing section to check out their assortment of PVC pipe fittings and managed to find this 'connector' piece. It's a straight piece of pipe with a curved piece coming off the side. My new cichlid absolutely loves it.

Best of all, I gave less than 3 dollars a piece for each piece that I have. Generally the more complex the design, the more expensive. All in all, they are extremely cheap though. You can also connect them together to create a tunnel system, if you wanted to. I'm sure your fish would enjoy their 'dynamic' environment. Be careful though, because as much as your fish might enjoy them, they may stay in there all the time. Thus, you would not be able to enjoy your fish.

I've found that by adding only one or two large pieces to be used to establish territories, and then having pieces of driftwood, rocks, or other decorations through the tank works very well. This way your fish are more active, and in case they become scared, have a place to retreat to.

While most of you probably like the idea of cheap decorations and caves, the thought of having a pure white piece of plastic tubing in your tank can be a bit overwhelming. If you are going for the natural look, this can be anything but that. If you are handy with a hot glue gun or have some GE silicone laying around the house, you can cover the piece of PVC in it, and then roll it around in your dry substrate. If you have any left over, just put it all on a piece of newspaper, cover the PVC pipe in silicone, and then roll it through. This way the pipe will match your substrate and will almost 'blend in' with your aquarium. If you don't have access to silicone, you can always hot glue each rock onto the PVC. While this is more time consuming, it will allow you to 'fill in' the gaps that rolling it in the substrate might leave. By doing this, you have a custom cave that matches your substate PERFECTLY. You can always be sure that it is going to match your aquarium. No more having to buy certain decorations to match your tank. Make your own and know with confidence that it's going to look great!

Here's the piece that I have put in my 10 gallon. Check out my DIY article on coconut caves in the Reference Library if you want to see the coconut cave that I added after this picture.

That piece looks awesome!

I've thought of using empty junction boxes in my tanks, too. They'd make nice caves. :)

I did that, leema. It was cool.

wow...that's pertty cool. :)

I have a piece in my tank and I just realised it could probably be made a lot more realistic by putting gravel over it. I will get back to you on that one.

Be sure to post some pics, bartier. :D

Yeah I don't know that I'm too crazy about the PVC look. It just doesn't make the aquatic environment that I like. Probably a lot of hot glue and gravel would do wonders for it though.