Questions about Tumbled sea glass and large gravel

[rheann]

I am really drawn to the color blue. It's my favorit color mixed in with bits of deep reds and bright greens. I'm weird

My Dracaena or lucky bamboo is thriving in my tank! I love it! It's completly sumberged, and has done better than it ever has. The leaves are nearly growing to the surface of the water. I really want to change the plain colored sand to something vibrant, like blue, and I was wondering if anyone in the united states would knwo where I could get some large blue aquarium gravel, large enough so that my axolotls wont mistakenly eat it, though they eat out of a feeding dish when I am not hand feeding them. I was also thinking about using tumbled beach glass, but it's so expensive! It won't hurt the Axolotls, it's smoothed down and beautiful. I accedently swollowed a piece of it when I was four years old. Long story

I was also wondering if anyone could tell me where I can buy large amounts of it for a cheap price. How many lbs of gravel or somethign similiar take to cover the bottom of a 20 gal tall tank, not the long type, just enough so that plants and my Dracaena will be able to stay rooted. Thanks Guys. I love to decorate

 

[grant]

Hmm I'm not to sure about the glass but I know you can get colored sand. They make all kinds of colors of sand from blue to white to black and everything in between. I realize this is hard to come by but I am lucky and there is an aquarium store near by. But I've noticed whenever I put some large rocks or anything like that there seems to be large build ups of waste and stuff underneathe the rocks or whatever the object may be. I think that sand with a turkey baster is actually easiest. But I would check Wal-Mart if you want something like that. Over in their arts and crafts section they probably have stuff like that. If you get something there you might wanna let it soak in some water and clean it really good before you put it in.

 

[claire]

Rheanne - i live by the sea and i there is loads of that glass stuff around. cant you go to the beach and pic it up? or dont you live near the sea?

 

[rheann]

Thanks Grant

I'll look around and see what I can find. Wow Claire! You live near the ocean and there's lots of sea glass

That's so cool. I live about 3 hours I think from the baby area, but I wouldn't know for sure. It might be two hours

I don't think there is any sea glass around though, it's hard to find when Ever I would go to the beach. I was lucky if I found one piece of it. I looked online and I found a bunch of sea glass, but I don't know how many lbs I would need to cover the bottom of my tank, or how many lb i would need of marbles to cover the bottom. I really like blue gravel. I am wondering as long as my Axolotls eat out of a feeding dish, and the other time are hand fed, would it hurt to get some blue gravel? That way I could just buy one or two small bags of sea glass and blue marbles

I love blue!

 

[cynthia]

I think they would try to swallow the glass just as they swallow gravel. Posted in a couple of places is a good sized rock that Jude swallowed when she wasn't very big.

Instead of changing the substrate (which is holding some of your good bacteria) why not add a blue back ground and PVC pipes or other decor covered in blue aquarium gravel?

Another idea might be to take a piece of slate (flat rock) and cover it with blue aquarium silicone and stick blue gravel to it. Making a blue island in your tank.



(Message edited by cynorita on June 20, 2005)

 

[rheann]

Those are some very nice ideas Cynthia

I think I will try the slate idea for now if I can find a nice piece. In the Future, I am going to upgrade my tank. I like Mosiec tiles a lot, and i was thinking of doing a Mosiec tile floor in the next tank I set up, which will probibly be a 30 gal. I would use the glass mosiec marbles and the glass tiles rather than the ceramic ones and try and find some non toxic grout that wouldn't hurt my Axolotls. I have this awsome idea in my head

If I can't find the grout, I'll use Aquarium Silicone. I dunno, I like making things, what is everyone's opinions on this? I don't know if I would cover the whole bottom with the tiles, or just take pieces of square slate so I could move them around. Hmm....

 

[grant]

Hey Rheann I went by a pet store today to pick up some bloodworms and I was looking at their decorations and they had lots of different types of crystal things and rounded colored glass for aquariums. They looked pretty cool! But as far as feeding in a dish and having gravel don't do it. I tried it with half of my tank river rocks with gravel underneathe just because it kinda looked cool and half sand and he still managed to eat the gravel (I noticed when he pooped some out while in his plastic holding tank).

 

[rheann]

Thanks Grant

I noticed at Wallmart they have lots of pretty blue marbles but they look like they could still eat one. I won't do the gravel thing, but I am still thinking about the glass tiles being fixed down to some slate or to the bottom of the future tank. I need some color contrast though in my tank I have now. All it is is tan and green with the black from the pcv rock cave and a few very small reddish stones decorating the bottom. I put large aquarium gravel in with the sand and i am not having any problems with it because it's too big for the Axolotls to eat most of it, and it's seperated by lots of sand. I put it in there to add a nice touch. I want to add some rocks that have words ingraved into them, but those are expensive, some arent but I'm having trouble finding the cheap ones. Hmm... I'll try walmart again for decorations or michaels. they have sea glass I know for sure there

 

[nathan]

If you were to do a mosaic tile thing what would you do it of and also you could do it with tumbled glass instead (different colors) I think that would look very effective.