slate tile scupltures and hiding "houses"

I started making these a while ago just because the cost of good aquarium decor is insane!

sorry my camera, or maybe its just me, has a hard time taking pics in the tank.... tips anyone?

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Tools and items needed- various hammers, chisel, piece of carpet or something firm yet forgiving to hold the tile on, coping saw, pliers and or dikes might be helpful. I suppose you could use a cutoff wheel or a tile saw but I like the more natural shapes I can cut with a hand saw.

The tile is just slate flooring tile. In comparison to aquarium slate this stuff is dirt cheap, ie Home Depot had a box of 5 8*8 tiles for $8.00! Many of the tiles have been grooved on the backside for glue, if you can find some w/o you will get more uses per tile.

The hiding holes I have made the most look kinda like fred flintstone's house. I have done a few more creative ones in the past but the slate has a tendency to break when working with it and its very frustrating when your last cut breaks, so keep it simple at least at first.

Start out by standing a tile upright and tapping the chisel on the edge. Your goal is to split the thick tile into thinner pieces that are more manageable, so once you see a crack move your chisel down and keep working it. Now your 5 pieces have turned into ten!

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Next take your pieces and break them down so you have 2 walls and a roof. To do this either cross your fingers and start tapping with a hammer or take the edge of your chisel and score a line about where you want your break then place the chisel on that line and tap till it breaks.

Take one of your walls and cut a notch out of it in the thickness of the roof about a third or so into the tile. Where and the angle you do this is going to determine the height and the pitch or your roof. After the groove is cut lay the cut tile on the other wall with the 2 bottom sides flush and mark where to cut the same notch on the second tile.

Next take your roof piece and put in in the grooves and stand it up, play with it to get the size and angle you prefer then mark your roof tile where your walls are and cut out the notches around the same length as on the walls.

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taking a pic on the concrete floor probably wasn't the best but you get the idea..

Now slide it all together to test fit and adjust. Make sure that you sand or knock down all sharp edges!!!

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Disassemble and wash all pieces. I usually do a water change and use tank water to clean.
Now put it back together place in tank and enjoy!!

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very clever man, i want a little one

Nice... it turns out really nice. I will probably try this when I set up an african tank. It would be cool to do a tank of a crapload of them stacked for africans. Oh yeah T town.....

very cool dude

I just happened to have apiece so I tapped it hard and it split real easy. I turned one crap piece I couldn't use into two new homes. Thanks for posting! : )

whoa dude very nice caves...this is better than buying rock slates at the store
I will give this a try soon

What a great idea Very clever

Cool Idea. Looks great.