Making Your Own Tank Plants
By Mickey - The Betta Obsession
There are, I am sure, several ways to make fake plants for your fish tanks. Here are two ways that I would like to share with you that are very easy and you end up with very nice plants. I will start with the easiest first.
You will need either ceramic floor tile or small flat rocks. A tube of aquarium safe silicone sealant, a place to work where you can leave the plant to cure overnight, (preferably outside or in a garage as the silicone sealant has a very strong odor and can cause allergic reactions if inhaled) wire cutters, the plants you want to work with, and a couple of hours or so depending on how many plants you are going to make. Ok, do you have all of these things? If you do, you are ready to get started.
As mentioned, you can use either floor tile or flat rock, the base size depending on the size of the plant that you are making. I personally prefer working with the floor tile because for me, they are easier to work with. If you decide to go with the floor tile, then you have a choice. Go to either Lowe’s or Home Depot and look for the cheapest ceramic floor or wall tile they have, preferably in a sandy color. The tiles I have found run about .25 each for 12”x12” tiles. A 4”x 4” tile works best if you are using it whole for something like a betta tank. The only requirements for the tiles are that they be ceramic (fired tile of any type) and must fit into the tank you are going to put it in. If 4”x 4” is too large then you can have one of the guys at the hardware store cut them down for you. For this particular project, I use tiles about 2”x 2” so if they will cut the tile in half each way then you get four plants per tile.
If you are planning on making a lot of plants then you may want to consider investing in a cheap tile cutter. I found one for under $20.00 and you can sometimes find them on sale at Lowe’s for around $14.00. Don’t be afraid of using one. All you have to do is line up the tile on the cutter, draw the handle across the tile (you will hear a scratching sound) then lift the handle, bring it back to the center of the tile, it has a little “y” shaped part on it, the table on the cutter has a raised ridge in the middle of it. Where you scored the tile press the “y” shaped part down and the tile will snap. That is all there is to it, the tile is now in two parts. If the tile breaks wrong you can still use the broken parts for your plant as long as they are near 2”x”2 in size.
Next you want to select your plants. With this project we are using plants that come looking like picture 3187. You will notice that there is a base on them that will hold about 25 of them together. I paid around $2.50 for each group as they were closed out at Michael’s Craft Store and I bought the two types of plants that you will see here. The little runners holding the plants together are important for this project as they will be the part that will be glued down to your tile/rock. I just took a pair of wire cutters (good kitchen scissors will work as well) and cut between each plantlet both ways so that each plantlet had a chunk of the runners on it. You can see this in pictures 3192 and 3193.
Ok! The hard part is now over and the fun begins! Place your tile/rock on a flat surface. You will want to be sure to place newspaper or an old towel underneath. Have a few paper towels ready for cleaning your hands for when you begin to work with the silicone. Before you glue any of the plant parts down, you will want to test fit them, holding them in place with your fingers, keeping in mind how you want the finished plant to look.
The plants that I made, I used 3-4 of the same type of plant, either the grassy looking ones or the leafy ones. Normally odd numbers look better than the even. I don’t know why, that is just how it works out.
Ok, now you know what you want them to look like. You will start with the plant in the middle of the tile/rock. Open the silicone (the cap on the tube has an opening point on the back of it) also you will need to cut the tip ( the long funnel looking thing). I use the first step from the pointed end for a good size. Just cut the tip off, if it is hard to squeeze then go to the next marking and cut there. I find that cutting just the tip off is fine as it allows for smaller amounts to squeeze out at one time. Apply a blob of the silicone to the runner part of the plant (see pictures 3176 and 3177).
You don’t have to be real precise, just make it a pretty good blob. Now you want to place the plant where it will stay, kind of give it a twist/sliding action, pressing fairly hard as you want to make sure that the silicone spreads and adheres to the tile/rock and the runner. If the plant is fairly tall, it will try to fall over till the silicone cures (up to 24 hours) so you will have to prop it up or rig up a string from above it. If you are working in your garage, a push pin with a string attached to it right above your work area will work just fine. Continue placing all of your other smaller plants around the first center one. The plants I used here, I placed mostly 3 plants on a 2” x 2” piece of tile, kind of pressing them close but making sure each ones base runners had contact with the tile, were flat, and that the plants stood pretty strait. Alright, have you done all of that? Well you just made a new plant for your tank. Let it set for at least 24 hours, longer if you can still smell the silicone. The smell goes away when it is ready to go into the water.
Alright, it has been 24 hours and you are ready to place your plant. Take it to the tank and place it in the bottom, working the tile under the gravel, spreading the gravel so that it covers all of the tile. Push it up onto the base so that it has the look that it really grew out of the gravel. These plants will last years and years and will never float up or around the tank no matter how much the fish digs and moves thing. Enjoy!
Making the plants the harder way, you use the same basic tools as above but add a hand drill, 2 small masonry drill bits ( I use 3/16” and 1/4 “) and plants with no bases like the ones above. The same info goes for selecting the tile, the difference is this time we are going to use plants that don’t have a base runner on them so we will have to drill some holes in the tile to glue the plants into. Again, this is not hard, it just take a little more time and patience.
The masonry drill bits are a little different than regular wood or steel drills. They have ears on the tip and the bodies are fluted.
These bits are made to drill masonry, concrete, stuff like that. They are not real expensive but may cost a couple dollars more than regular drill bits. Do not use dad's or hubby’s wood drill bit to drill these tiles. They won’t work and will ruin the wood bits. When you are drilling, turn the tile so that the non glazed side is up. This is the side you will be drilling from. Do not apply a lot of pressure when drilling. If you do the tile will break and you will have to start all over again with a new piece of tile. Also, make sure that the tile is place on something like a small hunk of wood so that when the drill breaks through you don’t gouge the table you are working on.
Now, lay out the way you want your plant to look. I normally have a taller plant in the very center, then smaller plants around that one. The design is up to you. Mark the back of the tile where you will be placing the plants. For the large center plant, I normally use the 1/4” drill bit, placing several stems of the main plant in the hole. Then, for the smaller single plants, I use the 3/16” bit placing these holes all around the main plant an inch or so from it. You will not want to do an exact round placement of these holes. If you keep it semi random it gives your plant more of a real look. You can see from picture number 3184 how I place the holes. You don’t have to use all of the holes you drill but you can’t go back and drill more after you have glued the plants into them, so make sure you have what you want.
Ok, now to get the plant ready. When you are selecting plants, do not get ones that are wrapped with the green tape as they will not stay together under water. I never leave the plants as they come from Michaels, I cut the stems at the base so that each one is separate. There will normally be long ones, short ones and sizes in between. Also, I seldom use the whole stem. I cut them down so that the plant will not be too tall for the tank they are going into. Some plants, the side branches will slide up the main stem. I will move them around in order to give the plant a fuller look, also twisting some so that the plant is more even in appearance.
When cutting the main stems for a final height, leave at least an extra inch or two as some of it will be pushed through the holes you drilled and it also gives you a way to adjust its height after you poke it through. Again, starting with your center, or tallest plant, push the stem through where it belongs in your arrangement, making sure that it comes through at least an inch. Remember, you can take several stems of different heights and poke them in the same hole if you drilled it large enough. No need to go overboard here in drilling a huge hole because you will never get the plant to stay in there right. Keep poking plants into the other holes, you can hold the plant up as you go in order to see how it is turning out. Keep adding or taking away plants and/or leaves until you are happy with the way it looks, making sure that they all stick out from the bottom of the tile at least an inch.
You are almost done now. Lay the plant on its side so that it supports the tile on its edge. Taking your tube of silicone, first squirt some silicone into the hole (from the bottom) so that it fills the hole and covers the edge of the stems in that hole. Also, spread a blob of silicone all the way around the stems making sure that the tile and the stems have a good contact with it. Don’t worry about using too much, but you don’t need a big blob, just ¼” or so thick, making sure it is all over the contact area around the hole. Picture 3184 was taken after the next step I will talk about, however, you can still see by looking at the picture how much of a spread of silicone you need. Finish all the holes the same way, then recap your silicone. The plants will need to set for 24 hours. When it is cured, take a pair of wire cutters and cut the plant stems that are sticking out so that about ¼” or so is still sticking out below the tile. Again, refer to picture 3184. Place the plant upright and rearrange any leaves or stems that need to be moved a bit in order to make the plant look real. Now, place it in your tank and enjoy.
This may seem like a lot of work but really it is not. I made the demo plant (drilled) and 75 plus others in about three hours.
One night, I made 150 small plants in about the same amount of time (groups of stems/plantlets on a 2”x2” tile). My main reason for making these is to have the plants stay where I put them instead of always having a digging or fast moving fish knocking them out of the gravel, having to replant them over and over. You can see in the pictures some of the plants I have made. I realize that most of you will not ever need that many plants, but I do have a large number of tanks and I am about to take my 688 gallon tank and convert it into a glass fronted pond of about 1000 gallons, with the water level being in the 3 foot depth range. Understandably, I don’t want to have to climb into it having to rearrange the plants the way I want them every time they may get moved.
I hope that this gives you some ideas on things you can do. Here is one other idea I have thought about. After drilling the tiles, cover them with a thick layer of silicone, then covering them with gravel, pressing it into the silicone and thus you can take the plant and most of the gravel out as a unit for those that do total tank scrubs. The ideas are endless!
