Art glass pieces
When I recently moved up from a 15-gal to a 30-gal, I searched for ornament ideas for a long time. I was hung up on the natural look, but I didn't like the materials the usual aquarium ornaments are made of. I finally freed my mind and started thinking outside the box. I found some glass hat and glass purse pieces at Hobby Lobby that I bought to use, and also found a couple of interesting glass light pendant shades at Lowes that have a burl-look design and look kind of like logs when laid sideways in the tank. My catfish love the glass shades and hang out in them all the time. I love my glass ornaments. You can silicone glass objects together to create decorative pieces and they are very secure, and algae is super-easy to clean off of them. I doubt I'll ever go back to any other type of ornaments.
After getting hooked on the glass ornament idea, I started searching for more interesting glass pieces. I found this manufacturer through searching Amazon for glass objects:
http://store.blownartglassstudio.com/
Their products are kind of expensive and you can probably find interesting pieces for less by searching hobby shops, glass outlets and hardware stores, but when I saw their sea shell sculptures, I HAD to have them. I ordered one of each from Amazon.
Someone mentioned martini glasses. I also have two glass martini glasses in my tank. I use them as feeding stations by using an uplift tube as a chute to direct a variety of sinking foods into them. I get a kick out of watching the fish eat from them and they have learned to check them for food. The catfish will get inside one of the martini glasses and just lay there snarfing food. It's a hoot.
When looking for glass pieces, be careful that you are getting real dyed glass where the color is an integral part of the glass, not glass with painted-on color. Painted glass can be very hard to detect and I mistakenly bought a few painted glass pieces and only later discovered the color was painted on. I would take a magnifying glass with me and look closely for scratches in the paint, dust particles or bubbles in the paint and/or places that are more clear where the paint has not completely coated the piece. Also, the painted side has a rougher feel than a glass surface.
When I recently moved up from a 15-gal to a 30-gal, I searched for ornament ideas for a long time. I was hung up on the natural look, but I didn't like the materials the usual aquarium ornaments are made of. I finally freed my mind and started thinking outside the box. I found some glass hat and glass purse pieces at Hobby Lobby that I bought to use, and also found a couple of interesting glass light pendant shades at Lowes that have a burl-look design and look kind of like logs when laid sideways in the tank. My catfish love the glass shades and hang out in them all the time. I love my glass ornaments. You can silicone glass objects together to create decorative pieces and they are very secure, and algae is super-easy to clean off of them. I doubt I'll ever go back to any other type of ornaments.
After getting hooked on the glass ornament idea, I started searching for more interesting glass pieces. I found this manufacturer through searching Amazon for glass objects:
http://store.blownartglassstudio.com/
Their products are kind of expensive and you can probably find interesting pieces for less by searching hobby shops, glass outlets and hardware stores, but when I saw their sea shell sculptures, I HAD to have them. I ordered one of each from Amazon.
Someone mentioned martini glasses. I also have two glass martini glasses in my tank. I use them as feeding stations by using an uplift tube as a chute to direct a variety of sinking foods into them. I get a kick out of watching the fish eat from them and they have learned to check them for food. The catfish will get inside one of the martini glasses and just lay there snarfing food. It's a hoot.
When looking for glass pieces, be careful that you are getting real dyed glass where the color is an integral part of the glass, not glass with painted-on color. Painted glass can be very hard to detect and I mistakenly bought a few painted glass pieces and only later discovered the color was painted on. I would take a magnifying glass with me and look closely for scratches in the paint, dust particles or bubbles in the paint and/or places that are more clear where the paint has not completely coated the piece. Also, the painted side has a rougher feel than a glass surface.
