Aquarium Pebble Mats

I love the look of gravel in a aquarium but it can be time consuming to keep clean. I found fake grass plants that are mounted on a plastic grid and I love how easy it is to clean the aquarium while using them. Just pull up a corner and siphon the muck off the bare glass under the mat.  So I moved my African Cichlids from a 55 gal to a 40 breeder  and lost  several inches in tank height. The grass plant mats were taking up too much room. What to do? What to do?   Oh lets combine the glass pebbles and a mat and make a pebble mat!

By the way this is my first instruct-able so please comment! 

Step 1 Materials

Gather your materials...

First I went to a craft store and picked up some plastic canvas -  enough to cover the bottom of my tank.
My tank is a 40 gal breeder that is 18in wide x48 inches long.  So I used 7 sheets of plastic canvas 10.5 x 13.5 and cut them to fit.
I used clear but it comes in other colors. I had a choice of stiffness so I chose the stiff one.

I got 4 large bags ( 3lb bags) of glass pebbles. I used a clear pebble and mixed bag of white, frosted (etched) and clear. I mixed them 50/50. I had enough to do the mats, cover two glass hurricane shades ( that I also picked up at the craft store)  and some left over.

Next you need silicone to hold the pebbles to the plastic canvas and any glass vessels you want to use.
YOU MUST USE AQUARIUM SAFE SILICONE!  Otherwise you will have a nice tank but dead fish.
Pet stores carry it in small tubes as well as some big box hardware stores. The best is if you can find it in a caulking tube size.  I've bought it at a big on-line retailer named after a rain forest. If you find the caulking tube size you will need a caulking gun too ( and a strong pair of hands!)

A box of parchment paper, ruler, scissors  and that should do it.