Hi,

I have uploaded the photo's of the background that I am building.

Hopefully it will help assist anyone else contemplating a similar project.

http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~jenniefield/

Cheers,

Kerry.

Kerry that is a brilliant article! Very interesting too.

One of our club members did something similar but she stuck all the gravel on by hand which took ages. Her hotwire was a piece of wire curved in a circle and attached to a wooden handle. The wire was heated with a blow torch then used to scoop out caves etc. Another slow process.

The finished background looks great and will look even better once it has been in the tank a while and algae and plants have grown on it.

Thanks for sharing your idea with us.

Great article Kerry, although I got to,

After the sand was shaken and tapped off.

and there seems to be four photos missing, but it looked brilliant up to that point

Looking forward to seeing it completed.

I didn't have any problems Pegasus... I think it's just a matter of waiting for a while.. going to get a cup of tea while you wait kind of procedure

I'll try again, but I waited over five mins.... the others loaded great

Thanks, I have decreased the image sizes to help those on modems.

Still a heafty download, but a lot less now.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so it saves me a lot of 2 finger typing.

Looks very cool indeed. I can't wait to see a pic with water and gravel in it.

I do have a question though. In the last photo I can see the filter intake and out-takes going in behind the 'rockface', how will this get water & detroitus from the front display section? Also what will stop fish from living behind the tank and not in front of it?

Ohhh and be carefull not to let the heater touch it, as it could melt?

Looks awesome though, can't wait to see it finished, as a friend is looking at setting up a bigger take for her cichlids, and theat is a great way to start!

Good luck and keep the photos rolling in!

Saw the last pics Kerry,... Nice job. Looking forward to seeing it filled and planted

Cool !! Nice job. I'm really impressed with how natural looking everything came out.

WOW.

I have uploaded another photo of the tank filled, and with gravel.

The translucent pondpaint has gone whiteish when submerged.

I wish someone could come up with a clear nontoxic coating that would stay clear under water. I thought I had it licked.

Does anybody know of anything nontoxic that I could turn it brown looking with, like food dye or clothes dye, just thinking out loud.

I know some of the medicines for fish can turn things blue or green.

it look good to me kerry

good luck with it

Great idea. You should probably have stuck some lead weights into the bottom or something similar to weigh it down. I think that it looks great in shades of grey anyway, I might try building a similar thing if I get another aquarium.

Plain old epoxy should be OK I would have thought.... boat building stuff. I used to work with it, thats what i glue my tops with..... but I had a friend at epiglass who used to mix a epoxy for boat water tanks (the stuff you drink out of when you are on the boat), so if you went to then they would sell you some. With epoxy you just mix in any colur you want, I used to add household flour to thicken it up, (it doesn't matter what you use, you just can't sand some things back, flour included :lol: ) Don't let them sell you some expensive colouring, buy some poster paint powder and make your own!!!

Good epoxy has no solvents so should be OK on polystyrene, don't use the other stuff (polyester :evil: )

peety

Absolutel;y AWESOME Thanks heaps for sharing this. For such a non technical person as myself you have sure helped me see what is acheivable. I too am looking for the final pic. and the pic after that and........................

Great looking background Kerry ,Ive been wanting to do the same too one of my tanks ,but its just a story of getting around to it. :oops:

Ive got a few questions for you Kerry,

Where did you source the polystyrine and the sand ? Also can I use any kind of silicone ? ,if not where do i find the correct one ?

Looking forward too seeing your tank when it is occupied and in its full glory.

One word :

AWESOME!!!!!

I have posted the last picture in my background story.

Thanks to Blueram for prompting me.

http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~jenniefield/

I would place just the picture here if I knew how.

Kerry,

Looks pretty good to me!!!

Must feel quite rewarding to see your hard work come to fruition.

Good work again!!

Blueram

Hi Kerry,

Great project

I couldn't see the last pic.. don't know if it's me alone, but it looks great.. the ones I saw that is :)