Hi

I have been looking at tank decorations.
Genuine apologies to those that are happy with what is available, but what I have seen are not my thing, apart from one of the 3d backgrounds by jewel I think. £45 per piece.

I studied at art college and have worked as a model maker and theatre prop maker in the past and am still pretty hand although perfectionism can get in the way of finishing things!
So I thought I might make my own as I have experience of multi part mould making etc
I intend to make a river or lake 3D background with roots etc and areas to plant live plants plus terracing of some kind to give depth.
Can any one advise as to what resins and paints are good to use from their experience? I do not want to go down the cement route.
Also what are peoples thoughts on cleaning if I have mass of roots etc as part of the background?

I'm having Back to Nature backgrounds when I'm rich.

I seem to remember a thread about DIY 3D backgrounds and what might or might not be safe in the past, will have a poke about - have you tried a site search yet?

Probably not what your looking for but someone made me a small background out of packing foam and silicone. I don't know what they painted it with but it looks quite good with a few plants growing off it.

have a look at these:

http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... id=278826#forumpost278826

http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... id=280767#forumpost280767

Wow, the back to nature products are really good.
I had not come across anything like that. Exactly what I was thinking of.
I had not thought of filling the space behind with biomedia at all.
Thanks I will look at prices on these.
Probably out of my price bracket. I would love to know what materials they are using 'cos once I had the moulds set up it would be easy to knock out some more for others.
Thanks for your post Cathie.

Hi

Thanks for the post.
I had also found some posts on using Polystyrene.
I had thought of using marine fibre-glass resin ( boat building stuff). I will ask around about the enviro impact of this stuff.
I think I will experiment with a few different materials.
It adds to the challenge having to make it durable and nontoxic as well as aesthetically pleasing.

Also have a look at some of these which are quite exciting and not so expensive

http://www.aqua-maniac.com/

have you considered a wall of moss? something alone the lines of christmas moss or weeping?? looks fab and natural!!

I used a product designed for the back of reptile tanks,
It was called exo-terra, did the job and looked really good,,
Will dig out a photo n post it,