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i call apoun your powers of intelligence to help me figure out a way to make a rock tower or scape for the corner of my tank. i want to get rid of the cheesy looking plastic plants i have now, but im not adept enough at keeping plants nor do i have enough tank light to raise real plants at the moment. so, i need something to add hieght to the tank without alot of weight. in one corner i am getting a new piece of driftwood to reach the top of the tank, and on the other side i want to make a rockpile that can be removed.

i cant find a 20" tall rock scupture of course, if it was real it would weigh a ton and be too heavy for my stand most likely, and cant find a rock cave or scupture in plastic,ect that is that tall...doesnt have to be that tall, but i would like it to be...would also like it to have "shelves" i can add plants to,real or fake.

so, my question is this, since i cant turn anything up, how can i anchor slate pieces together securely? i was thinking stailess steel brackets on the backside with stainless screws into the slate, cause i want it to be strong, but something tells me that the slate will fall apart when you put a screw in it.

i have done bodywork on cars and am fairly adept with basic fiberglass or epoxy work, yet i worry that fiberglass may release some harmfull chemicals into the water perhaps? i havent heard of such a thing yet.

i know there is non toxic fish safe paint that could be applied over a plastic sculpture, but, again, would fiberglass be harmfull long term in an aquarium? i know the dust is bad, and the fiberglass resin is waterproof, but i dont know if it leaks out anything sitting there...so then i come back to how to anchor a slate pile together....ARG!!!!

You can build yourself a sculpture out of styrofoam, then paint it with acrylic or spray paint, and then coat the whole thing with epoxy resin to make it aquarium safe. Use a combination of styrofoam "boards" and a spray can foam such as "Great Stuff" (or whatever it's called--it's for sealing doors and windows or any small crevice, really). Build the basic shape you want with the boards (you can glue them together using epoxy, superglue, or silicone), then spray in some of the foam, which will expand, so don't be alarmed if it doesn't stay in the shape you expected it to, and you only need a little bit or you'll have a lot of carving and a big mess on your hands. Use a regular serrated knife or utility knife to carve the mound into the rocky shapes you want. You can mke shelves, caves, etc. at this point. DOn't worry if it's not perfectly smooth... real rocks aren't. When done, paint it the way you want it, and then break out the epoxy and put a heavy layer over the whole thing. Every little bit of it must be covered or you'll leach nasty stuff into the water. Remeber to cover insides of caves and undersides of everything. You'll have to do this in stages, and make sure it doesn't rest against anything while it dries! To finish, you can sprinkle aquarium safe sand or small pebbles on the surface over a wet layer of epoxy to help give it a natural look, and you'll want to stick the whole thing on some slate to weight it down, otherwise it will float. Let it cure for a few days before putting it in the water.

It's a lot of work, but not very expensive, and it's custom made for what you want.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Here's a link with many DIY projects for the aquarium. I've found many of them to be very useful.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_list.php

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain