READ THROUGH THIS ENTIRE THREAD TO SEE SEVERAL FAUX ROCK TANKS I AM BUILDING.....THERE ARE MORE THEN ONE!!! AND PLEASE JOIN THE SITE TO SEE ALL OF THE PICTURES...... THANK YOU!!
I built a mini practice vive out of a 10g aquarium, before I went through on my 47g tall project (SEE PAGE 3!!). After reviewing several threads on phony rocks, I decided to jump in and do my own take on it. I wanted the most realistic looking rocks possible, and I think I've achieved the result I was looking for.
I was never a fan of the great stuff route, and wanted a cleaner look to my rocks... both of my projects are waterfall type backgrounds.
Go to a hobby store, and buy the large foam blocks for planting silk flowers, and invest in a styrofoam cutting tool. With the heat tool, you can carve just about any detail you want in the foam if you take your time. I cut the block into the shape I wanted for my waterfall, and continued to detail it more and more. The thick foam allows you to cut in deep, make shelves, and I cut out a overflow type hole in the back that I am dropping my heater and pump through so it sits in the water below the false bottom.
since this was a practice vive, I dont have too many pics of the foam waterfall by itself, but you can see the shape it took in these pics where I paired it up with the false bottom I made.
I only used Great Stuff for the pond below the rock waterfall.
Once it dried, I carved the Great Stuff, and fit the two together, and in the end I used aquarium silicone to glue the foam into the 10g tank.
Now for the concrete. I used "Ultraflex 2" concrete mix as recommended in another forum on this site, since I had HUGE problems trying to buy Habacrete mortar mix from Herpinvert. (read here:
http://www.vivariumforum.com/communi...te-lately.html)
I mixed up the concrete mix making a watery mixture that would easily cover into all of the cracks and shapes I made in my foam block. After a few coats, I was happy with the coverage, and was able to join the pond and foam together to make on piece. I painted it on with a foam brush.
After a couple of days, I was ready to start painting the piece with some non-toxic acrylic paints. I started out with a gray wash over it with a paint brush. (the dry concrete was white). After the whole thing was gray, I started going in with darker gray in the cracks of the rocks. The best tool in my opinion will be small sponges for the finishing details. With the sponges, I used dark colors, along with earth tones I mixed and sponged it in different areas of the rocks. (to me this is where the fun starts). This really made the rocks start to look real. The texture of a sponge will give you the best results when adding colors and tones to your rock...this way it doesn't look painted on, it's more natural.
You'll notice I added a little green in there too, like some algae was growing near the path of t he water. After the paint dried, I soaked the entire thing for 2.5 weeks in water/vinigar. I installed a small waterfall pump, and the water trickles down the crevices and looks awesome! I will post a video of it later...
Let me know what you guys think, remember this was my practice vive... here's a small taste of whats next... CONTINUE ON THIS THREAD TO SEE THIS BUILD NEXT.
Thanks!
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RUDEREEFER'S method of building fake / faux rocks -10g & 47g builds
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