# DIY Rock Ornament



## IronGuppy (Sep 22, 2010)

I randomly decided today that I would attempt my first DIY rock backdrop. I went out to the store, bought the foam, and pieced it together. 












I then planned out how to carve it out to create a cave inside. I left the back uncovered so that if need be, I could look through the back of the tank into the cave.














I held them together using toothpicks (as I read on numerous DIY posts and websites) and then sanded it all down to a nice rock-like finish.













This is an ongoing process so I will keep it updated on how it is coming. What you are seeing is about 5 hours of work. Let me know what you think!


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## IronGuppy (Sep 22, 2010)

I also made a small structure for the other side of the tank out of the scrap pieces of Styrofoam.


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

Looks good, you'll probably never see you fish again with that great cave, as it will be a favorite hang out.


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## IronGuppy (Sep 22, 2010)

Yea, that's what I'm thinking too. I might want to make the holes just small individual caves instead of one massive cave so that they are less likely to do that


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## thefishboy (Aug 20, 2010)

looks veery nice!!


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## iamgray (Jul 16, 2010)

I have never seen this before, so forgive me if I sound dumb... is it just regular styrofoam? Do you coat it with something before you put it in the aquarium?


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## IronGuppy (Sep 22, 2010)

It is in fact regular Styrofoam. I went out and bought one small sheet of it for about $8. It's good to use because it's easily shaped with sand paper or any knife. I was baffled when I first saw it too. After this, I need to use some sort of sealant on the seams between the pieces of Styrofoam (because they are only held together with toothpicks) and then paint on a few layers of concrete mix. After that is done, I can paint it in a stone coloring, probably grayish in my case. I'm also going to try to make some plants "growing" out of it, but I havent decided anything yet. 

Plenty of people do things like this and there are lots of resources to tell you how. Here's another project someone did that was a bit more extensive than mine.
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/diy-aquarium/diy-rock-wall-background-19898/


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