Decoration themes?

[Steve_C]

I've never been a fan of "themed" tanks or decorations of any kind in the tank at all. I always like to have my tanks as natural looking as they can be with 3dbg's and rocks and wood and fake plants like silk ones that look more natural and realistic. About the closest I came to decorations was about 6 years ago when I got back into the hobby again I found a fake crocodile skull that looked very realistic. Even then though I just didn't want it actually "in" the tank. So I did something a little different to incorporate it into the tank & stand build.

I built the canopy as a viewable underwater scene by doing some foam work in the canopy like I do with my 3dbg's then used cut mirrors on the underside of the top and lit it up with some cold cathode blue lighting so it gave the inside of the canopy an underwater look. A lot of people that saw the tank at first thought the top part was part of the tank as well so it worked out pretty cool. That's about as close as I have ever got to decorations though.

 

[Go_redfish]

I've never been a fan of "themed" tanks or decorations of any kind in the tank at all. I always like to have my tanks as natural looking as they can be with 3dbg's and rocks and wood and fake plants like silk ones that look more natural and realistic. About the closest I came to decorations was about 6 years ago when I got back into the hobby again I found a fake crocodile skull that looked very realistic. Even then though I just didn't want it actually "in" the tank. So I did something a little different to incorporate it into the tank & stand build.

I built the canopy as a viewable underwater scene by doing some foam work in the canopy like I do with my 3dbg's then used cut mirrors on the underside of the top and lit it up with some cold cathode blue lighting so it gave the inside of the canopy an underwater look. A lot of people that saw the tank at first thought the top part was part of the tank as well so it worked out pretty cool. That's about as close as I have ever got to decorations though.

Daaaamn! That's a sexy tank there!

 

[Go_redfish]

Saw this on CL and thought it was intresting. It reminded me of the television set my grandmother had. Sans fish tank of course.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

That reminds me of one of my tanks fron years ago.I was keeping African cichlids at the time and I nearly covered the entire tank bottom with various artificial skulls.The idea was to mimic a collection area in which a large number of human skulls litter the river bottom.

So basically anywhere a bridge crosses a river in New York

 

[MRE]

I just found this the other day and was thinking of picking it up to put in my 220 gallon. My only concern is whether or not it will be fish safe. It's made primarily out of styrofoam and evidently some paint. Do you guys think it would work if I covered it with some clear Krylon Fusion?

 

[MRE]

This is a setup I did years ago for a few days around Halloween back after the Walking Dead episode with the heads in tanks.

 

[tlindsey]

I just found this the other day and was thinking of picking it up to put in my 220 gallon. My only concern is whether or not it will be fish safe. It's made primarily out of styrofoam and evidently some paint. Do you guys think it would work if I covered it with some clear Krylon Fusion?

View attachment 1405852

That's a classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.

 

[MRE]

That's a classic Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Hell yeah. I figure it would work perfect with my current tank makeup with central and south american predators since the Creature is supposed to be from the Amazon.

 

[spotfin]

If it has rubber base, absolutely NOT. There will be poisionous glues involved that attach the mat, plus the rubber itself may leach chemicals even if the plastic grass isn't treated for uv...

I use the plastic craft mats in my tanks. See the thread "Meet my Finny Friends". In two tanks I have wrapped the plastic mats around terra cotta pots, tied with green and blue rubber bands. The mats are 12" square and have an open grid bottom that is also plastic. You can cut them easily with scissors. Some have silk leaves attached, I use those too.

Another cool use is cutting them into shapes and pressing them into the substrate, looking like low shrubs. There are several types, some look like grass, some are bushy and some have leaves. You want grass mats by ASHLAND. One type is grass, one boxwood and one bushy. Scroll down to see other images here:

https://www.michaels.com/default/10275721.html

This inspired me to take a trip to my local Michaels. I found this grass mat:

Must have been a sale going on as it only cost me $2?
I plan on cutting the sections and strategically placing them around the tank. It’s a brackish tank, and this mat kinda looks like small turtle grass.