Help, I need fake water!

use a krylon spraypaint

People have used them to paint overflows in reefs. Its reef-safe from what I've heard.

edit - with spraypaint you could make a stencil for wave effects and such

 

the problem with paint is it takes away all sense of depth. There is no point in using something like acrylic imitation water or aquarium sealant (which is see through and has depth), if you are just going to paint over it with a krylon rattle can.

Dye keeps the depth.

If this aquarium sealant doesn't work, I think I've found another alternative; textured shower doors (they look like scaled down water with a little paint). Old retired train hobbyist think I'm crazy...

haha

 

Holy cow, a year later and the crazy guy is back! Have been keeping busy, left the country for a while, had a kid, sold a house, bought a house, etc. . .

But I remembered how helpful this site was and figured you all at least deserve an update. So, I will have pictures and details of the completed project soon! It's looking great btw (for being put on hold for almost 11 months..)

-patrick

 

Use clear plexi and paint it then turn it upside down so painted surface is on bottom, you will still see it cause plexi is clear......

 

or based on this idea pain the glass then put silicon on top

 

Very good ideas, unfortunetely I have already completed the "fake water" portion of the project.

What I ended up doing was using this picture blown up to the size of the back of the 55gal aquarium.


The fake water portion of the tank is about 1/4 of the bottom surface area, aligned with the shoreline in the picture, stretching across a quarter of the right side of the aquarium's bottom. I've purchased sea sand that matches the sand in the photo perfectly, a couple palm trees for decor and a large beach hut for hiding places (complete with mini-bar).

For the fake water, I boiled a ridiculous amount of acrylic gel found at a craft store (used to imitate fake water for planters and vases..), and found the perfect mixture of blue food coloring and a green paint found at walmart for $0.49! The result was a gooey, globby, yet pourable mixture while hot, which I poured into the aquarium and molded into the area where I wanted it. It cooled and created a perfect color match but was flat to the touch on top.

So I killed two birds with one stone (no birds were harmed in the making of this aquarium) and sealed the entire glob of blue gooey-ness with another ridiculous amount of aquarium sealant (bought out PetCo's and PetSmarts entire supply!) which allowed me to shape and mold my "ocean" shoreline into the perfect wave structure I wanted.. It looks great!

Now that I think about it though, a painted triangle of plexi turned upside down and sculpted with aquarium sealant on top would have been a better choice.. But we'll see how this turns out once I put the water in and take it from there..

I've also been modifying an Ikea bookcase to hold the aquarium and making other improvements around the house. Sorry for the delay!

 

Let's see some pictures!!!

 

Sorry, I'm slackin' I need another $150 to get an under tank filter/pump thing (The Rena XP2 is the only one that'll fit my tight space, for 55gal tank). I'll buy it (eventually) and get it all up and running and pictures for all. I'm impressed so far.