The Fake Rock Background And The Great Background Disaster

Warning - If you intend to build your own fake rock background, please read all of the information here, especially about the Great Background Disaster before starting work. I made a huge mistake when building mine, and this cost me a lot of time, money and (most importantly) heartache. My first background was, if I say so myself, excellent, but due to The Disaster I had to rip it out of the tank in pieces and throw it away. This was a very disheartening and costly experience that could easily have been avoided.

Background and research

As lake Malawi has a fairly rocky bottom, I decided that a rocky background would help the fish feel more settled. As a side benefit, rocks provide hiding places, which are essential for happy cichlids.

My original intention was to use slate to build a rocky wall up the back and left side of the tank. Whilst pondering how best to do this, I posted an article in the newsgroups asking how to stick rocks together. Amongst other responses, NetMax posted some links about this, and included some links on fake rock backgrounds. This led to discussions on making fake rock backgrounds from polystyrene (many thanx to NetMax for loads of useful info, advice and links on the subject). I was amazed at how realistic these background could be and started searching the web for more info. The rest is the subject of these pages ...

• Building the background
• Painting it
• Applying the epoxy
• Making the caves
• The Great Background Disaster
• Epilogue