Material list:

• 2x Blocks of polystyrene (1200x60x15)
• 1x 5kg Alfix Universal Fix
• 1x 1kg Hygæa Oxydsort (black) 6308 dry color
• 3x Grills for the filter
• 2x Black Akvarium Silicone
• 1x Isolation Foam

Tools that were used:

• Folding Rule
• Marker
• Little Knife
• Large Knife
• Paint Brush
• Hot air pistol
• 63mm drill

A bit drawing has been done and some stones already have shape.

Happy for the vacuum cleaner? Yeah or she would have turned into an ”ice queen”, just look how much of the polystyrene there gets up on the hand after ½ minute work.

More drawings on it and more are cut out.

The little ”cave” has been made.

Here it is shown from another angle.

Cutting out the stone shapes are now finish.

Here it is shown from another angle.

Next step is giving it heat from a hot air pistol, so the polystyrene get a hard surface.

Here it is shown from another angle.

A close up picture, so you see the Alfix have been started to be ”painted” on.

The background has been cut into 3 pieces, so it can get into the fish tank later. The first piece have been painted with Alfix.

The whole background got one layer of Alfix now, there have been made 3 holes in the background, behind them there is a room where the pump and the heater are going to be hidden. In the top stone to the right, there have been made a small hole, so the pump can get the water into the fish tank again.

Here it is shown from another angle.

The Alfix got added some black, to get a light grey color.

The first piece ”painted” finish with light grey.

Here it is shown from another angle.

All 3 pieces are now painted and dried.

You can see it do dry up much lighter than the color was when it was painted on.

The Alfix got added much more black this time, to make the final layer.

First piece done and worked on with a sponge, to get it to look like real stones and get shadows.

One piece done, the rest of the background is still light grey.

The whole background got the final layer.

Have been trying to take some pictures, to see if they would show the colors as we see them, but no.

A water bath have been made outside, made out of old door frames with plastic inside to put water into, so the background can lie here and get different stuff out of the Alfix.

People was smaller in the old days, it was too short and had to be extend. Picture show the background is in the water bath with the front side down, it is going to lie here some days, with new water every day, we did put a pump there to get circulation in the water.

We just had to do this. Try to take pictures of a piece there been in water, and Yes we did it, manage to take picture where it do show the color like we see it.

Here it is shown from another angle.

The end piece for the left side, has been painted with Alfix. 3 grills has be mounted, 2 close to the bottom and 1 in the top, and the background has been glued in with silicone.

Now the endpiece has been given the final layer of Alfix, and has been mounted to the side with silicone.

I got this brilliant idea, that we need a cave module to the other side, because our big catfish always undermines the stone settings. And as I said she did. She aint totally satisfied, but i think it will be good, when plants is put around it.

The cave module has been painted with Alfix.

The final layer has been painted on it, and its now ready to be mounted when its dry.

Silicone have been added around where the plastic pipe is, here will the water from the pump come into the aquarium again. As you see it got Alfix the next day, so it is more hidden.

Seen from the cornor, it is the hidden part where the water is gonna come trough.

Filled with foam, so we are sure the plastic pipe gonna be stuck there.

Behind the background, where the outtake for the pump the heater is going to be hidden. Its where the 3 grills are in front of the module.

The picture is showing how it looks after light grey Alfix has been paintet on where the crack between the modules is.

A close up picture where the gatherings got light grey Alfix.

Next day it got Alfix with dark color in it. Now it gonna dry, so tomorrow we should be ready to put water inside the aquarium.

We now started filling water in. Here you really can see the color difference between wet and dry.

The aquarium seen from the top, while filling water in.

It is now filled, and now the tank has to stand like this for a few days. We expect to change the water 1-2 time, even though we had the background in water outside and several water changes. So now we just have to wait......wait.......wai .......wa ....... w....... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Here you can see the background with light on. The lights are going to be changed though, because the light is to cold with the inside background.

The picture is taken, so it shows the leftside module.

Water change, water is taken out.

New water is put in, and has to stay for 2 days.

The last water change has now been done. The pump has been cleaned and filled with the filter material from the temporary pump. We took 100L aquarium water and sand from the temporary aquarium, and the rest is fresh water. There has also been put in 2 plants and a stone from the temporary fish tank, and added Happy-Life: Liquid Filtering Medium (makes the white fog), so the biological filter will be fast up and running, so now we just have to wait for the water to be clear, so we can add fish.

DONE!!!

Ups, we forgot to tell where we did put our fish. No they are not in a plastic bucket, we where lucky that we could borrowed a 500Liters aquarium from a friend, so the fish still have alot of space while there new surroundings is being made, they are standing near the big fish tank, so it was very eazy to move them to the other one.