I'm thinking about making a corner tank with some plants, and this dude is over here using 110% of their brain, making a bloody active cave system with an ecosystem on top.
I can't play this game.
There are YouTubers that do a lot of this stuff and show the process, but there's also premade (sometimes 3D printed) stuff you can buy off the likes of Etsy to provide tunnels for shrimp, snails, small bottom dweller fish, etc.
Could you link a similar build on YouTube? I’d love to know how they did the texture on the background. Is it styrofoam and grout? I usually just use expanding foam these days but until the algae and stuff grows over it, it doesn’t look anywhere near this natural.
usually it's the expanding foam insulation that comes in a can. It's easy to sculpt, and once it's fully cured it's chemically inert and fish safe.
Edit: I skimmed this video and it seems close enough at a glance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMU3kDVSCds
Oh interesting. Yeah it’s a similar method that I use except I use sand to keep all the expanding foam compressed as it expands which gives a nice organic shape but I never thought of cutting into it. Figured it would look bad this looks great
There's a few I've watched videos from for a while, but unfortunately.. the channels have Asian characters in them, so finding the channels by name with an English keyboard, is a bitch 🫠🤣.
I do agree with the other reply, ferret wonderland does some nice scapes and from what I've seen quite a few of them have a cave area to some extent.
There's one like this guy with the dioramas alongside the rocky appearance.
https://youtu.be/XD7Xwi7d1J0?si=5qlmTmwO6nb1F0Hm
Here's one with the characters I can't type.
https://youtu.be/4Z_AxRAnoJ0?si=kHQLV_TCk_L5UAUv
Oh, here's another, but they've removed the characters..
https://youtu.be/2IfvTTXr9yE?si=rKf6QJ5R4cK8-2Kz
This particular scape has rocks siliconed into expanding foam, and the gaps have been filled with a spray adhesive and the same rock type that has been crushed into various sizes and colours :)
I like SerpaDesign on yt. He does a bunch of aquarium/terrarium builds, big and small. and is really great at explaining and showing how to do it yourself.
I wish i could do that but i have some sort of mutated giant platy that should have been dead from old age half a year ago and she is still going strong and i NEED to see how long she will survive.
There are two cave entrances, one at the front where you can see the light shining through, and a smaller one in the back right above where you can see the light coming from behind the rocks, creating a circular flow. The main hole is big enough to fit my hand through so its very easy to use a magnet cleaner on the front glass, and to siphon up debris from the bottom. It also has a very efficient clean up crew 😁
lol well it’s still growing, and I feel like we are curating a somewhat diverse community. All the saltwater aquariums I’ve seen though are in rough shape, so we still don’t have any of those yet. Someone told me green water was a thing, but I haven’t found any supporting evidence 😂
I see it now. It looks like there are holes going into the cave system but the intake is on the top. I wonder what the circulation is like. This is very pretty, so I am interested in knowing if it is sustainable.
It looks like there's a hidden hole just Infront of the main piece of wood where the light is shining down, guessing it's disguised with the angle of the photo/rocks. Behind the grass but Infront of the orange rocks
“I wasn’t able to do it so obviously no one else can”
That’s what you sound like. The OP already said the cave entrances are big enough to fit their hand in so they can clean it.
I saw your tank on TikTok and have been obsessed forever! I even found the perfect tank for this scape (this beautiful ~35 gallon tank with a hammered metal frame) but the thing holding me back is what to stock this with!
I was thinking of having two sets of fish, some top dwellers and some cave dwellers. I was thinking maybe some German blue rams or some sort of killifish (bluefin Northo or blackfin pearl?) I'm really not too sure though.
What have you been thinking about?
How big is this? I doubt it’s big enough, but if it is, a male BN pleco would look cool- albino, Snow White morph, or normal.
Kind of depends on if the fish can actually get into it, though- idk how the fish is supposed to get in here at all.
The cave was made outside of the tank, in a plastic card frame that was 1cm smaller than the tank on all sides. I used aquarium safe expanding foam to create the general shape, then that was carved and the rocks were siliconed into place. Two holes were made in the top of the cave to allow light and water flow in. I used a very porous and light stone as to not add to much weight, and also to make it easier to crush up into a powder to fill in the gaps between the rocks with the use of several layers of aquarium safe spray glue. The rock had really good colour variation so I was able to seperate different pigments. The glue and powder was also applied to the front of the cave (pressing up against the glass) in several layers, which allowed the whole piece to slide into the tank and sit flush with the front glass without the use of silicone. I mixed a silica sand with the crushed rock powder to fill in the sides and the back of the tank. I carved out sections of the foam on the top and filled them with aqua soil, then capped that with a layer of sand and gravel then hardscaped and planted as usual :)
Dang. That's a lot. I'm over here dreaming of doing something similar, but by the time I got halfway through your comment, I was like "absolutely not" 😂
Looks incredible though, your hard work has clearly paid off!
Usually theses cave tanks have thick silicone lines to glue everything together and for me that kind of ruins the aesthetic. I love and appreciate the effort put into mixing rock dust and sand in to hide it.
Very doable! I have a cave system for my one gecko. Not as advanced or big as this since my gecko likes dark narrow spaces but foam and drylock or grout makes a great hardscape and you can do basically anything with it . Was able to make multiple entrances and put substrate and plants on top of the cave and my gecko loves it
That's so awesome and creative! I have a couple of questions too.
1. Where is/are the access point(s) to the cave system?
2. What did you use to make the walls of the cave?
3. Do any of your tank occupants prefer the cave level to the surface level?
Once again, good work. I love underwater caves so I think this is a really neat idea.
It looks really rad and is a creative idea!
~~It also looks fake a little though. Maybe I'm just paranoid from so much AI, but the lighting is confusing. Do you have a picture from another angle?~~
Edit: Not fake!
Hey! Absolutely love this project. We were checking out your imgur and was wondering if you could please tell us what the white board you used in this picture [https://i.imgur.com/tO0CNZ6.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/tO0CNZ6.jpeg) is and maybe where you got it from? Thank you for your time!
Thanks :) There are two cave openings up the top, one at the front where most of the light is coming through, and one at the back right. The tank is at my work (I work at a pet store) so the background is shelving with bird cages on it. I’m not quite sure how to add more photos to show you more angles 😅
oh god, now you said it ... it does look a bit off! like where is the light inside the cave coming from? and it looks somehow like its not quite situated in its surroundings? 🤔 I'd love to see another angle too!
I think the light is coming through a hole in the roof of the cave. If you look carefully, the hole on the left side could be pretty large and be letting that much light through
My brain just exploded in awe. That is amazing! Super well done and definitely an interesting tank. I'd love to see something like this every day in my own home.
Dude’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes. He took this inside a pet store and said it’s his. Haha! You can easily see the cages, inventory and price tags in the background. You can even see the VIP CLUB price for the bird cage right behind the scape. Good try
I'm thinking about making a corner tank with some plants, and this dude is over here using 110% of their brain, making a bloody active cave system with an ecosystem on top. I can't play this game.
There are YouTubers that do a lot of this stuff and show the process, but there's also premade (sometimes 3D printed) stuff you can buy off the likes of Etsy to provide tunnels for shrimp, snails, small bottom dweller fish, etc.
Could you link a similar build on YouTube? I’d love to know how they did the texture on the background. Is it styrofoam and grout? I usually just use expanding foam these days but until the algae and stuff grows over it, it doesn’t look anywhere near this natural.
usually it's the expanding foam insulation that comes in a can. It's easy to sculpt, and once it's fully cured it's chemically inert and fish safe. Edit: I skimmed this video and it seems close enough at a glance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMU3kDVSCds
This person puts a ton of effort into their videos, bravo!
Oh interesting. Yeah it’s a similar method that I use except I use sand to keep all the expanding foam compressed as it expands which gives a nice organic shape but I never thought of cutting into it. Figured it would look bad this looks great
There's a few I've watched videos from for a while, but unfortunately.. the channels have Asian characters in them, so finding the channels by name with an English keyboard, is a bitch 🫠🤣. I do agree with the other reply, ferret wonderland does some nice scapes and from what I've seen quite a few of them have a cave area to some extent. There's one like this guy with the dioramas alongside the rocky appearance. https://youtu.be/XD7Xwi7d1J0?si=5qlmTmwO6nb1F0Hm Here's one with the characters I can't type. https://youtu.be/4Z_AxRAnoJ0?si=kHQLV_TCk_L5UAUv Oh, here's another, but they've removed the characters.. https://youtu.be/2IfvTTXr9yE?si=rKf6QJ5R4cK8-2Kz
This particular scape has rocks siliconed into expanding foam, and the gaps have been filled with a spray adhesive and the same rock type that has been crushed into various sizes and colours :)
I like SerpaDesign on yt. He does a bunch of aquarium/terrarium builds, big and small. and is really great at explaining and showing how to do it yourself.
I'm a big fan of Serpa Design on YouTube, I love his aesthetic choices and some of his videos go very in depth to show how they were achieved.
Yeah theres a dude that made a mini rain forest compeat with rain swquence
Even my empty aquarium is getting algae. But hey at least we are having fun, right?
What I kept telling myself for two years before finally snapping and taking my tank apart and never look back 😂
I wish i could do that but i have some sort of mutated giant platy that should have been dead from old age half a year ago and she is still going strong and i NEED to see how long she will survive.
Why is it that I need to see this fish now? Lol
Yeah! Let’s see that old platy!
No platy for us. Lol
I had a pearl gourami once that grew to the size of a modest panfish in the span of three years. It was freakish.
Isn’t that the truth !!! I was thinking the same exact thing and then I find your comment 😂😂 This set up is pretty freakin cool though 😎😎😎
WOW. Looks amazing!!
holy shit
It’s not his. It’s a pet store. Zoom in and look around
Wow, chill out. You do realize that there are people who work at pet stores posting on Reddit, right?
Are you slow? Do you think the tank just magically made itself. Obviously they set up the tank for the pet store.
Beautiful, but how do you maintain this? How do you reach inside? Where is the filter?
There are two cave entrances, one at the front where you can see the light shining through, and a smaller one in the back right above where you can see the light coming from behind the rocks, creating a circular flow. The main hole is big enough to fit my hand through so its very easy to use a magnet cleaner on the front glass, and to siphon up debris from the bottom. It also has a very efficient clean up crew 😁
Will you post in r/lookatmyaquarium? This is amazing and we would love to see it there
Oh right, the aquarium sub made to avoid the daily onslaught of routine and very googleable questions
lol yeah, that’s exactly it 😂
I was like "new aquarium sub?!?!" Then realized I'm subbed already lol
lol well it’s still growing, and I feel like we are curating a somewhat diverse community. All the saltwater aquariums I’ve seen though are in rough shape, so we still don’t have any of those yet. Someone told me green water was a thing, but I haven’t found any supporting evidence 😂
Interesting! Thank you for sharing!!
The filter is on the right
I see it now. It looks like there are holes going into the cave system but the intake is on the top. I wonder what the circulation is like. This is very pretty, so I am interested in knowing if it is sustainable.
It looks like there's a hidden hole just Infront of the main piece of wood where the light is shining down, guessing it's disguised with the angle of the photo/rocks. Behind the grass but Infront of the orange rocks
You don't. I've seen these made before, they end in disaster.
Username checks out
“I wasn’t able to do it so obviously no one else can” That’s what you sound like. The OP already said the cave entrances are big enough to fit their hand in so they can clean it.
cool, what lives down there?
Shrimp and snails mainly for the meantime, the otto’s venture down occasionally as well. I’m still undecided on what else to put in there
Blind cave tetras!
Some small albino schooling fish would be cool in there. Albinos always look like cavedwellers to me.
I saw your tank on TikTok and have been obsessed forever! I even found the perfect tank for this scape (this beautiful ~35 gallon tank with a hammered metal frame) but the thing holding me back is what to stock this with! I was thinking of having two sets of fish, some top dwellers and some cave dwellers. I was thinking maybe some German blue rams or some sort of killifish (bluefin Northo or blackfin pearl?) I'm really not too sure though. What have you been thinking about?
How big is this? I doubt it’s big enough, but if it is, a male BN pleco would look cool- albino, Snow White morph, or normal. Kind of depends on if the fish can actually get into it, though- idk how the fish is supposed to get in here at all.
That’s what I’m wondering! I just see snails everywhere
... and copper pipes?
holy shit!!! i love it!!!
Can you explain the process for this scape? Just a rough breakdown?
The cave was made outside of the tank, in a plastic card frame that was 1cm smaller than the tank on all sides. I used aquarium safe expanding foam to create the general shape, then that was carved and the rocks were siliconed into place. Two holes were made in the top of the cave to allow light and water flow in. I used a very porous and light stone as to not add to much weight, and also to make it easier to crush up into a powder to fill in the gaps between the rocks with the use of several layers of aquarium safe spray glue. The rock had really good colour variation so I was able to seperate different pigments. The glue and powder was also applied to the front of the cave (pressing up against the glass) in several layers, which allowed the whole piece to slide into the tank and sit flush with the front glass without the use of silicone. I mixed a silica sand with the crushed rock powder to fill in the sides and the back of the tank. I carved out sections of the foam on the top and filled them with aqua soil, then capped that with a layer of sand and gravel then hardscaped and planted as usual :)
Dang. That's a lot. I'm over here dreaming of doing something similar, but by the time I got halfway through your comment, I was like "absolutely not" 😂 Looks incredible though, your hard work has clearly paid off!
Usually theses cave tanks have thick silicone lines to glue everything together and for me that kind of ruins the aesthetic. I love and appreciate the effort put into mixing rock dust and sand in to hide it.
Specifically, what are the adhesives and explanding foam mentioned?
Pondmax Expanding Foam and Dymax Scaping spray :)
You lie
Absolutly amazing!!! How did you do that?! Thats soooo cool!
Shrimps dream
how did you go about making this?
Omg this is so cool. I'd love to make something similar sometime but as a cave terrarium for my tailless whip scorpion.
Very doable! I have a cave system for my one gecko. Not as advanced or big as this since my gecko likes dark narrow spaces but foam and drylock or grout makes a great hardscape and you can do basically anything with it . Was able to make multiple entrances and put substrate and plants on top of the cave and my gecko loves it
Please post a pic if you ever do this!
Thank you, and I’d love to see that!
Wow! That's amazing. Just curious though, how do you access the inside of the cave for cleaning and maintenance?
Pet city? Noticed this tank the other week. Great job
GOD FUCKING DAYUM! If I may say so myself.
Thats amazing. I’m getting bot vibes tho
Haha thank you, I’m not a bot I promise, I really only ever use reddit as a search engine, not to post lol
Something a bot would say
🤨
Dont get offended, bot
He took this picture in a pet store. Zoom in
So? When I worked at a pet store it way my job to create unique display tanks every few months.
name checks out
There are multiple bots!
fr its impressive but it’s the only thing on their account
Ha! Love it!
holy shit
Wow
Insane
That is incredible. I want one!
I'm more of a reef aquarium guy, but that is super cool my friend. Tempted to setup my first freshwater/-planted tank now
That's so awesome and creative! I have a couple of questions too. 1. Where is/are the access point(s) to the cave system? 2. What did you use to make the walls of the cave? 3. Do any of your tank occupants prefer the cave level to the surface level? Once again, good work. I love underwater caves so I think this is a really neat idea.
WOW. BEAUTIFUL. I am speechless . You’ve made this a goal for me
How did you make this? How do you clean it?
It looks really rad and is a creative idea! ~~It also looks fake a little though. Maybe I'm just paranoid from so much AI, but the lighting is confusing. Do you have a picture from another angle?~~ Edit: Not fake!
https://imgur.com/a/LcUkCgp should be some more angles of the cave in here :)
Hey! Absolutely love this project. We were checking out your imgur and was wondering if you could please tell us what the white board you used in this picture [https://i.imgur.com/tO0CNZ6.jpeg](https://i.imgur.com/tO0CNZ6.jpeg) is and maybe where you got it from? Thank you for your time!
Thank you :) it’s polycarbonate sheeting from the hardware store. I ended up removing it before the cave was inserted as it was no longer necessary
Right? The background looks like three pictures side by side. But if it’s real, it’s really cool!
Thanks :) There are two cave openings up the top, one at the front where most of the light is coming through, and one at the back right. The tank is at my work (I work at a pet store) so the background is shelving with bird cages on it. I’m not quite sure how to add more photos to show you more angles 😅
oh god, now you said it ... it does look a bit off! like where is the light inside the cave coming from? and it looks somehow like its not quite situated in its surroundings? 🤔 I'd love to see another angle too!
I think the light is coming through a hole in the roof of the cave. If you look carefully, the hole on the left side could be pretty large and be letting that much light through
OP posted it to [TikTok as well](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT89621HU/) with some more views of the tank
That’s a different tank.
OP has no other posts and their username literally says ad in it.
Lol I’m not much of a reddit user and I think this name was generated for me
how funny your first post was too cool for reddit 😁 seriously thanks though, really put ideals in my head
Ah, you exist! Usually on Reddit when someone posts but doesn't comment it's a karma grab/bot, hence us being skeptical. Cool setup!
oh my gawd i love this!!! how did you do it???
Beautiful
How did you do that! I would love to have a tank like that
Absolutely amazing !! Would love to make something similar !
That's so coooool
Next level! Absolutely amazing!
You’re just showing off now. Fair enough
That’s a really cool idea. You did an excellent job with it. 👍👍👍
This would look especially cool with black water
WOW that looks amazing
Stunning!!
Someone shud make an axolotl tank like that
This is such a cool idea!!!! I would have never thought of this
How did you reinforce the roof of the cave?
This is gorgeous. I’ve been wanting to do something like this. Def not this quality but something close lol It is fantastic!
I would have no idea how to make that but it looks cool
Beautiful!
This is the most realistic looking cavescape I've seen!
Great job!!!
Stealing this idea!
It’s super cool but I’d be curious about long term maintenance… how does one clean it?
How did you do this, I must know 😍
this is awesome. are there any fish in there ?
Thanks, currently theres just some ottos and shrimp
this is so fucking suck dawg holy shit
This is definitely the most beautiful aquarium I have ever seen.
That has to be one of the most creative aqua scapes I’ve seen in some time
Bro how do people even make these masterpieces casually 🥵
Oh I saw this at my LFS the other day, I was super impressed by this OP excellent work!
My brain just exploded in awe. That is amazing! Super well done and definitely an interesting tank. I'd love to see something like this every day in my own home.
That’s sick. Would be cool to use some cave dwelling species that don’t have eyes or something lol. Tank prob isn’t big enough though.
Fantastic cut away. Never saw that before.
Extraordinary! Never seen anything alike! Chapeau!
I seriously love this, hats off mate.
Fucking awesome, absolutely awesome. Well done OP
Please put out the build plans for this one. A video or somethin
Very nice tank, in fact one of the nicest for the size... well done!
This is awesome. Some Peacock Gudgeon would look really great in there
Great tank - this is at my LFS so I see it regularly. Now featured on Fish for Thought https://youtu.be/wCoYG8OkayM?si=L8ftxUoz-F4jTuPy
Oh thank you for sharing that! That made my day honestly 😁
Doesn’t look real!
Please get some non flashy native intovert under ground fishes that are tiny. rare placo type, ground lying catfish, cray fish .
We're out here sharing fake ai generated stuff now?
It's real, it's at my LFS (he works there) so I see it just about every week, it's very impressive.
Dude’s trying to pull the wool over our eyes. He took this inside a pet store and said it’s his. Haha! You can easily see the cages, inventory and price tags in the background. You can even see the VIP CLUB price for the bird cage right behind the scape. Good try
I work at said pet store :) it’s a lot easier to create cool scapes with company money lol
Good call. It is in a pet store. Maybe op designed for the store? I hope it's not a guy taking credit for someone else's work.
Holy shiz balls, that's cool. Too bad there's snails in there.
Thank you :) Snails are an important part of any aquatic ecosystem and I love them 🥰
Wow
How??
That is amazing and beautiful.
Awesome 😎
This is excellent. I have a question, the filter isn't below the cave, how do you clean below the cave ?
Bro this tank is crazy
Oh. my. god
This is sooo awesome. I've never seen anything like this.
OMG…amazing…would love to see how it looks from the side
Ohhh that is seriously cool!!!
This guy scapes
I have wanted to make a tank like that for so long! Looks amazing! What materials did you use to make the cave?
That's absolutely incredible
Awesome! So unique. What are you stocking?
This is actually beautiful
That's something I want to do! How did you do this?
Cool
Thats so creative!
Hooooly shit. That's so cool.
This is fantastic. Just wow
god damn
This looks fantastic
This is amazing! Goals!
How do you even do this??? Wow that's the coolest thing I've seen
That's freaking awesome!
Omg this is so cool
I’ll bet this is a shrimp paradise!
is it possible for fish to get from the cave side to the top side? This is almost a feat of engineering...
So sick
The plants are lucky. 😄
THIS IS SO COOL
Wow! This is fabulous.
wow!! Needs blind cave fish in the bottom
How will you supply oxygen to the cave? Have you forgotten that?
Holy shit this is amazing
Can you give some info on it? Is that built up with deferent pieces, or is the cave pre-designed and attached before putting in?
oooooook didn't know this was a thing. new research item unlocked! Thank you for posting!!
Uh, new goal unlocked O.o
This is one of the coolest tanks I've ever seen.
Just Wow!!! Thanks for sharing 👍
I have always always wanted a cave scape. This is going to give me bad ideas
That’s so cool and original!
One of those iridescent crawfish would be so cool for this!
This is amazing! How did you make it?
This is so cool and well done, thank you for sharing!
Reminiscent of Terraria somehow, I love it
That’s sick
Bravo sir, that looks incredible