Making an aquarium with your own hands: the basic rules for decorating and decorating it

The aquarium can rightfully be considered one of the most interesting elements of the interior. The design of the premises with its help allows not only to effectively decorate the room and emphasize individuality, but also to change the overall design. When creating works of art, quite affordable materials and simple techniques are most often used. In order to start decorating an aquarium with your own hands, you need to choose the main style that you should adhere to throughout the entire work.

General rules for decorating an aquarium with your own hands

In decorating, as in any other activity, there are certain well-established execution techniques. When creating decorations for an aquarium with your own hands, you should follow the simplest rules that will make the work easier and safer. These should include:

• before performing work, move the fish to another vessel filled with water. Subsequently it is preferable to use the same water, for this, pour half the contents to where the fish will wait, and after completion of the work, return the water back;
• the aquarium is completely cleaned, including all parts that cannot be replaced;
• items for installation inside should also be processed;
• after installing all the elements, make sure everything is securely fastened.

The main styles of aquarium design

Whatever the chosen style, the basics of decorating can be reduced to several ways:

• decoration with the help of natural and artificial objects;
• background work;
• use of backlight.

These three tools represent opportunities for a wide scope of imagination and the realization of the most daring ideas with your own hands. Making an aquarium can be a very inexpensive process if you use items found or made on your own. In addition, different stylistic trends require different accessibility interior items.

In our country, the Dutch style is often used in the design. The direction that came to us from the Netherlands immediately fell in love with fans of keeping fish. The decoration is based on groups of plants planted throughout the aquarium in groups, from large to small. To create such an interior inside the water world with your own hands, you need to plant plants at a distance of 10 cm from each other, this will allow them to grow and not interfere with each other. You can give brightness to the aquarium by use of algae of various colorsby combining them at your discretion.

No less beautiful can be called a Japanese style called “Rock Garden”. Such an aquarium will ideally fit into minimalist or high-tech interiors, giving them a special atmosphere of comfort. The basis here is the feeling of spaciousness, achieved through the use of a minimum of details. Most often, bright soil and 3-4 large stones are used for decoration, located in the center and creating a feeling of rock fragments. Also, figures of ships or statues in a single copy are often used.

Marine style is full of shells, corals, reef fragments, everything that is often found in the real ocean. Right here perfect sunken schooner, treasure chest or sea monster cave. It is better to choose cold tones as lighting here, and make the background darker, this will give a complete sense of immersion.

The most interesting is the antique style of the aquarium. Small copies of monuments and architectural elements of the ancient world are used here as decorations. When designing an aquarium that meets the latest trends, Greek motifs are often used, however, you can also use ancient Slavic objects, something related to the Maya or Egypt. Such decorations will emphasize individuality and make the aquarium unique.

Useful tips for decorating aquariums

When designing the interior of the aquarium, you need to pay attention to the following points:

• to visually increase the depth, use the background;
• an ordinary plate will help in creating the effect of an uneven bottom, placing it on the bottom during the pouring process, you can get a kind of mound;
• it is more convenient to fasten the elements with the help of cotton thread or fishing line;
• it is better to wash the aquarium not with a chemical agent and not with soap, warm water with a 5% solution of vinegar is more suitable;
• as background water protection special paper is used, sold in pet stores;
• pet store materials look fake, it is better to create decorations with your own hands by collecting materials on the beach or near lakes;
• bacteria living on self-collected objects are destroyed by boiling for 5-7 minutes;
• you can check the suitability of self-collected materials for placement in an aquarium using vinegar. If it hisses or foams when hit, the item will not work;
• wooden elements must be strong, rotten snags will quickly crumble;
• it is preferable not to use oak for decoration, it tends to color the water in the aquarium by releasing a special enzyme;
• for small fish, shallow ground is used, while large individuals look better with a combination or entirely consisting of relatively large stones.

Interesting Aquarium Decoration Ideas

Making an aquarium with your own hands, it is possible to make it unique, for example, by creating a mini-waterfall inside. This effect can be achieved by drawing a light stripe on a dark stone with a porous sponge. For more complex falsification, sand is used. With the help of a compressor, it is blown out, simulating the movement of water flows. The precipitated sand is collected in a tank and the process is repeated.

A voluminous background will look advantageous. Decoration is easy to do by yourself, material can be foam, which effortlessly takes the form of stones and rocks. You can make the result smooth by firing, in the process the ornament will fuse and get a smooth outline. The product is processed with cement grade 500, then it is sprinkled with sand and tinted with a collector. It is best to fix the decoration with a sealant.

Thematic decorations for the holidays will make a huge variety, for example, a Christmas tree for the New Year or a small cupid for Valentine’s Day will surprise your guests and make the design unique. These elements are installed in the aquarium with their own hands quite simply and bring a lot of joy, creating a festive atmosphere.

An aquarium, designed independently, will bring many pleasant moments of joy and tranquility. With the proper approach, do-it-yourself decoration will leave only positive emotions and a long memory of a pleasant pastime. You can change the interior inside a small water world quite often, the main thing is do not forget about the quality of materials and safety its inhabitants.