DIY Waterfall help

[th08tu]

Hello everybody,
I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for materials to use to build a waterfall for my river tank. I already have a pump/filter that will work great, however I am a bit unsure on what are good material to use as the structure to go around the filter. I went to home depot and picked up some plastic mesh, and Great Stuff, thinking I could build a U shaped structure around it however that created a huge mess, and after the tube broke my hands are now covered in Great Stuff. Anyways has anybody ever made their own water fall, and how did you build the structure to hide the filter and pump? Any ideas and experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Everybody!

 

[BigJim]

Slate and epoxy or silicone can be used to build pretty neat structures. A moss wall using mesh and moss could also be used.

 

[gzeiger]

Material selection is going to depend somewhat on how you want it to look. My first thought was to make a hollow log. This would be some considerable amount of work, but hollowing out a large piece of wood and sticking the pump down inside it I think would look really cool.

Alternately I agree that aquarium-safe silicone is the optimal bonding material if you want something that looks like pebbles or even slightly larger rocks. Plastic mesh might be an ok structure to attach things to, but you'd have to make it sturdy and shape it before you started applying silicone. Maybe zip-ties could be used for that.

If the tank this is going in hasn't been set up yet, or could be emptied, you could place some egg crate across the bottom and use it to anchor heavier structures.

You can get small lengths (inch or 1.5 inch) of small diameter PVC pipe at a hardware store. I got some at Home Depot for about $1.50 for a bag of ten pieces. You can stick them together with superglue, which is aquarium safe when cured, into something that would be structurally strong, easy to make in the shape you want, and would naturally allow flow to a pump placed inside or behind. You could attach rocks or wood with silicone to hide the white pipe.

 

[th08tu]

I like the idea of hollowing out a log and using that. It wouldn't be too hard I have all the tools I would need just have to find a log. Thanks for all your ides I will keep you posted!