First attempt at building a fake background.

[thadmy]

I got a bowl from work that is 4 in deep by 5 inches wide by 12 long so I might use that. Not getting the frogs till Feb and only putting plants in next month so I still have time to decide. I think I'm going to set it up using my idea and your idea and let it run for a couple days and see what I like. Problem with your idea is if I plant my bamboo in it like I want it will be in the front since I don't want to slope it to the back then it just makes it hard to change the water.

Although I could try to figure out how to slope it to the side.

[DonLisk]

What about sticking the bamboo right into the back lower section of the GS background right at the bottom? They don't have to be in a pool of water and grow just about anywhere. If you angle the holes to get the overhanging effect with the bamboo, it will make places to climb and bamboo only needs a tiny bit of water to grow. In this case, the water source would be the water collected in your drainage layer.

I use to have bamboo in with my WTFs and I just set them into a pile of stones to support them standing upright. I eventually had to remove them though since they are now well over 3 feet high :-)

[thadmy]

That's actually a really good idea with the bamboo. Could you upload of pic of how you used the screen to make a pool. Did you just use the screen to separate the dirt from falling into the drainage layer.

[DonLisk]

I don't have a picture of it but you basically just hold the hydroballs back and place your stones in on top of the screen material. Have the stones come up high enough to meet your substrates top so it doesn't fall into the water area.

[thadmy]

So I hold push the hydroballs back then place the screen over that where I then place rocks over it and levels the rocks off with the land so it doesn't fall in

[DonLisk]

Sounds right. you can just make an area sectioned off by using eggcrate to create the frame of the pond area, then screen all of that so the hydroballs don't get into the pond. Place that on the bottom and design your ponds contours with stone coming up on the sides to stop substrates from mixing in.

[DonLisk]

Here are some images of members tanks to get some ideas for doing your pond area.










Hope these help.