Waterproofing Paper Aquascape

[Joe_Shafe]

I need help. I am currently designing a new tank for my desk in my room. It will be a small 10 gallon tank that will sit right by where I will do most of my school work. So as a theme for the tank and a way to save money and have fun I want to build the aquascape out of paper with doodles of things on them. For example a doodled seaweed type plant as a decoration. What I need to know is, is this possible? Is there anyway to safely waterproof cutouts of paper, like the plant, or papier mache structures like a piece of driftwood. I don't know if it's too hard to visualize but maybe I can get some pictures up soon. But essentially I want to make the decorations for the tank out of paper then waterproof them safely and use them in the tank. Any thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Joe

 

[reptileman]

That sounds like a really cool idea!

The only thing i could think to do is get some aquarium safe sealant and covers them in 1-2 layers of it and allow them to cure?

Or maybe even laminating them? and cutting them out with 5mm-1cm of extra laminant at the edge of the paper to hold the seal?

 

[Joe_Shafe]

The laminating sounds like a good idea, any ideas for larger items like the driftwood piece out of paper. Thanks for the feedback btw.

 

[delta]

Sounds cool. I'm not sure if any of the paint on resin products listed in the link below might work for your papier mache items. Of course you'd have to make sure that there was nothing in them that might leach out in to the water and poison your fish but plenty of aquarium ornaments are made from resin these days so there must be aquarium safe resin out there somewhere.

Resin Products

Look forward to pics