DIY: Turn an Old Aquarium into a Cloud Tank & Create Creepy Alien Atmosphere Effects

Turn an Old Aquarium into a Cloud Tank & Create Creepy Alien Atmosphere Effects

Need some creepy visual effects for your alien flick, but don't want to spend a bunch of money? With some pretty basic materials, you can turn an empty aquarium into a "cloud tank," which can be used to create several different atmospheric effects. Before Hollywood started using CGI, cloud tanks were used for scenes in a lot of famous movies. Remember this one?

Besides Raiders of the Lost Ark, cloud tanks also helped make some wonderful non-CGI effects in Independence Day, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Never ending Story, and Poltergeist.

Making one is a lot easier than you'd thing. All you need is a big aquarium, some rock salt, water, and basic food coloring.

After boiling the rock salt in water (350mL for every 2 gallons) for 20 minutes, he fills the bottom 2/5 of the tank with the salt water. Then, after letting it settle for 4 hours, he very slowly fills the rest of the tank with fresh water, using a tarp to create two separate layers. That's it for the setup. To create the different effects, he uses a combination of food colorings, condensed milk, sprinkles, and glitter.