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I tried to make a base with a puddle. I made a hole then covered the base in sand, painted it and filled the hole with gloss medium. Cracks formed in the base. Why did this happen and would it work with other forms of medium? It looks cool, it's just not what I expected. I can't post pics right now for reasons I won't get into.

Gloss medium isn't supposed to be used to make puddles - it's not water-effects style material. That's likely why it cracked. Also, water-effects and similar materials can crack due to temeperature (extreme cold in particular).

For that kind of work you need to purchase actual materials made for that, often found in train hobby shops:

Also you may have applied a too thick a layer to start with. If youre using proper resin for water you need to do thin layers, 3mm max.

Gloss medium is shiny paint without pigment. As the water evaporated out leaving behind the base materials (usually latex acrylic for water based paints) it shrinks a little. Too thick a layer will dry unevenly and crack