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find me the thread!

Nick16

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13 Aug 2008
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Location
Surrey, UK
hey guys, im looking for a thread on a DIY aquarium background. im fairly sure it was on this forum but i could be wrong!

someone made a background using expandable foam and i cant for the life of me find the topic. been searching for several days now! (its not the ukaps vivarium thread)

any help would be super
 
sorry, i didnt want the vivarium one!

i remember someone posting this thread a while back. maybe 6-8 months or more...

what is the easiest way to do it? sprayfoam and polystyrene and then paint it with some kind of quick drying concrete?

will that not leach really badly? on a 4x2x2, i cant keep filling and emptying as it takes ages!
 
Well it depends on what you are tying to achieve - black polyurethane spray foam is by far the easiest way to cover a side or back of a glass tank.
Polyurethane foam expands while curing & you can effectively spray it straight from a disposable can onto the inside of your empty tank or spray onto a suitable piece of PVC cut to size.
I prefer to use a purpose foam gun but they cost about £35 & a tin of foam about £8, you get far more control with a gun but, it is possible to achieve good effect with a disposable can (£7)
Next up - polystyrene sheet, comes in various thickness but might only be available in 2.4 x 1.2 mts sheets.
A 100mm sheet cost about £20 however it is easy to work with & you can get some great effects.
You need to cut the poly with a craft knife, use coarse sand paper to get the design & then lightly melt with a flame gun!
This shrinks the poly & give a very realistic rock face effect but, you then need to coat the finished design with an epoxy based paint, as most paint will melt the poly.
Epoxy is expensive, I buy by the gallon which cost about £70, you would need less but possibly £20 worth.
Next option would be polyurethane sheet foam, like house insulation. Cheaper to buy because it comes in small sheets, easy to carve & can be coated with various products like G4 pond paint or colored polyurethane paints.
some folk use cement based product but, I cant help you there!
I did put a few pics here viewtopic.php?f=20&t=12691
I think the best ones i have made have been the polystyrene ones as you can not only get great effects but by adding texture onto the wet epoxy, like black sand or other minerals, you can get even better looking results.
Just bear in mind it would be a lot easier & probably cheaper to buy a ready made backdrop!
 
i see, cheers for the info guys. one thought that keeps arising is filtration?
im not bothered about a background hiding my filters, but how would i go about getting enough flow etc. obviously i dont want them hidden behind the background when all the **** is infront of it. but with a 3 or 4 inch background mu filter pipes wont loop over the edge of the tank, and that, so i have a slight problem! i suppose i could cut a small hole at the bottom and run the inlet pipe down the back and then poke it out doown the bottom, but it all involves cutting small channels out of the polystyrene. i could place all the filter pipes and then cover them with spray foam but then i cant get the pipes out to clean!
 
I am glad I got the wrong post now! lol.
As this has turned out to be a very helpful thread :)
 
Ok how about this for a suggestion - buy a tin of black foam or even ordinary yellow foam from your locale Diy store, get a piece of hardboard or similar & have a practice!
The benefit of 3D backgrounds is the very fact you can hide within there structure any pipe work, simply foam over a few pieces of 32mm sink waste pipe fitted with bends, that way you can just past down you filter pipe & remove as you will.
You cold set in various pieces of pipe or small jam jars etc to create caves or add sponge or lava rock to add dimension....in fact you could create a complete lava rock wall & have a effective filter in its self...
P1010231.jpg


P1010233.jpg


P1010234.jpg
 
thats awesome mate, i didnt think of putting the filter tubing into a piece of pipe. that would work fine for the inlet, as i can have the tip poking out the bottom to suck everything in, but what are your suggestions for the spraybars?
im thinking of leaving a small horizontal gap of 2 inches along the top for the spraybar.

excellent info.
 
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