3d background is finished

First topic message reminder :

like the title says my background is just about finished. it has gone through one full day with water and the pH seems fine. I guess the paint or something is keeping things from leaching into the water column. Im pretty excited. i think ill move it inside today and fill it up and let the water circulate via power head one more day(if i can be that patient). I was horrible about taking picture throught the process. I basically just have a list of materials and some before and after pics. so i picked up a

4'x8' sheet of 1" thich insulation foam (the pink stuff) @ home depot,
5 tubes of GE 1 clear silicone @walmart,
1 can great stuff (gaps and cracks) @ home depot,
4 cans of krylon fusion spray paint (forest green, satin black, some blue color, and a metallic black) @ walmart,
1 bag of quikcrete the sandmix @home depot.
1 plastic gutter guard

i already had paint brushes and knives for carving. i used a 4' level and square to make sure my base was square and level (redundant i know), and i used some gatorade bottles (that i cut the tops off of) to mix the concrete in.

I am not extremely artistic so carving this thing was a bit stressful at times. I didnt want to make it look crappy, since its a pretty permenant fixture in the tank now, and i couldnt keep the image of what i wanted in my head long enough to carve it out lol.

all in all im happy, I really like the character from the great stuff so i didnt concrete it. I just painted it. I really liked the character i got from the sand mix too, but when i do this again i will either do the whole thing using just great stuff (no concrete at all) or i will concrete everything. I may go ahead and concrete over the great stuff... i dont know yet. i think it will depend on how it looks with the lights and canopy on.

actually, i have a bunch of supplies if you need something.

wow that would be great. it is actually kinda hard to find the right kind of styro foam around here. its like they only put it on the shelfs when it is time for kids to do science fair projects. none of the local hardware stores have it or home depot. I mainly need Styrofoam. Let me get my thoughts collected and i will pm you on the specifics. thanks.

oh wow you arent local. let me find a link for you.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=14542-46086-121071&lpage=none

hopefully this link works for you. the have a variety of thicknesses, basically you just silicone layers togather. i got mine for like $12 this way. a 4'x8' sheet was more than enough for a 75 gallon tank. but i went back and bought more sheets because I was anticipating having more tanks to do.

oh... home depot carries it too, but for some reason i couldnt find it on their website.

Nice job! In pics it looks all black. I want to do a all black Obsidian BG next.

I ended up using the Terra Cotta concrete dye in my 46 and wasnt so pleased. After I added some multi colored river rock/coble it looked 100% better though.

It turned out much more red than the label says. I was going for a Mohave mud red look with mine.

Check Out mine.....It killed 12 fish when i first put it in so i took it out and soaked it a few days now it awesome and no dead fish

Very nice. There is going to be some breeding in there for sure.

Badass! What fish do you have in there>

bmrdixon wrote:

Check Out mine.....It killed 12 fish when i first put it in so i took it out and soaked it a few days now it awesome and no dead fish

were did you get those cichlid stones at?

Get the stones here they are cheapest that i can find:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=21383

Tim that is amazing i really want to give this a shot now... i will be using your design if you don't mind

Great Job!

micahsutton wrote:

Tim that is amazing i really want to give this a shot now... i will be using your design if you don't mind

yea it looks good but it wasnt my design :) i just quoted someone

thats really cool

not me. it seems like fun tho.

Love the 3-d backgrounds.

I should try one on my empty 45! (with out the wife knowing of course)

Im trying to find a source for some of the thicker styrofoam. Im talking 12" thick. I seen some on a jobsite i was at a couple weeks ago, but they didn't want to get rid of it,

I've been collecting different types of styrofoam for an ancient ruin scene. I figure PVC pipes for the columns coated in cement but haven't figured that one out yet. If and when I start I wil take pics of the project.

I started to make one of these today for my 29 gallon. So far looks awesome. will do the coat of cement tomorrow though. Took mostly all day to get the carvings done. I'm not doing a rock cement background though. I'm doing an ancient city background. The City of Petra to be exact.

This is the picture I found and liked for my background:


These are some pictures of my background cut out and placed on the styrofoam ready for cement tomorrow:

Looks good so far Bernie, good job!!

Thanks! I been working hard on it. If you decide you want to make one I can help. Its fairly easy. I'll post pictures of final results.

Thanks Masroberts for idea!

That is nice,I am thinking of doing one in a 58g for africans.cant wait to see final photos.

Congratz! i'll love to see some pics!!!