Making Diy Styrofoam Background (update-more Pictures)

[Scott MacAdam]

I just got a yellow lab for my backgrounded tank today! so neat looking, i love the vibrant color! so you have some, and idea on sexing them? is there any identifiable male/female differences? I may get a pair not sure yet though.....

 

[Hobbit]

to sexx, the dominant male is usallu reaaly bold on his anal adn dorsal black stripe, and the famael doesnt really have much of an anal stripe. shes usually much smaller, when they're both full grown. The stripe isnt reall helpfull, since so many of these are hybrids nawadays. They are really fun

 

[Scott MacAdam]

cool, i'll look for that, so far there is NO black on the anal fin at all but then again it is only about 1/2 an inch long! hahaha we will see in a few months to see if anything devlops

 

[Hobbit]

thats cool. mine are about 1.5 inches, and i dont know whats wrong. one is looking sick right now. Its my worst one, but still-- I dont want that money down the drain. Remember , urs probably had a hybrid in its line somewhere. If i were you, and my fish actually stayed alive I'd just buy like 3 more, its fun to watch them all claim a cave, and watch them chase eachother off, then scholl up at feeding time. Once the pair forms, they may begin sharing a cave

 

[BLASK]

excellent work on the how-to, any opinions on covering it in resin?

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Well there is some jugs of non-toxic epoxy to seal any chemicals if you are using an paint or anything like that but i only used cement and sand, the sand i got my self from a local beach and washed out, the cement I allowed to "Cure" (basically just sitting in salt water for like a week doing a few water changes to bring it back to fresh, pulls out all the chemicals that it would normaly let out into the water) so now i have a fish in there and no toruble yet, it seems to like it and there is no signs of any water pollutants affecting it, but i am still going to do a 20% change every 2 days for the next week just incase the cement is still letting out any trace of chemicals, but i'm pretty sure it's not.

 

[Squishiebabe]

any more pics?

 

[Scott MacAdam]

here it is as it stands, i've added some neat plants and stuff to lkiven it up but once they all root themselves it will look better!

other than that, no problems yet with the water, all the fish and plants have thrived so that's what makes me believe that no toxins have leaked out....

if i change it around i'll post another pic! any ideas/comments?

 

[Scott MacAdam]

look closely and you can see my yellow lab looking through the lower center hole!
and you can see the other on the side of the tank by the wood and plant

 

[Cheffi]

Looks really good but I see a face there looking at me

 

[Scott MacAdam]

hahahaha yes , i know, the face...... ugh. i cut random holes to start and didn't think anything of it untill i put it up vertically and saw this face like figure. i tried to take empathsis away from it but it really is hard to do! hahahaha! o well my fish seem to like it!

 

[Ava_Banana]

Now that looks very good............very inspirational.

.....what type of cement did you use.............was it builders cement......or some other type?

thanks..

 

[Scott MacAdam]

Yeah it's just regular cement, i think it was a small box of "Poly" something or other, hahahahaha. just regular stuff but if you wanted to make somethig bigger (mine is in a 10 gallon , a starter project) just grab a big bag of cement from a hardware or building supplies store, But you's have to either cure it for a while or buy a big bottle of non-toxic epoxy and seal it all in, i cured it my self and it worked fine, but there is a guide near the start and all the info about how i cured it is on the first or second page i think, if you have any questions just write here and i'll get back to you soon!

 

[shuhu]

Hi, thats looks great!!

how long did you let you background dry out before putting it underwater with salt to cure it???

 

[mr.dark-saint]

If it still floats you might drill some holes in the solid portions of the foam and fill it with marbles or stones then epoxy the hole closed. Or have you thought about making a mold then pouring cement? (no floating problems here) Basically get a 2X4 and nail or make a frame out of it on top of a plywood back in the size of the backing size of the tank (if it's 24 inches long X 15 inches tall then make the inner diameter to that). Then pack it with dirt (clay like works best) and then carve out the shapes (make sure it's not too detailed or fragile since you're going to pour cement in to it). Here you're just making a negative so whatever you take out will be the shape of the finished project. After you got your shape you can sprinkle sand or pebbles then pour the cement.

After it cures enough to pull out do so and then let it finish drying out (and wet it down per instructions). After it hardens let it leach out in a container big enough. Test the leach out water until it's not off the scale and toxic. This shouldn't have any problem sinking. You can remove some of the cement by scooping it out from more of the solid areas before it hardens to lighten the load.