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Hey all,

I just finished with the background for the new tank that I bought last saturday. Here is a couple of photos of the creativity process that led to the finished product. I guess in a sense this thread could have gone into the technical tinkering or the photo booth, but as it also has some serious aquascaping links. As I already have a thread about how to make these things in the tinkering section I decided to post this one here for you people who are interested in aquascaping, but who don't check the tinkering thread.

Here are the photos:
1: partially finished with the rough work. I first made an outline of how I wanted to make it look, then glued a piece of styrofoam onto each section to cover the separation line. I then used a sharp kitchen knife (real sharp!) to cut out the rough shape of the "rocks"


Dr. Bonke attached this image:

Here is the final product after the cutting process:

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

I then used a painstripper (hair dryer on steroids) to even out the round bobbly surface of the foam, and continued with painting the foam with epoxy paint. The paint was made darker with carbon powder.

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

Finally I glued the background into the tank with silicone kit, let it dry for 24 hours and this evening filled the tank with water, here is the final product:

Dr. Bonke attached this image:

Hi,
I guess it must be something I'm not doing, but I
did not see any pictures, just little square boxes
with a symbol inside

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Piccies work for me.

Frank, right-click and choose SHOW PICTURE if its still moody.

Looks good Dr Bonke Where do you get epoxy paint? and did you add sand to it for texture?

does the paint seal in the stripper? or did you manage to get that off?

I'm too scared to try that



For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Frank, the photos should work, try what Callatya suggested.

Callatya, I bought the epoxy paint in a paint shop, it was not easy to find as most epoxy paints are petrol based, and that would eat the styrofoam away as soon as you apply it. Instead you need to find a water based epoxy, also known as marine grade, I think the best places to look for it is in shops where they sell boat parts and the like, or maybe a surf shop.

does the paint seal in the stripper?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but the paint stripper is used on the naked styrofoam, before it is painted. This actually leaves quite a nice texture to the foam and I didn't feel the need for adding sand to the paint (which would have made painting more difficult too I think).

I'm too scared to try that

yeah, I know I was too when I tried it the first time about a year ago but I have not had any trouble with that first one, all the fish are happy, the angels spawn every 3 weeks or so and the background just looks so much better than anything you can buy for the amount of money it cost. I have no regrets... a bit of daring is all it takes

Hi,
This morning it worked! Perhaps I needed more patience
with this dialup system.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--