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I've always had a tank on this in my mind. This is what my finished outcome should resemble:

http://yoga4.org/gif/ker/ker-010101-001.jpg

The tank will be a 100 G - 180 G tank.

The problems I've having is, the tank would need tons and tons of rock, and that would cost me alot of money and also be very heavy. So I've decided to make all the rocks out of styrafoam and use black tahitan mooon sand mixed with grey sand for the substrate...

How would it be possible to hold down all the styrafoam?? Should I use TONS of silicone?? Is there anything else people could reccomend??

And the second thing is lighting, which I want to resemble that. Anyone know where i can get or order lights like that?? I'm thinking about using some high wattage LED lights..

Thanks!

Wow that sounds awsome! Sounds liek a lot of work, Id love to see pics when your done

Im not sure but is styrofoam dangerous to fish. cant they eat it.

have a butchers at this thread that Bonke did on styrofoam.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/thread.asp?id=38674

Hi InkoDinkoMalinko,

You're preobably going to need loads of silicone to keep it all down, but if you'll bee keeping African Ciclids in it, or other fish that like hard/high-pH water, then you could consider coating the styrofoam with cement. It will make the styrofoam heavier, so you'll need less silicone. I've seen a couple of sites where they made rocks from styrofoam and it looked fantastic.

Here is a link to a DIY background where they used cement, a bit of google searching should get you many more examples.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_background.php

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The fish wont eat the styrafoam, the styrafoam will actually be spray painted, then epoxied, etc to become fish safe.

Bonke, the link is where it got the idea going

Concrete would be pretty hard for me to use, as i'm 16 and would have to make arrangements to pick up concrete mixes and such.

Bonke, do you have any tips on how to spray paint the styrafoam to give it an natural look? I'm thinking about black and grey.

One idea I have is putting slate on the bottom, and siliconing it. The slate would first be pre drilled with a drill-bit to attach a pole of some sort which would be fish safe. The styrafoam would have a hole drilled through it which would fit onto the pole, hiding the pole and giving it structure.

Think it'll work?

That would be awesome. But, depending how large the hole at the top is, cleaning would be a nightmare. Take the good with the bad, I guess.

Bonke, do you have any tips on how to spray paint the styrafoam to give it an natural look? I'm thinking about black and grey.

Well, first of all you're going to have to be careful with the kind of paint you use. I think most spray paints from can are based on chemicals that will eat your styrofoam when you apply it, which would make it horribly hard to apply it evenly. If you can find a water based spray paint that should not be a problem, or if you have a compressor with airbrush you can mix your own paint and then you don't have to worry at all. This last option would be most optimal I think. With my background I didn't use any spraypaint, but just brushed it on, it was not something I particularly enjoyed, it took forever.

Adding the layer of epoxy later on is going to be quite important, especially if you're not using any kind of special fish-safe paint. With the extensive cave setup that you have in mind this part is going to be a looong job.

One idea I have is putting slate on the bottom, and siliconing it. The slate would first be pre drilled with a drill-bit to attach a pole of some sort which would be fish safe. The styrafoam would have a hole drilled through it which would fit onto the pole, hiding the pole and giving it structure.

Yeah, I think it might, if you use for instance a PVC pipe, fix that to the slate with some nylon bolts or something else inert, and then add some braces through the pipe after you slide (and glue with silicone) a piece of foam onto it. I'd suggest to first experiment a little and see if it really works before completely finishing the details and painting of the styrofoam. Oh and drilling through the foam will be difficult unless you keep them as thin pieces that are no thicker than your standard drill is long.

Just as overall advice: plan every step before buying and starting the whole process, it is going to be an awful lot of work and it would be most depressing if you'd find out halfway into the process that it isn't going to work.

good luck,
Martin

Thanks for all the great help. Haha yes, cleaning is going to be a pain, but being a 100-180 gallon with frontosas, I dont think it'll be too messy .

Still worried about painting it..i dont want to loose half my brain cells either!

I might use acrylic water based paint..not sure..

After thinking about it, i might experiment with my old 10 or 20 gallon first...just so i dont screw up a 100 gallon .

Any sites that have like, epoxy sold by gallons for cheap?

Just a though on filtration, maybe i should use aquaclears with the input tube connected to PVC pipes, which would be channeled underneath the substrate to get the stuff off the bottom??? Unless I should make a sump.

Edit: went to the store and got a piece of styrofoam and blank and grey paint...so i went home and tried it out, god is it a pain to cut the styrofoam!! well i made a background for my 2.5 gallon, and a piece for the bottom as long as two rocks and a pillar thingy, took 2 hours to do..dont know how long it'll take for a 100 gallon O_O.



[span class="edited"][Edited by inkodinkomalinko 2004-08-05 21:06][/span]