This instructable will show you how to make a cool 3D background that goes inside your aquarium and looks like real rock but only weighs less then a couple of pounds.
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Signing UpStep 1: What you need
You will need the following
Tools
Razor or Box knife
Foam cutter or maybe electric knife (both are optional)
Ruler or other sutible straight edge
Marker (sharpie)
Tape measure
Caulking gun
Hot glue gun (optional)
Cheap paint brushes, all sizes
Wire brushes
small buckets
Tarp (optional, to keep mess at a min)
Materials
1 inch pink foam board (the kind you buy at Home Depot or Lowes)
100% Silicone for caulking gun (GE silicone 1 is what some recommend) I used the Red Devil Architectural Grade. As long as it does not contain any mold or mildew inhibitors and is 100% silicone it should be fine. The less ingrediants the better IMHO.
hot glue (optional)
Cement or cement overlay
Cement coloring (optional)
Small finishing nails
Note on pink foam: There are two types, one has a plastic cover on it (vapor barrier I think?) and the other does not. I bought the one that did not have the plastic on it. If you buy the one with the plastic on it, you will have to peel the plastic off. Also if you have access or want to buy more foam, you can buy several thickness of the stuff to help create different thick and thin layers. I just used one sheet of 1 inch stuff and glued it together to get the thickness I wanted.
Note on hot glue: I have read where some people used hot glue to glue everything together instead of silicone. It is faster and it shouldn't pose a threat to your fish. I used a combination of both, hot glue on the smaller pieces and silicone on the larger pieces. Its up to you. Trying to get hot glue to come out in the quantity I needed on some of the large pieced didnt work.
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1) How hard is it to keep clean? I know you mention you scrub it occasionally but is that no big deal or does it become an all afternoon event?
2) Do you really have to glue it to the tank? Seems so permanent. Have you ever experimented with other options for keeping it in place?
I love this instructable and i'm thinking about doing it on my 75 gal turtle tank
Im not sure how you would attach it to the wall any other way except with some sort of suction cup method. I thought about that when I started but with fish, I thought by suction cupping it to the back wall would create a pocket to where fish might get trapped back there. If your turtle was big enough I suppose maybe attaching suction cups to the back of the wall and sticking it to the tank would work.
Another method might be to cut it so it fits the entire height of the back of the tank tightly and then put some large rocks along the bottom, the lip of the tank should hold it down and the rocks at the bottom might hold it in...having it in a turtle tank this way might make it easier to clean because it could be removed. I may have to try this on our turtle tank....
A. Grower Wholesaler
And how heavy was the final product?
My only issue with this scale of a wall is that my tank is probably 1/3 of yours, if not smaller (a square 50 gallon, if I remember correctly). Would you say that the wall would still fit in well?
i hope can make like this
thanks
one question in my mind. use cement for color that any side effect to fish.reply plzzzzzz.
You can use expanding foam (Great Stuff Brand) in place of hot glue. It is fish safe. Pond builders use it to secure "stones" when making waterfalls in ponds.
With Goldfish you should consider other cool water fish.
I like the high finned Chinese banded sharks (bad name for a great fish IMO) with goldfish, they are very docile and add a different color / shape to the tank.
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jskoga/Aquariums/myxocyprinus/myxocyprinus.html
Another nice cool water fish that do well with goldfish are White Cloud Minnows-
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_tanictis.php
They are nice fish, visually similar to neon tetras when young and they school quite nicely as well.
Plants will be tuff with goldfish, unless you plant them in pots. Tera cotta work well as do the cheap plastic ones you get from the nursery. A quick coating of Krylon Fusion paint makes them more appealing, and small stones as a top dressing should help disuade the gold fish from digging too badly in the pots.
Plain clay kitty litter makes an excellent aquatic potting soil, BTW.
I would also recommend either Mystery snails or apple snails to help clean the tank. I know some fish keepers aren't fond of snails because they either reproduce in huge numbers or eat all your plants, but these don't eat plants and lay egg clutches above the water line where they can be removed if you don't want babies (they can also be sold on aquatic auction sites like AquaBid.com)
As an aside, perhaps an instructable or explanation of fishless tank cycling would be helpful. I am familiar with cycling an aquarium using straight ammonia and assume this is what you are referring to.
Good luck with your aquarium, it looks good so far.
Very nice, well done. I wish I had your artistic abilities.
BTW, I'm a forum member at a fish geek site called aquaboards.com, I posted a link to this instructable in their DIY section. I hope you don't mind. I thought it might bring some people here who might never hear about instructables otherwise.
I keep my goldfish outside in a horse trough, I cut and set it into the front porch / deck. It has been running year round for the last 10 years and the goldfish are all very healthy. Much cheaper and longer lasting than a preformed plastic pond.
Usually you have to wait for a verification email from the site admin before you can log in. It's sort of tedious, but the owner is trying to keep the forum spamming to a minimum.
You don't have to be a member to read the Forum, AFAIK, only to post or reply.
Here is the link-
http://www.aquaboards.com/showthread.php?72604-DIY-background
Aquaboards and instructables are my must check daily websites, so I was hoping some of those posters might find their way here. It is an older age demo, so maybe not, but stranger things have happened.