Okay, so if you didn't read my old posts, I started a DIY background oh, about a month ago. I was really pumped cause I saw some youtube videos and was like "That's so cool!" So I tried to follow their instructions. But it was failure from the beginning.
First of all, I planned to make the entire thing over my 1 week easter vacation. I only had 4 days to make it, since I was going out of town to snowboard, so I was already in a rush.
Second, I bought the wrong type of cement mix, as you can see from the pics below, when I got to mixing it, it wasn't just like a powder, it had like rocks/pebbles (alot) just mixed in.
Third, I didn't have a spare tank, so I had to throw my current fish in a bucket with the previous tank's filter, heater, airline, etc... (as you can see below).
Fourth, since I was rushed on time, I only gave each "layer" (I say "layer, but it was more like dirty water) a day to harden and cure. I only did 3 layers.
Fifth, I had to make 2 pieces so it would fit through the slot in my tank, since it's an acrylic, and after I siliconed the pieces in the tank, I realized that it looked like **** with a huge crevice in the middle, so I decided to be dumb and make a thick layer to try and fill in the gaps (Biggest mistake). I ended up making it look really ****ty, it just looked like a concrete wall.
Sixth, I kept with the plan and tried to make it work. I let it sit with tap water and seachem neutral regulator trying to leech the concrete (oh yeah, I was too cheap to buy resin/epoxy).
Seventh, At the beginning of this week, I decided to try to do the quick fill and drain method (in my bathtub) to keep the concrete from leeching (wasted a lot of water)
Eighth, Since the fill and drain method didn't work too well even after the 8th fill, I decided to go out into my backyard and fill and drain it really fast with the hose. Unfortunately, I have the hose with the adapter thing that lets you open and close the circulation. Well, I decided to try and "quickly" do it, so I pressurized the hose, but little did I know that all the water pressure that was going into the water was making the concrete slowly chip off. As you can see in that last pic, you can now clearly see the styrafoam background and it looks like ****. Literally, my brother saw it and said it looks like a bird **** on it.
Well, I just thought I'd share and see what you guys think. I plan to try and take out the entire background gonna be hard since I siliconed it with about half the tube) and redo it now that I learned from my mistakes.
For the new project, I plan to add 3 layers of styrofoam rather than 2 so I can add more depth. I also plan to use concrete that doesn't leach (thorite) so I don't have to worry about the pH. I also plan to put a coat or two of resin (if I can find the cash). And I plan to use a sponge filter, since I want to make it a mainly multi tank for now that will be breeding and I want to save as many fry as possible (the sponge filter is actually a maybe, I might stick with the hob since its not so obtrusive looking, cause if my new project comes out looking decent, I might want to show people.)
here's my temp tank/ bucket thing where I keep the fish to keep the bacteria so i can seed teh tank when i'm ready.
Here's the steps I took to make it (doesn't look to bad at first)
Here is where it starts to go downhill
Notice the sand I'm pulling out of what should be the mix for the first layer? I couldn't get all the small sand grains out so when I went to putting on the layers, it had tiny rocks in it. At first, I thought it made it look cool, but then I realized that the rocks started falling off in the water and pulled chunks of cement with it, exposing the white styrofoam.
Did 2 more layers, looked fine, but then I added that 4th layer.
heres what it looked like the day after the 4th layer in the tank with water circulating.
After 2 weeks i decide its going too slow and do start the fill and drain method in my tub.
Here's what it looked like after that; notice that arrowhead water dispenser; yeh thats my water transport (the bathroom is not near my room).
And then here's what it looked like after today.
Don't forget to tell me what you think of my new plan. I really wanted to start this weekend, even though I'm probably gonna study my ass off for my AP world exam.
First of all, I planned to make the entire thing over my 1 week easter vacation. I only had 4 days to make it, since I was going out of town to snowboard, so I was already in a rush.
Second, I bought the wrong type of cement mix, as you can see from the pics below, when I got to mixing it, it wasn't just like a powder, it had like rocks/pebbles (alot) just mixed in.
Third, I didn't have a spare tank, so I had to throw my current fish in a bucket with the previous tank's filter, heater, airline, etc... (as you can see below).
Fourth, since I was rushed on time, I only gave each "layer" (I say "layer, but it was more like dirty water) a day to harden and cure. I only did 3 layers.
Fifth, I had to make 2 pieces so it would fit through the slot in my tank, since it's an acrylic, and after I siliconed the pieces in the tank, I realized that it looked like **** with a huge crevice in the middle, so I decided to be dumb and make a thick layer to try and fill in the gaps (Biggest mistake). I ended up making it look really ****ty, it just looked like a concrete wall.
Sixth, I kept with the plan and tried to make it work. I let it sit with tap water and seachem neutral regulator trying to leech the concrete (oh yeah, I was too cheap to buy resin/epoxy).
Seventh, At the beginning of this week, I decided to try to do the quick fill and drain method (in my bathtub) to keep the concrete from leeching (wasted a lot of water)
Eighth, Since the fill and drain method didn't work too well even after the 8th fill, I decided to go out into my backyard and fill and drain it really fast with the hose. Unfortunately, I have the hose with the adapter thing that lets you open and close the circulation. Well, I decided to try and "quickly" do it, so I pressurized the hose, but little did I know that all the water pressure that was going into the water was making the concrete slowly chip off. As you can see in that last pic, you can now clearly see the styrafoam background and it looks like ****. Literally, my brother saw it and said it looks like a bird **** on it.
Well, I just thought I'd share and see what you guys think. I plan to try and take out the entire background gonna be hard since I siliconed it with about half the tube) and redo it now that I learned from my mistakes.
For the new project, I plan to add 3 layers of styrofoam rather than 2 so I can add more depth. I also plan to use concrete that doesn't leach (thorite) so I don't have to worry about the pH. I also plan to put a coat or two of resin (if I can find the cash). And I plan to use a sponge filter, since I want to make it a mainly multi tank for now that will be breeding and I want to save as many fry as possible (the sponge filter is actually a maybe, I might stick with the hob since its not so obtrusive looking, cause if my new project comes out looking decent, I might want to show people.)
here's my temp tank/ bucket thing where I keep the fish to keep the bacteria so i can seed teh tank when i'm ready.
Here's the steps I took to make it (doesn't look to bad at first)
Here is where it starts to go downhill
Notice the sand I'm pulling out of what should be the mix for the first layer? I couldn't get all the small sand grains out so when I went to putting on the layers, it had tiny rocks in it. At first, I thought it made it look cool, but then I realized that the rocks started falling off in the water and pulled chunks of cement with it, exposing the white styrofoam.
Did 2 more layers, looked fine, but then I added that 4th layer.
heres what it looked like the day after the 4th layer in the tank with water circulating.
After 2 weeks i decide its going too slow and do start the fill and drain method in my tub.
Here's what it looked like after that; notice that arrowhead water dispenser; yeh thats my water transport (the bathroom is not near my room).
And then here's what it looked like after today.
Don't forget to tell me what you think of my new plan. I really wanted to start this weekend, even though I'm probably gonna study my ass off for my AP world exam.
