240g Acrylic tank build thread (PIC HEAVY)

[Steve_C]

thanks guys. well sad to say there will be no more progress for at least the next week or so. i was moving a small older 20g tank yesterday and didn't see an edge chip it had. as i sat it down it sliced my hand open really badly. about 5" long and a good 1/4" or more deep. right in the bend of my palm so gonna be hard to keep sealed together unless i just stop doing anything with it for at least the next week or so. sucks

...and typing one handed is not much fun either, sorry for the lack of caps lol

 

[Clothsack]

thanks guys. well sad to say there will be no more progress for at least the next week or so. i was moving a small older 20g tank yesterday and didn't see an edge chip it had. as i sat it down it sliced my hand open really badly. about 5" long and a good 1/4" or more deep. right in the bend of my palm so gonna be hard to keep sealed together unless i just stop doing anything with it for at least the next week or so. sucks

...and typing one handed is not much fun either, sorry for the lack of caps lol

Oh wow. be carefull dude! you should take some rest

 

[PDRed302]

Sorry to hear about your hand.

Really digging the setup and the work thus far, make sure to keep us posted as the project continues!

 

[Steve_C]

After cutting my hand about a month ago I had to take a break from working on this project while it healed. The hand has been back to pretty much good as new now for about the past 2 weeks but during that downtime for some reason I just kind of lost a bit of the enthusiasm for working on this. I think stepping away from it plus this time of year with spring just around the corner and rod orders starting to flood in I've been thinking more of fishing trips & outdoors than working on this.

The good news is since I started back on three other customer backgrounds about a week ago that finally rejuvenated my desire to get back onto this big tank again. So last night after stopping work on customer backgrounds for the night I pulled the background out of my tank and spent a while sealing it with Pond Shield Pond Armor. Later tonight I will be mounting it permanently into the tank now.

All sealed with Pond Shield and ready to install

 

[BIG-G]

Nice, glad your back at it. Looking forward to seeing the final setup. Looking great so far.

 

[Steve_C]

Thanks. It feels good to be back working on it.
.
.

Background is now all permanently siliconed into place and drying. Also got some large all plastic bolts and mounting the stalactites.

 

[wannadivesteve]

Steve, would you expand on your painting process? I saw a reference to "drylock/painting/sealing" .

Did you drylock then paint with something else before sealing with Pond Shield? Did you drylock then paint with tinted drylock before sealing? Could a person just paint with tinted drylock and not bother with sealing, or does the sealing help keep fish from damaging the paint job?

Just curious. Your backgrounds look fabulous.

 

[Steve_C]

Thanks. The way I do it is after I carve the foam out I first go over it with a heat gun. The heat causes the foam to wrinkle just a tad so it gives a nice realistic rock texture, but the added benefit of that is it also hardens up the foam a bit so it is more durable. After that then I do a coat of drylok (I use white drylok as the base coat). After the drylok then I go over the entire thing with black paint. The black works its way down into the crevices and helps to add some depth the the background.

Once it all dries black then I start doing the color coats. Usually with grays, browns and a little tan or lighter brown in spots. After that then I do a bit of dry-brushing on the high spots to add some "wear" to the higher spots of rock that would normally show some wear in nature. Then after that I coat the whole thing with Pond Shield.

That's pretty much my process for doing background. That's not to say that's the only way though, just what I started out doing and works for me. I do know some people used cement tint and add that into the drylok directly.

You could tint the drylok and not seal it if you wanted. The sealer does for sure help with durability, especially if you have plecos or fish that graze on algae that grows on the background, but you could still get quite a few years out of it without sealer. I just like to use sealer to make it as durable as possible so I can not have to worry about it many years down the road is all.

 

[wannadivesteve]

Thanks, great information.

 

[Steve_C]

Been busy the past few days bouncing between customer backgrounds, rod orders, and trying to fit in some progress on my own 240g project. Here is where it is at today. Buffed the front panel for a 3rd time, background & stalactites all sealed and installed for good now, mounted various silk plants for some greenery, cave lighting all set up and substrate is in. Probably be all the work for a while as I have rods and other backgrounds to finish but I hope to be back on it again in a couple weeks. Satisfied with the progress for now.
.
.