concrete background sealing

[andres]

Just buy hydraulic quik stop cement, home depot usually carries it. Let it cycle for a few weeks doing daily water changes and you should have a very stable pH. It worked for me atleast.

Epoxy is usually pretty expensive, but if you're willing to pay it works great


My cement background tank has had 0 problems with just cement though

 

[cichness]

i guess i just wont bother sealing it. we need to do one more coat of cement, but the other coats have been dried for about 3 weeks, we worked on it slow lol....

i just dont want the cement to chip or peal off or anything from being submerged.....

the PH i can handle....

its going on a new tank, so i can cycle with it and all that. its for a 75g

 

[JoelB]

Just a note that a low pH will dissolve cement, but with a name like cichness, I doubt you're going to be running acid water

 

[Rivermud]

Depends on whether or not he's running SA's or Africans.....

 

[JoelB]

Fair enough, Rivermud, though to clarify I was thinking about the fact that vinegar slowly dissolves cement. I don't exactly know what the pH needs to be or how fast it happens, and this is not even considering the biofilm protection.

 

[cichness]

well they will be africans, victorians to be exact, so a ph of 8.0 or higher would be nice.

im really only worried about the cement crumbling or something. my GF worked really hard on this to make it look good and i know she would be heart broken if something like that happened.

she does the puppy dog face and everything, so you can imagine how that would pan out for me

 

[Egon]

well they will be africans, victorians to be exact, so a ph of 8.0 or higher would be nice.

im really only worried about the cement crumbling or something. my GF worked really hard on this to make it look good and i know she would be heart broken if something like that happened.

she does the puppy dog face and everything, so you can imagine how that would pan out for me

Pic's? I have a deep acrylic tank so it has small openings in the top. I need to build a background in small pieces and assemble it inside the tank. If the no sealing thing works I'm going to save a lot of time and trouble

 

[sir charles]

let me help u. i was faced wit da same problem. da solution is easy; don't seal for what; most public aquarium and i think majority of fish farms are concrete that hasn't been sealed. i would soak it for 30 min intervals change water every 30 min do this several times. cycle tank and add a product that makes ph safe and reduces water changes, nitroband.