DIY 3D Styrofoam Aquarium Background with DIY Roots - US Native Stream Tank

[Chasmodes]

Good morning everyone. I reached the completion stage of my build and will share my latest video. In subsequent posts, I'll share how I got to this point. But first, I want to give a huge shout out to two members here to inspired me to build this tank, HX67 and the_deeb. Their projects are incredible, and I learned so much from both of them. So, I wanted to share what I've learned and thank them both very much for their ideas, hard work, and artistic skill.

Below is a video showing my DIY 3D styrofoam aquarium background, painted with Drylok and cement dye, and covered and with an acrylic clearcoat. I also created DIY faux roots to resemble sycamore tree roots that I see along the banks of my local creeks. The roots were created with a variety of materials, including PVC pipe, aquarium tubing, heavy wire, rope, plaster wrap, spray foam, foam board, covered in grout, and the painted with Drylok mixed with cement dye. The tank is supposed to simulate an eddy at an undercut bank along a rock wall.

I collected some fish this past weekend and added them to the tank to give the tank some life. There are five eastern blacknose dace, one fantail darter, and one rainbow darter. Here's a video of them.

In the following posts, I'll show you how I got to this point in time. I hope you all like the build. For future fish collecting updates to the tank, I'll start a thread in the native fish board. The DIY projects in this tank are:

• DIY 3D styrofoam aquarium background painted with Drylok and cement dye, coated with an acrylic clearcoat.
• DIY faux roots to simulate sycamore tree roots
• DIY spray bar for my canister filter
• DIY stand pipe for the canister filter intake

Thank you for checking out my tank.

 

[Chasmodes]

When I started the background, at first, I built a frame out of foam board that would fit into my tank. To make sure that I could install the final product, I decided to build the wall in three sections.

I had a picture that I pulled from the internet of a rock face that I really liked. Then, I cut foam boards into the widths that I need to carve as layers. I carved one at a time, then, when I finished the next one, I glued it onto the top of the other one. I staggered them from front to back to simulate layers that eroded away. I used Gorilla Glue to bond them together, along with plastic popsicle sticks punched through three or four layers (also glued with Gorilla Glue).

I wanted the wall to not be in a horizontal plane (to avoid the front yard garden wall look), so I decided to have the layers slope down from front to back. That was the primary reason for the frame that I started out with.

 

[Chasmodes]

I used a butcher knife for most of the detail on the layers, and other knives to cut the foam board pieces to size before carving the detail. I found it useful to work on two wall sections at a time to keep consistency with the layers.

Wooden skewers came in handy to support the two sections that I was working on at this time to observe progress, and also to fit them into the tank.

I accidentally discovered that I could alter the texture of the foam to more resemble rock. I had an old concrete rock that I made for my reef tank and used it to weigh down some sections that I glued together (to keep the Gorilla Glue from expanding), and the concrete rock was so heavy that it left inpressions in the foam. I thought it was cool, so I started decorating the layers in various ways to give it a more realistic rock like finish.

I also figured out that the sharp wooden skewers were great for carving cracks in the rock and other notches, nooks and crannies.

 

[Chasmodes]

This is how I was able to support the layers that I worked on, with unused cut foam boards. I didn't throw anything out, because, at some point, even small pieces of foam can be useful.

Like, using them as a brush to spread out thin layers of Gorilla Glue.

weighing down the boards really helped keep the layers tightly fitted and consistent. Anything heavy on top of rocks did the job, plus, added more rock like texture.

Every now and then, I'd fit it into the tank to see the progress. I did away with the side foam board.

 

[Chasmodes]

The rock impressions got me thinking that it would be cool to have fossil impressions in the rocks. I gathered up a few things, like shells, coral rocks, springs, screws, etc. to try and duplicate Devonian fossils. Here, I tested them out on a spare section of foam board.

The shells made nice looking brachiopod imitations, the coral made for a really cool texture overall, resembling coral and bryozoan fossils, and the springs could be bent and pressed into the foam to represent crinoid stems. The good thing about using Drylok and not cement, is that whatever detail that you carve or press into the foam shows up on the final product. Can you tell that I also am a fossil collector?

Here, I began work on the third section. I eventually extended that section to the end of the tank...more on that later.

I didn't want to lose fish hiding in the nooks and crannies behind the wall, so, I inserted a bunch of river rocks into the gaps behind the layers to help keep the structure from floating, and then used spray foam to seal them in. It's important to use gloves with the spray foam. Not only is it bad for your skin, but it's very messy.

I had to carve the section ends so that they provided a good fit for installing into the tank. I didn't want to have straight lines dividing the sections, rather, have something that looked like realistic fissures in the rock wall.

 

[islandguy11]

Well done, looks great, I'm sure your picto-journal will inspire others thinking about such a project.

 

[Chasmodes]

Here, you can see that I tried for a tight fit, and it looked pretty good.

Here are the three sections fitted into the tank. I still needed to complete the end of section three at this point.

But, section three was special. One of my goals in this tank was to hide all equipment as much as possible, so that it looked like a real creek undercut bank. I build a stand pipe, made of PVC pipe and fittings, drilled out, to be used for my canister filter intake (Fluval 405). Here, you can also see my first version of the DIY spray bar. More on that later.

I painted the standpipe black, and then started building the foam support structure around it.

I made some rock layers to hide the stand pipe. In this picture, the top section on the left side was made removable in case I ever need to access and clean out the stand pipe.

On the underside of the removable piece, and also on the support underneath where it would attach, I drilled holes and used Gorilla Glue to attach acrylic spacers that had the perfect hole size for a plastic popsicle stick to be inserted to hold the structure in place. This was at the front of the removable piece. The back of the piece just slides underneath the rock layer above it to hold it in place.

 

[Chasmodes]

After that, I created the upper layers at the left end of section three. Then, I used river rocks and spray foam to fill in the gaps again, and eventually carved away the excess. It's easy to see the structure of the layers from this angle. The removable piece also fits tightly in place. I didn't want it to move in the current.

I used Gorilla Glue on the bottom of the structure so it would fit level in the tank, and give it a flat bottom to glue to. I did the same thing for the back of each section so that all three sections would be able to be glued to the glass evenly, and fit together properly at the same time. Egg crate and spray foam came in handy for one section.

After a few more layers added at the top, the overall rock wall structure was nearly done, here, fitted into the tank. As you can see, the stand pipe is completely hidden. It's behind the part of the wall that sticks out on the left side.

After a bunch of trimming and fixing detail on the layers, it was ready to paint. I put a coat of Drylok right out of the can on first. As you can see, the fossil and rock details show through the Drylok layer.

I had to brush and dab a lot in the nooks and crannies to hide the pink foam underneath.

First coat done on all three layers:

Also, here you can see what it looks like with the removable rock section taken out. I painted it separately.

Next, I mixed in cement dye, starting with a dark layer first. I wanted the nooks and crannies to be dark, giving the structure more depth.

After the second coat:

 

[Chasmodes]

Each subsequent coat was dabbed on with a sponge, and each coat lighter than the previous one, to give it highlights.

Even with all these Drylok coats, the fossils and detail carved and pressed into the foam show through.

More layers, more paint, messy fingers:

 

[Chasmodes]

For the final touches on the painting, I wanted a couple layers to be different colors, so I added a couple reddish layers.

Fitted into the tank.