After seeing a lot of pictures of nice backgrounds I decided to try to find one for my 150 gallon custom tank. There was a lot of problems with that, including price and the 6' length I needed. I searched the web up and down for a couple of months trying to find the best way to make one myself. Some were extremely difficult, some looked not as good as I wanted, some used chemicals that were questionable, and some cost as much as a pre-made one. So what I did was take things from all of them and came up with, what I feel, was the cheapest and easiest method without compromising the fish's health.
I used aquarium safe silicon to glue 2" sheets of styrofoam together, stacking them in variations to get a solid base. I then added more depth and texture by using spray foam. I used a plastic knife to play around with the foam, otherwise it's more round. As the spray foam was drying I played around with it more to add texture.
I went to a hobby store and bought plastic tubes of 30 minute drying, clear, epoxy. I used a paint brush to wipe it on the foam and then covered it with different colored sand I mixed. I experimented with many epoxies and resins and after melting a lot of foam this is the only epoxy that worked. Any epoxy they use on model airplanes should work.
It took about 4 days for everything to dry. I used an old serated knife to cut channels in the back for the filters and the heater. I cut small holes in the front to allow water to pass through to the filters. I also cut away a lot of the back to make it less buoyant keeping the edge so I can still get silicon on it. Then I placed it in the tank with silicon and let it dry for about another 4 days.
I filled it with water and let it cycle for about a week or so. My filters were already used and had bacteria plus I "recycled" older water so I wasn't sure how long it'd take. I bought 2 dozen rosies and put tham in the tank. Most of them survived another 3 days, so I proceeded to stock the tank.
The whole process was messy and it didn't make the wife too happy, but it cost less than $100 and was pretty easy. The only thing I'd advise is make sure whatever you use make sure it's non-toxic
I used aquarium safe silicon to glue 2" sheets of styrofoam together, stacking them in variations to get a solid base. I then added more depth and texture by using spray foam. I used a plastic knife to play around with the foam, otherwise it's more round. As the spray foam was drying I played around with it more to add texture.
I went to a hobby store and bought plastic tubes of 30 minute drying, clear, epoxy. I used a paint brush to wipe it on the foam and then covered it with different colored sand I mixed. I experimented with many epoxies and resins and after melting a lot of foam this is the only epoxy that worked. Any epoxy they use on model airplanes should work.
It took about 4 days for everything to dry. I used an old serated knife to cut channels in the back for the filters and the heater. I cut small holes in the front to allow water to pass through to the filters. I also cut away a lot of the back to make it less buoyant keeping the edge so I can still get silicon on it. Then I placed it in the tank with silicon and let it dry for about another 4 days.
I filled it with water and let it cycle for about a week or so. My filters were already used and had bacteria plus I "recycled" older water so I wasn't sure how long it'd take. I bought 2 dozen rosies and put tham in the tank. Most of them survived another 3 days, so I proceeded to stock the tank.
The whole process was messy and it didn't make the wife too happy, but it cost less than $100 and was pretty easy. The only thing I'd advise is make sure whatever you use make sure it's non-toxic
