OK, the DIY background... I'm not going to spell it all out. There are plenty of other threads that cover the basics & the pictures will show you everything you need to know. One thing is for sure though, I put countless hours into it & learned a LOT of tricks. I could build it again so much faster it's almost silly. Obviously I'll answer any specific questions anyone has. Here goes...
I wanted a sedimentary look to the rock because I hadn't seen that done before. Best way I could figure was to start the foam off as block of layers & carve into it. Of course, I had to make it more difficult on myself by wanting the layers angled not only left-right, but front-back, make the block square, and cohesive enough to carve. In this pic, I'm peeling a thin plastic skin from each layer so that they would glue & cut easier in following steps. In hind sight, I'm not sure this was necessary.
Carving Day 1: I used the most powerful soldering iron I could find with the element bent into a loop to do the carving. Still nearly destroyed the soldering iron by the end of the project.
Carving Day 1a: I tried busting out the torch to see if I could make better progress that way. It was a miserable failure. Decided to tough it out with the iron.
Carving Day 2b:
Carving Day 3:
Carving Day 4:
Carving Day 5:
Lesson Learned: High density polystyrene foam, when cut with a hot-wire has hard, sharp, glass-like edges. At this point my hands were starting to look like hamburger. Wear gloves!
Tank lighting preview: Carving mostly done. At this point I had achieved the basic shape I wanted & started looking for areas I could thin out so as to preserve tank volume for water.
Cementing Day 1: Unfortunately, this is the only pic I have of the cementing progress. Guess I just got lazy with the camera. Anyway, by this point, I had glued all the layers into about six chunks using GE Silicone I. Lesson: GE Silicone I sucks for gluing polystyrene. Find something better. I used the cement mix with the fiberglass for the base coats. It strengthens the cement layer, & the fibers are easiliy covered up by top coats without fibers. I used black for the base coat. Top coats I started blending red, yellow & black pigments to give a natural rock look. If you use a single color for the whole wall it looks very flat & unnatural.
More cementing lessons: When cement cures it also shrinks. This warped the six sections of background into a major PITA. They no longer stacked together flat, & the back & sides wouldn't lay flat against the aquarium glass. I had my hands full trying to trim the sections so they fit nicely.
Another thing... there are a tiny few adhesives that will bond both glass and polystyrene under constant water immersion and be fish-safe too. GE Silicone I isn't one of them as I found out above, but I did find one that worked quite nicely & helped solve the problem of the warped foam sections too.
Tank ready for fish!!: So, I used this latex accryllic fortifier instead of water for all of my cement work. Instructions said to mix 50/50 w/water but I went whole hog & used the stuff straight. I was hoping to make the cement water-proof & thereby reduce the pH leeching time. It still took a couple weeks to leech the pH so I'm not sure how much time I saved myself. However I did notice that a white film formed on the glass every day durring the first week. I took a razor blade scraper & the stuff came off easily. However, the white chalky stuff also formed a little on the cement background making the color appear to fade. It's not very noticable when the cement is wet but when it's dry it looks almost white. If I had to do it again, I'd try it without the accrylic fortiffier.
Tank ready for fish!: Side view. (Sorry, it's sideways. Don't know why. I fixed it in photobucket.)
Christmas eve!!
That's all the pics I got for now folks. Enjoy!
I wanted a sedimentary look to the rock because I hadn't seen that done before. Best way I could figure was to start the foam off as block of layers & carve into it. Of course, I had to make it more difficult on myself by wanting the layers angled not only left-right, but front-back, make the block square, and cohesive enough to carve. In this pic, I'm peeling a thin plastic skin from each layer so that they would glue & cut easier in following steps. In hind sight, I'm not sure this was necessary.
Carving Day 1: I used the most powerful soldering iron I could find with the element bent into a loop to do the carving. Still nearly destroyed the soldering iron by the end of the project.
Carving Day 1a: I tried busting out the torch to see if I could make better progress that way. It was a miserable failure. Decided to tough it out with the iron.
Carving Day 2b:
Carving Day 3:
Carving Day 4:
Carving Day 5:
Lesson Learned: High density polystyrene foam, when cut with a hot-wire has hard, sharp, glass-like edges. At this point my hands were starting to look like hamburger. Wear gloves!
Tank lighting preview: Carving mostly done. At this point I had achieved the basic shape I wanted & started looking for areas I could thin out so as to preserve tank volume for water.
Cementing Day 1: Unfortunately, this is the only pic I have of the cementing progress. Guess I just got lazy with the camera. Anyway, by this point, I had glued all the layers into about six chunks using GE Silicone I. Lesson: GE Silicone I sucks for gluing polystyrene. Find something better. I used the cement mix with the fiberglass for the base coats. It strengthens the cement layer, & the fibers are easiliy covered up by top coats without fibers. I used black for the base coat. Top coats I started blending red, yellow & black pigments to give a natural rock look. If you use a single color for the whole wall it looks very flat & unnatural.
More cementing lessons: When cement cures it also shrinks. This warped the six sections of background into a major PITA. They no longer stacked together flat, & the back & sides wouldn't lay flat against the aquarium glass. I had my hands full trying to trim the sections so they fit nicely.
Another thing... there are a tiny few adhesives that will bond both glass and polystyrene under constant water immersion and be fish-safe too. GE Silicone I isn't one of them as I found out above, but I did find one that worked quite nicely & helped solve the problem of the warped foam sections too.
Tank ready for fish!!: So, I used this latex accryllic fortifier instead of water for all of my cement work. Instructions said to mix 50/50 w/water but I went whole hog & used the stuff straight. I was hoping to make the cement water-proof & thereby reduce the pH leeching time. It still took a couple weeks to leech the pH so I'm not sure how much time I saved myself. However I did notice that a white film formed on the glass every day durring the first week. I took a razor blade scraper & the stuff came off easily. However, the white chalky stuff also formed a little on the cement background making the color appear to fade. It's not very noticable when the cement is wet but when it's dry it looks almost white. If I had to do it again, I'd try it without the accrylic fortiffier.
Tank ready for fish!: Side view. (Sorry, it's sideways. Don't know why. I fixed it in photobucket.)
Christmas eve!!
That's all the pics I got for now folks. Enjoy!
![[enjoyable_attempt]](/forums/data/avatars/s/41/41106.jpg?1431689636){kind=avatar}
