My Ultimate DIY Background and Tank Bottom Build
- Thread starter seedubs1
- Start date
Thanks Pharaoh. It was a big time commitment. Not hard, but it just took a LONG time (more than I expected). If you decide to do it and have any questions on what materials to use or anything, PM me, and I'll gladly help you out!
It did make it nice for cichlids especially since there are so many little caves and places to hide.
I think next on the list is going to be to find some big gnarly driftwood for the tank.
It did make it nice for cichlids especially since there are so many little caves and places to hide.
I think next on the list is going to be to find some big gnarly driftwood for the tank.
I just sold some big pieces of driftwood at the local club auction. Might have worked well for you and they went cheeeeap.
You might go ahead post up what all materials you used for this so other can see/read. Last I saw, you weren't sure what sealant you were going to use.
You might go ahead post up what all materials you used for this so other can see/read. Last I saw, you weren't sure what sealant you were going to use.
Materials Used:
First the general materials that everyone is agreeable on:
-Silicone to glue the styrofoam to itself and the tank. Use GE Silicone 1. This is the stuff that DOES NOT have anti mildew/fungus stuff on it. It will not hurt your fish. It was actually originally on the lable that it was aquarium safe, but after 1 lawsuit (structural related, and the guy making the claim was an idiot), they removed "aquarium safe" from the lable. It is still the same product, and won't hurt your fish in any way. Glue the background on REALLY good. Even if you use concrete as your sealant, the background will want to float (it will still be buoyant). I used 7 tubes for my entire project.
-Styrofoam sheets. They are either going to be blue or pink at menards, home depot, lowes, etc...Find it in the insulation area. It's "extruded styrofoam 4'X8' sheets." I used the 1" thick stuff.
-Pigment to die your sealant whatever color you want. I used QuickCrete brand. It's been used a LOT by a bunch of DIYers, and has proven itself to be aquarium safe.
-Cheap paintbrushes to paint your sealant on. Get a few. They will be trashed.
On to the controversial material:
-Sealant!!! I did a LOT of research on the sealants. I'll give a detail of some of the possibilities below:
--The most used is concrete. It looks good, is pretty durable if done right, and is generally an OK material. There are some cons, though. It can leach minerals into your water, and can alter the PH of the water as well. Because of this, it is recommended that once dry enough, you should soak it and change the water every day or two for a period of a month or so (a huge PITA if you have a 100 gal and are doing a background like mine). Also, you have to cure concrete correctly, or it will chip and flake off or be like a dusty powder, and will just be horrible. So if you want to go this route, PLEASE research how to properly cure concrete. I didn't use concrete because of the leaching and rinsing/soaking, and because of this, I don't think it's really a product that needs to be considered anymore with the other materials available.
--Sika Top Seal 107. This product seems great. It's like concrete with polymers mixed in. It's a 2 part compound. It's safe for potable water (actually was designed to coat the inside of water towers). Once properly cured, you should not have to rinse/soak like concrete (although, I'd still rinse it a couple times just for precaution, but this wouldn't take a MONTH like concrete). Only problem is that it's pretty darn expensive, and it's really hard to find in some areas. This was my top choice, but I couldn't find it locally, and it was going to cost me WAY too much to get it shipped, etc...Overall, if you can find this for cheap enough, USE IT!
--DryLoc. This is what I ended up using. There are two types. Get the cheap one as the other one has anti mildew/mold stuff and it'll kill BB and your fish. This stuff was GREAT. It's grey, so you just add some quickcrete pigment, and get whatever color you want. It goes on like thick paint. It dries pretty darn hard. I couldn't push my finger through it after 4 coats (I didn't jump on it or anything), and it looks pretty cool once you get some algae growing on it. It's been used for years, and it's safe for fish, and no long cure/rinse/soak time. I filled and drained my tank once just to be safe, and haven't had a single death (well, not including the giant danio my JD ate). It's cheap and effective. The only down side to this material is that it's not as hard as the other two. I have heard of people using this with loaches or plecos, and having them bite or gnaw through it over a longish period of time to where you could see the styrofoam underneath. I am not going to have any of these types of fish, so no worries here. Although, I wouldn't be so worried as I did 4 coats and the people that that happened to only did 1 coat before drybrushing. The stuff emits foul odors, and shouldn't be applied in an enclosed area.
That's it for the materials. If anyone has any questions on applications, etc.....I'd be glad to write about that as well
First the general materials that everyone is agreeable on:
-Silicone to glue the styrofoam to itself and the tank. Use GE Silicone 1. This is the stuff that DOES NOT have anti mildew/fungus stuff on it. It will not hurt your fish. It was actually originally on the lable that it was aquarium safe, but after 1 lawsuit (structural related, and the guy making the claim was an idiot), they removed "aquarium safe" from the lable. It is still the same product, and won't hurt your fish in any way. Glue the background on REALLY good. Even if you use concrete as your sealant, the background will want to float (it will still be buoyant). I used 7 tubes for my entire project.
-Styrofoam sheets. They are either going to be blue or pink at menards, home depot, lowes, etc...Find it in the insulation area. It's "extruded styrofoam 4'X8' sheets." I used the 1" thick stuff.
-Pigment to die your sealant whatever color you want. I used QuickCrete brand. It's been used a LOT by a bunch of DIYers, and has proven itself to be aquarium safe.
-Cheap paintbrushes to paint your sealant on. Get a few. They will be trashed.
On to the controversial material:
-Sealant!!! I did a LOT of research on the sealants. I'll give a detail of some of the possibilities below:
--The most used is concrete. It looks good, is pretty durable if done right, and is generally an OK material. There are some cons, though. It can leach minerals into your water, and can alter the PH of the water as well. Because of this, it is recommended that once dry enough, you should soak it and change the water every day or two for a period of a month or so (a huge PITA if you have a 100 gal and are doing a background like mine). Also, you have to cure concrete correctly, or it will chip and flake off or be like a dusty powder, and will just be horrible. So if you want to go this route, PLEASE research how to properly cure concrete. I didn't use concrete because of the leaching and rinsing/soaking, and because of this, I don't think it's really a product that needs to be considered anymore with the other materials available.
--Sika Top Seal 107. This product seems great. It's like concrete with polymers mixed in. It's a 2 part compound. It's safe for potable water (actually was designed to coat the inside of water towers). Once properly cured, you should not have to rinse/soak like concrete (although, I'd still rinse it a couple times just for precaution, but this wouldn't take a MONTH like concrete). Only problem is that it's pretty darn expensive, and it's really hard to find in some areas. This was my top choice, but I couldn't find it locally, and it was going to cost me WAY too much to get it shipped, etc...Overall, if you can find this for cheap enough, USE IT!
--DryLoc. This is what I ended up using. There are two types. Get the cheap one as the other one has anti mildew/mold stuff and it'll kill BB and your fish. This stuff was GREAT. It's grey, so you just add some quickcrete pigment, and get whatever color you want. It goes on like thick paint. It dries pretty darn hard. I couldn't push my finger through it after 4 coats (I didn't jump on it or anything), and it looks pretty cool once you get some algae growing on it. It's been used for years, and it's safe for fish, and no long cure/rinse/soak time. I filled and drained my tank once just to be safe, and haven't had a single death (well, not including the giant danio my JD ate). It's cheap and effective. The only down side to this material is that it's not as hard as the other two. I have heard of people using this with loaches or plecos, and having them bite or gnaw through it over a longish period of time to where you could see the styrofoam underneath. I am not going to have any of these types of fish, so no worries here. Although, I wouldn't be so worried as I did 4 coats and the people that that happened to only did 1 coat before drybrushing. The stuff emits foul odors, and shouldn't be applied in an enclosed area.
That's it for the materials. If anyone has any questions on applications, etc.....I'd be glad to write about that as well
Update: Since I have been waiting on finding material to coat the background, I have constructed my sump. It's made out of a 50 gal. There's a bit more than 13 gallons for the bio material in there. First chamber will be all mech with a filter sock and filter pads. Second chamber will be bio balls and or scrubbies. Then it goes through the bubble trap to my mag drive 12. Directionality of the flow will be inlet on right side of picture, outlet on left (so flow is from right to left).
Still having trouble finding a good drip plate (nobody seems to cary peg board that is plastic here) as well as scrubbies. I've been to every dollar store/walmart/etc... and can't find them anywhere.
Anyway, let me know what you think. I may also make a thread just dedicated to this sump as this is a thread really for my background. But overall, this is my first one I've designed and built, so what do you think?
Forgot to add:
Heaters (2X250W) will go under the bio tray so they are out of the tank. Does anyone think this is a bad place for them for any reason?
How long, did you give the Silicone in this picture (in the middle section around the top by the PVC pipping) time to dry? That looks like quite a lot of silicone and you may need to be careful as amounts that large can take a lot longer to cure than typical applications and can kill fish quickly! If you notice anything irregular about your fish in the near future, take them RIGHT from the tank as trhis would be the first suspect!!!
Nice build! the Background looks pretty cool!
It turned out great, any chance that you could try to get some up close pics of the BG so we can see how the finish turned out?
@ mastifman:
The silicone cured for atleast a month. I think I'll be ok
@ Inglorious:
I'll see what I can do. The lighting and everything makes it really hard to get a decent pic up close with my junky camera. But I'll try to give it a go. It has grown some really nice algae, and some parts look really cool. It used to look like brown/slate/black speckled rock, but now it has the green fuzzy look in the picture from all the algae.
The silicone cured for atleast a month. I think I'll be ok
@ Inglorious:
I'll see what I can do. The lighting and everything makes it really hard to get a decent pic up close with my junky camera. But I'll try to give it a go. It has grown some really nice algae, and some parts look really cool. It used to look like brown/slate/black speckled rock, but now it has the green fuzzy look in the picture from all the algae.
Great work seedubs1. Projects like yours have inspired me to try it out myself. I went along a slightly different route (I'll be posting my own thread in the next couple of days).
One question: The sealant you used was from Dryloc. What was the product exactly? The waterproofing masonry paint? Thanks.
One question: The sealant you used was from Dryloc. What was the product exactly? The waterproofing masonry paint? Thanks.
