Pic of my Tree and rock background.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
wizzin;572135; said:
I was looking for a way to produce these with plastics too. I couldn't find much, but learned that polyurethane and polyester resin is not to be used in aquaria. Polystyrene and polyethelene are ok, but they have to be melted and blown or rotation cast which is not a very DIY thing. Acrylic would be the way to go, but again, casting is an issue. Have you done anything like that before? Most aquaria decor is polyethelene or polystyrene and mass produced by companies with facilities to do it.
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I havent been to the Pittsburgh aquarium for a long time. I would like to take the kids there sometime soon thanks for the idea. Its interesting that you brought up plastics because thats my next project venture. I found a company www.smooth-on.com which is located in Easton, PA. Basically they supply products for casting and molding anything. I've spoke to them and they sent me product samples to look at. They have products that can be used in fish tanks and they can easily be painted with acrylic non toxic paint. The thing with this method is you make your background out of real things and then make a mold and cast. Easy to do very realistic detail. Now the flip side you have a mold that could make a thousand castings but its the same exact casting. So if you got into making many different backgrounds it could be expensive. For example, for a background for 75 gallon tank it costs about $175 to $250 to make it but you could make them and sell them or just make as many as need.:grinno:
 
really? I wanted to use their stuff too and I talked to someone there (Sherry I think) and she told me that they didn't suggest using their products for aquariums. I was looking at their urethane for the casting. I think the rubber mold making compound would be ok. I just flat out asked her "what product do you have that could be used in an aquarium with fish" and her response was "we don't recommend using any of our products in an aquarium, but we do sell mold making materials".

Interesting. Do you remember who you talked to? I really wanted to use their stuff because it seems perfect!

I was looking at por-a-kast too and they said the same thing. Eurethane off-gases over a long period of time.
 
wizzin;572168; said:
really? I wanted to use their stuff too and I talked to someone there (Sherry I think) and she told me that they didn't suggest using their products for aquariums. I was looking at their urethane for the casting. I think the rubber mold making compound would be ok. I just flat out asked her "what product do you have that could be used in an aquarium with fish" and her response was "we don't recommend using any of our products in an aquarium, but we do sell mold making materials".

Interesting. Do you remember who you talked to? I really wanted to use their stuff because it seems perfect!
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I cant recall who I talked to. He told me that the plastics could be used and then painted with acrylic and it would be safe. HMMM makes me wonder. What I thought about with the mold products was making molds then using concrete or epoxy with sand to cast with. Not as nice as platic would be but I think it would work well especially the detail of the piece. I'll have to call them again and sort this out about being fish safe.:naughty:
 
everything I've found points to only using plastics that are thermo set (i.e. resin is melted then pressure cast and cooled to temper it) It seems that most epoxy or two part mixtures for plastics actually never 100% cure, and as a result, off-gas for years. Some eurethanes seem to off gas formaldehyde, which we all know is bad. Basically, it seems that injection molding, vacume molding, rotation molding etc. are the only safe plastics for aquaria.

I'm still curious about latex and or variants of silicone. Some way to make it a little more rigid and more workable. If it's cast, then that might work? I've been researching my butt off, so if you come up with anything to the contrary on eurethane, please let me know. I really would like to be able to use it, but I'm not convinced.

Please keep in mind, I'm usually very overly careful about what I put in the water. Probably half of this stuff "might" be ok for a long time, or ok period, but I just like to know 100% sure that the material has no long term side effects.
 
I don't know how the roots are going to withstand the pressure of the water pushing up on them... It's the reason I bailed on my mangrove 3D background project. Do you have them reinforced? You must be using a heavy concrete.

Excellent craftsmanship, btw!
 
Legacy;572631; said:
I don't know how the roots are going to withstand the pressure of the water pushing up on them... It's the reason I bailed on my mangrove 3D background project. Do you have them reinforced? You must be using a heavy concrete.

Excellent craftsmanship, btw!
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Actually the roots have been carved out hollow and will be filled with cement. I believe this should work. We will see. Thanks for the interest.
 
I was looking at the smooth on site again, and noticed that their silicone is safe for food related aplications, so I would think it's fine for tank use. It is silicone. I think there is one that might be firm enough for a more solid background. Look at the dragon skin product and thi-vex (thickener). the Dragon skin product says it's great for repetative motion and that it "bounces" back and maintains it shape. If you were to make a mold of your bkg and then cast it in dragon skin, you could mass produce the things. You'd have to paint it still though. It's expensive at $158 per gallon.
 
Found a good one!!!! It's called winterstone casting mix. I've found some places where it's been used for aquaria already! Very affordable too! Sorry, I'm excited.

Here's their website:
http://www.sculpt.com/catalog_98/CastingMaterials/ENHANCEDGYP/winterstone/winterstonecasttech.htm

I just talked to them, and they said it should be fine, but they recommend sealing it with a marine grade or fish pond paint/sealer. Still a very affordable interesting product. The fact that you can use it to cast is most interesting. It's probably not much different than concrete, but it's much finer.
 
This stuff looks like it has potential. I have an empty 20 gal laying around. Maybe I'll get some of this stuff and try it on the 20. My theory no need to make a big one till I see how it works out.
 
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