word of warning regarding DIY styro backgrounds

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the_deeb

the_deeb

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Apr 22, 2006
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My clown loaches appear to be eating my DIY tree roots. They seem to have chewed through the drylok coating in places and have started to dig little holes in the underlying foam.

The drylok was a thick, tough coating so this really is a testament to their desire to be annoying.

I've come across a few other reports on the web about clown loaches eating concrete/styro backgrounds as well.

So a word of caution - if you're planning on doing a DIY background, you may want to avoid loaches.
 
I've heard about this before, and most people say a good coat of concrete pretty much will protect the foam. I've heard that plecos and algae eaters can cause the same problem. When people have problem with concrete I've been under the impression that it's due to too thin a coat, so that it is weak.
 
sorry to hear that your tank looked great.
thats why i got rid of my pleco didn't want it to chew holes did not know loaches would chew threw things
 
I've used styro in a couple of tanks before, mostly to cushion heavy rockwork. Can't say that I ever noticed any fish eating it. However in both cases the tanks became unhealthy. Fish got sick and/or started dieing. I was at a loss to explain what was going on because I've been a hobbiest for 20+ years and the only thing diferent about these tanks was the styro. I know many folks use it with no problems, but I won't put it in my tanks anymore even though I couldn't PROVE it was the source of trouble.
 
It's probably a good idea to either coat the Faom backgrounds with a marine safe epoxy or Completely stay away from making or buying them. Designs by Nature have foam 3D backgrounds. As well as Back to Nature and Aqua-Terra.

Universal Habitats and Glass Cages.com are the only companies that i know that make there 3D backgrounds out of Rubber material that has the color embedded in it. It's part of the material. They also have Real Crushed Rock on them...
 
I wouldn't say that one should avoid foam backgrounds entirely as a general rule - I just think that there are issues with certain fish (like loaches and plecos). I should mention that even though my loaches are being a pain and chipping away at my background, they don't seem to be showing any sickness or other ill effects.
 
I've often thought about making a 3D background with foam, then cover the foam in fairly thick concrete. Them melt the foam away using gasoline. The only thing left is how to create a flat surface to mount the background to the tank or creating a base that would keep the whole thing up.

For the record, I saw this technique used by a fabricator creating carbon fiber and fiberglass custom motorcycle parts. He hand fabricated new intake hoses.
 
That's a good approach - this guy did something similar, except he used fiberglass instead of concrete:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211530

I thought of doing something similar with mine but I wanted more underlying structure to mount plants on to and didn't think the texture of the fiberglass would work as well.
 
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