Another Other DIY 3D Background Thread

Ok, Water is in and both pumps are running (SunSun 2000 litre/hour and TetraTec 1200 litre/hour).

Both pieces seem perfect (the second piece in the front I made to house a bunch of plants, as there is an ugly mark on the glass I need to cover, put there more out of neccesity than me actually wanting it there).
Either way, at least the malawis shouldnt be able to dig them up.

Theres only a partial amount of crushed coral sand in there now, I have 30kgs more coming on Wednesday as the lfs is waiting for stock, and once that is in I'll be planting and starting the decorating side of things.

 

Malawis will destroy the plants. Maybe a piece of spyderwood or a longer log

 

I've read that malawis tend to be ok with anubia and java fern.....surely these should be fine?

 

Hey all,

Just a quick update, tank has been running for just over a week now, everything is going well excpet the decorating part.....I change it up and add something nearly everyday.
Background seems perfect, dosing Seachem Stability everyday, my Danio's are loving life (they've already cycled another tank for me).
The rubber bands holding the java fern and anubias will be removed once the roots have attached...

Anyways, heres some pics as it is now, tank only has 10kgs of crushed coral in it right now, and I have 18kgs of Caribsea substrate arriving tomorrow, so I can at least get that in and finish off the decor (a few more slate bits here and there)

Let me know what you think, the good - the bad and the ugly.....lay it on me (sorry for the bad quality, pics taken on my cell phone)

 

Looks great @Mugsy love the black back ground wth white gravel, gonna look champion when it settles.

 

welldone on that background one of the best looking diy backgrounds ive seen

 

@HennieRoux
@Ryno

Thanks for the positive comments, makes all the hard work worth it.....thanks again

 

read through this now. fantastic job here! looks like you can build a 3d background with your eyes closed!! excellent vision for the scape that you wanted !

 

@ASHMAN - haha don't know about the eyes closed part.....more like wide open and sweating.
Thanks!

 

awesome, i love the black backgroung and white coral, it litterally stands out

 

Your fish are going to look great in this tank!

 

Thanks @Javei and @Hawk.....update to follow soon, rest of the substrate goes in today.

 

Can't wait to see the finished result!

 

Another small update :

Tank was seeded with filter media from my previous tank, dosing Seachem Stability eveyday to help it along and the first of my fish are in.
Added a little more rock work aswell.....still playing around with decor a little but otherwise water parameters are excellent and fish seem very happy.
Heres a pic at the moment (sorry for poor image quality, taken on my cellphone) :

 

Very very nice. Your fish stand out nicely in your tank.

 

Alas, there is bad news!

The other night, while friends were over for a braai and a few beers for the rugby the background came unstuck with an almighty crack (I thought the tank had cracked and literally had to change my underwear).....ran to the tank and found my background floating.
I used an entire tube of silicone (yes the beeeg one) and was really puzzled.
The reasons as to why it came off I've put down down to the way in which I siliconed it to the tank.....I did a series of U shaped beads all along the background from one end to the other, which allowed alot of water to get behind the background which would add a force of trying to push it off the glass, which eventually happened.
I should have put a bead around the outside first, to seal it from water penetration first.

Anyways, the background saw the bin, and I have invested heavily in man made ceramic rocks for aquariums.....the fish actually seem alot happier with far more caves, tunnels and crevices.

I'm not done with the new scape, its a work in progress as this hit my tank budget hard (if there is such a thing).
The rocks are starting to get nice algae growth (not showed in pic) which will give the rock a more natural feel in time, and also darken them quite a bit.

 

Ah, no ways! Sorry to hear that! After all that time & effort. The new background also looks very good though!

 

Yup....it was major bummer and forced me into another direction.
But I'm still working on this new scape, and hopefully it'll get to where I want it in time.
Thanks for the comp.

 

Damn @Mugsy, sorry to hear your bad news. It was bound to happen unfortunately. The amount of resistance that was created by not removing the styrofoam is so great that no amount of silicone would have kept it under water. I am sure some clever person here can work out the amount of gravitational force to float upwards as opposed to the amount of silicone that is needed to keep it stuck to the glass.
I really liked the look of that reef you created. Such a lot of work and time I think it would be a great pity to throw it all away now.
Can you not ( as I suggested right in the beginning), remove the styrofoam, be left with just the shell, fibre-glass the inside of the shell, and place it back in your tank. You might not even need to silicone it into place, the weight of the shell and the fibreglass should be heavy enough to hold it down. If you need to weight it down to make SURE it stays down this time, fibreglass some heavy stones into the back of the mould - that will make it stay down for sure. If you want to remove the styrofaom the easiest way is to scrape out as much as you can by hand and then in order to remove what is left you use Acetone, and that dissolves all the rest of the styrofoam. A good wash afterwards with water will get rid of any residue of Acetone. Just don't get any acetone on the front of your mould.
I want to see you use your mould !!!!

 

You could also fibreglass ( without using the fibreglass cloth) the front of the mould to strengthen it with just a coat of resin, it if you sacred it will not hold without the styrofaom at the back - you did say earlier that it would not hold together as it was only 2 mm thick.