My foam back ground

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thebrandon

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Jan 29, 2009
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Tucson, AZ
This will probably end up being a couple weeks before the tank is actually set up. Due to work and other things this has been a really long project that I am eagerly awaiting to finish!

The tank, a 120 tall. Dimensions are 48 x 18 x 32

My plans for the tank are to put everything in my 50 gallon in there. My 50 currently has about 12 neons, 5 hatchet fish, 10 or 12 regular and calico bristlenose plecos, 1 rubber lip pleco, many cherry and ghost shrimp. Also is stuffed with plants and drift wood, I also have a few beautiful pieces of manzanita that I am going to put in the new tank.

The supplies:
8x4 insulating foam board less than 10 bucks and more than enough foam to
box cutter
steak knife
quikrete, 20 lb bucket is turning out to be more than enough and cost about 12 bucks at lowes/home depot
GE silicone 1, clear


Here it is after the first layer of quikrete. I had to cut the back into 3 sections to make the back ground fit in there with the center brace still in tact. They slide in perfectly like a puzzle, and when they are in there I will be applying some silicone on the pieces that over hang onto the others to help secure them and to keep anyone from venturing behind them. When it is finally all in there, I might fill in the gaps with some quikrete, we shall see.


Second layer is still drying and it's too dark out to take any good pictures, I'll try and get one before I go to work tomorrow. I think it looks way better with the second layer of quikrete on there. Can't wait to put on the third layer tomorrow!!

I've still been contemplating whether or not to use the spray rock in a can. It looks like it would make this look very nice, but can't find any info on whether or not it is aquarium safe.

I'm not sure what I want to do with the top left hole that I originally made for an intake because I might go with another filter rather than having 2 on there. Might become a cave.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
 

thebrandon

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Jan 29, 2009
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Yes, I would like to. I want a more brownish color. Can I just add color straight to the quikrete? And what do I use for color?
 

shewolfgeo

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Lowe's has cement color. Find it in the concrete area, not in the paint. That is what I use. They carry 4 colors. If you get black and buff and mix together you get a brown color. You mix the color in water first, blend and then add your cement and mix. According to the instructions.
 

toddhgr

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Mar 13, 2010
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When I added the color to mine being a typical guy I didn't read the directions and added it to the mexxed mortar. It came out pretty nice. I also used the quickcrete color from Home Depot (same as the stuff rom Lowes).
 

thebrandon

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Jan 29, 2009
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second layer looks great, added some more texture and shape to the background. Forgot to take pics though, will try tomorrow when I wake uP!
 

Rbishop

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A nice start....
 

thebrandon

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Jan 29, 2009
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I must admit it's not the most amazing background ever, but I was just going for something rather simple, easy to make, and that would look better than a plain black or blue background. I think I am going to end up cutting off the ends to make something easier to use regards to the filter intakes. The way they are set up right now it just isn't really practical, so I might end up completely redoing that part which also help make the background a little more 3 dimensional :)

Also, does anyone know if it would be safe to have 2 filters using the same spraybar for an output? I was thinking of having 2 filters Y into one output.
 

thebrandon

I like fish
Jan 29, 2009
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Tucson, AZ
Not a nad idea, might look interesting with some anubias coming out of it :)
 
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