Building my first styrofoam cement background with some questions.

C

CatchMoreFish

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Jul 6, 2007
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After reading lots of messages about how to use styrofoam and cement to make a DIY aquarium rockwall, I am building my first styrofoam background. Everything goes well until I decide to wrap the whole background (including the back) with cement. My question is what glue I can use to bound the concret to glass. Since I want to hide the hose and heater, and have some caves for my fish, I need to put the cement at the back of the styrofoam as well. Then it comes my question.

1. I did the test on basement concret wall with GE Silicone II for Windows & Door (Clear Transparent, blue one on the left). It doesn't stick to the concret wall very well and it can be peeled off easily.

2. I went to HD and found the GE Silicone II for Concrete & Masonry (Light Gray, green one on the right). I assume it will do well on concrete. But, does it bound to glass? Has anyone used it on glass before. It says it can be used on concrete, granite, red brick, slate, asphalt and wood. I'd like to save a few bucks if anyone can give me the answer.

3. Now, comes plan B. If it doesn't bound to glass, can I mix two of them? What do you think?

4. I used GE Windows & Door to build up styrofoam stack. I found this glue doesn't have strong bound to styrofoam. It is also easy to be peeled off which I was doing cutting. Is it normal?

It make take me several weeks to finish this summer project. I will get it updated once a while.

Thanks for your advice.

Ken

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Looks nice so far. Good luck with the project.
 
well, your sort of screwed, you will have alot of trouble trying to get the cement to bond to glass with anything, and even if it does stick, the styrofoam will probably pull it off the glass when you fill it with water (the foam is gonna wanna float)

the project looks good, but you shouldnt have covered the back with cement.
before anything else you should have also marked out where you will want to cut channels for your tubes etc.

go check out my thread, the link is in my sig, its a bit more "walkthrough" than some of the other 3d BG threads.

I would suggest doing it over. take what you learned from this, and dont do it again :)
I made a pre-prototype too lol.

also, try using the pink construction foam, i think you will be happier with the sculpting abilities.

DO NOT MIX THE SILICONES!!
there could be chemical reactions between the two subtances, and/or at the very least, the combination of the two may render each other useless in one form or another.
 
You could still keep going on this one and after you have the styrofoam covered in a nice thick coat of cement dissole the styrofoam with acetone... this is coming from a guy who made one of these backgrounds and found out the big rocks I glued on the bottom of it were not enough weight to hold it down in even a half full 20G tank... so it busted all apart and.... yeah anyways, no need to bring up bad memories, but just be careful, stryofoam is a heck of alot more boyant than even thought it was I thought it was really boyant.
 
MikenDanielle said:
You could still keep going on this one and after you have the styrofoam covered in a nice thick coat of cement dissole the styrofoam with acetone... this is coming from a guy who made one of these backgrounds and found out the big rocks I glued on the bottom of it were not enough weight to hold it down in even a half full 20G tank... so it busted all apart and.... yeah anyways, no need to bring up bad memories, but just be careful, stryofoam is a heck of alot more boyant than even thought it was I thought it was really boyant.
Click to expand...

if its all covered with cement, how is he going to get acetone to the foam :D
 
Id be concerned about acetone not being able to evaporate very well in the enclosed space, after soaking into cement.
I think it might also be hard to pour out the goop left behind.

once its empty,,,, drop in a match muhahahaha....

j/k ... please dont do this.... im just crazy.
 
Can I use marine epoxy?

Second thought. I noticed the styrofoam is very light so part of my work is to make the whole background heavier. I cut squre cube at the bottom and I am going to put steel (or heavy stuff) in it. I know it won't conquer the float but it should help a little.

If I put epoxy on concrete, does it bound to concrete? I know epoxy has strong bound to glass glue (silicone). I am still wondering why the GE concrete glue doesn't bound to glass. Both Window and Concrete types are made of 100% silicone. Maybe silicone is not the main factor but somethig else they add in? Mysteries.

Ken
 
CatchMoreFish said:
Second thought. I noticed the styrofoam is very light so part of my work is to make the whole background heavier. I cut squre cube at the bottom and I am going to put steel (or heavy stuff) in it. I know it won't conquer the float but it should help a little.

If I put epoxy on concrete, does it bound to concrete? I know epoxy has strong bound to glass glue (silicone). I am still wondering why the GE concrete glue doesn't bound to glass. Both Window and Concrete types are made of 100% silicone. Maybe silicone is not the main factor but somethig else they add in? Mysteries.

Ken
Click to expand...

the word you are looking for is bond. :)

I was just cleaning my tank, and decided to do a better cleaning job, only to find that my BG has been flaking, and the epoxy is coming off... a bunch of paint got into the tank, and i now must rip the entire thing off and trash it.

IT looked good for a while, but the epoxy obviously didnt work, and im certain now, that it has killed my fish.

:(

use natural materials and ONLY aquarium safe products.
Max Bond LV A/B is NOT the epoxy to use, either that or i didnt mix it right, or give it enough time to cure.
 
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