Building my first styrofoam cement background with some questions.

what about any acetone which may have blended with the reduced polystyrene? we all know how a liquid can evaporate, but it will leave behind any "solids"

like boiling saltwater for instance.

gasoline will dissolve foam as well....... thats how you make napalm :)
 
Wash it out with a hose
 
anything left behind by those type of chemicals wont be washed away with water.
 
Actually, acetone is highly water souble, so a thorough hosing would be a good thing.

Uh - let's not use gasoline. Acetone is cheap and available with high purity, no nasty additives or metal complexes.

If you're going to remove the styrofoam, do a good job of it. Don't leave any gooey mush behind. Semi dissolved polystyrene could entrap pockets of acetone that rinsing could miss. That would be bad for fish.

I wonder why nobody uses the cellulose material that is used for packing peanuts. That is directly soluble in water. Shape forms, Cast cement, Rinse, Paint, Seal, DONE.
 
Squawkbert said:
Actually, acetone is highly water souble, so a thorough hosing would be a good thing.

Uh - let's not use gasoline. Acetone is cheap and available with high purity, no nasty additives or metal complexes.

If you're going to remove the styrofoam, do a good job of it. Don't leave any gooey mush behind. Semi dissolved polystyrene could entrap pockets of acetone that rinsing could miss. That would be bad for fish.

I wonder why nobody uses the cellulose material that is used for packing peanuts. That is directly soluble in water. Shape forms, Cast cement, Rinse, Paint, Seal, DONE.
Click to expand...

i didnt know that about acetone.

where do you buy the cellulose material? Id def be down for using something easier :D
 
Putting the cement is a time consuming job. I spent almost 2 hours a day and I can only finish the first one (the one on the left side) since last week. While I was building this first block, I learned a lot.

Most detail cutting was lost. Once a thick layer of cement is put one, everything is gone. I do learn how to make it looks like rock after playing cement a while. I have put three layers of cement and there will be one more as a touch up. This first piece weights 20lb. It floats in the water and it suprised me becasue I feel it is so heavy. I managed to put 5 more pounds on and it still floats. Then, comes the lesson. I need to cut more styrofoam next time.

Maybe I should put some lead to make it heavier. Is metal heavier than concrete? Maybe I should go to junk yard to get some.

PICT0308.JPG PICT0309.JPG PICT0310.JPG PICT0311.JPG PICT0312.JPG
 
looking good.

i put three layers of cement on mine as wlel but it only weighed about 5-8lbs lol i think you must have wacked on really thick layers, i used 1 runny thin layer just for coverage to be honest the second layer was thicker like a custard texture but painted on really well and the 3rd layer was a lot thicker and a bit of a pain to paint on.

dont worry about it floating just silicon it to the glass, thats why i did and mine weighs less then yours so i assume it is more buoyant? (link is in my sig if you want to see current pics)

i used a lot of aquarium silicon though lol proabibly about 300ml just sticking it to the glass...i dident want it to float!

i like the colours you have put into the cement, very cool and when the algae builds up (only takes about 3 weeks or so) it will look very real.

i had the same problem with details but luckily i realised that after putting my first layer of cement on so i had time to exagurate any details by making them bigger so they can still be seen under 3 layers of cement.

ohh and one thing i have realised is that you need to be careful about what plecs you put into the tank, planque(spell?) species such as the royal plec etc can eat and destroy the background, so be careful what you stock the tank with :)

hope you have fun with the water changes :) lol (sorry i shouldent laugh but they are a pain in the arse...i know i am 2 weeks into that process)
 
ohh and i should mention that you might want to consider signing upto the "chiclid forum" www.cichlid-forum.com they have a library of articles and a lot of them on cement backgrounds, i found just reading those articles and seeing other peoples backgrounds answered pretty much any questions i had about doing one myself.

you might have to login to see it but articles like this one
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_aquarium_background3.php
i found very useful
 
thanks, Bahney.

I went to cichlid-forum a lot and got lots of knowledge from the people there. I am a deep diver over there.:lipssealedsmilie:
 
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