D.I.Y. 3D Background - How To - W.I.P.

that looks like the epoxy getting milky, which can happen if water gets into it before it's fully cured. depending on how you mix it, the temp and humidity when you use it, the surface condition when applying, it can sometimes take days to cure. if improperly mixed, some epoxies will never cure, but instead harden slowly for years. (I doubt you have this extreme a problem!)

but, if it's not fully cured, and you layer anything over it, the gas released while it cures reacts with what is over it. (paint etc) milkiness is often a sign. a good example is if you use gloss topcoat over etching paint, before the etching paint has fully evaporated. (on metal)

I'm sure it will be fine... algae will probably cover that sucker in a weeks time! it looks spectacular.
 
It did have a good week at least to sit and harden/dry. there were some spots where the epoxy was really thin, and remained sticky... presumably I didnt mix it quite properly when I applied those touch ups.
the original coat got hard, and didnt remain sticky at all.

Im wondering if I should drain the tank and give it a couple of weeks to dry out before I finish setting everything up.

Im inclined to believe that the cloudiness in my water is partially due to the water conditioner. I use BigAls for the time being (getting prime on sat.) and I added a big dose to help my fish heal up after the ammonia poisoning incident and my water seemed really cloudy afterwards.... its multi-purpose and supposed to help fish heal with aloe vera power :) .... Im not sure I actually like the stuff.
 
If you read up on using epoxy to seal stuff, they recommend a number of "tricks" to avoid the very common air bubble problem that it looks like you're having. What I'm going to guess happened is that the porous surface you were sealing either wasn't 100% dry, like it had trapped moisture in it somewhere that tried to evaporate while the epoxy was curing, or the surface changed temperature slightly while the epoxy was curing, and the trapped gasses in the porous surface just bubbled out into the epoxy. - this is a really common phenomenon when coating stuff like wood with epoxy.
 
cvermeulen said:
If you read up on using epoxy to seal stuff, they recommend a number of "tricks" to avoid the very common air bubble problem that it looks like you're having. What I'm going to guess happened is that the porous surface you were sealing either wasn't 100% dry, like it had trapped moisture in it somewhere that tried to evaporate while the epoxy was curing, or the surface changed temperature slightly while the epoxy was curing, and the trapped gasses in the porous surface just bubbled out into the epoxy. - this is a really common phenomenon when coating stuff like wood with epoxy.
Click to expand...

Wish I had known that like 2 months ago :D
hearing that makes alot of sense, and I'm willing to bet this is exactly what happened.

I'll chalk that up to "things learned for next time"
Hopefully in the not-SO-distant future this 50 gallon will be a sump or a hospital tank, or just another tank, sitting underneath a 125gal :)
 
aaarrrggg one of my LEDs has gone out..... I overfilled the tank, and I think some water seeped into the wiring channel, and somehow managed to short out one of the bulbs.

this may have also resulted in a fish death, due to stray voltage.... but my snails are still alive.

the light still doesnt work, but if water could seep in, then hopefully it will evaporate out, and dry.

if the light remains non-functional, I will tear the background out and do another one, learning from my mistakes this go 'round.
 
update for everyone, I have removed the background from my tank today.

I decided to give the tank a good algae brushing, and noticed when i went over the background, MASSIVE amounts of "dust" were being stirred up, and flakes of stuff was coming off.

closer inspection revealed the epoxy was flaking off, and the dust was actually paint washing off.

So im now giving my tank a complete cleaning, and am going to finish up the plumbing and build a new stand before i even consider what kind of background to use now.

on the plus side, was able to repair the LED that went out in the above post.
water had seeped in during an overflow, and caused some wires to short, and become hot, melting the rest.

Im not sure where water got in as it was sealed up tight.... but whatever its all garbage now.
 
looks great! i had a question though,

is there a certain cement type\spraypaint type to use that wont harm fish or are most fish friendly already?
 
Darksoul:

I just want to thank you for your detailed write-up. It looks great. I'm sorry that it didn't work out as expected.

A few questions:

- What is expanding foam? Is it the stuff that you can buy at the Home Depot/Lowe's that is used for insulating? For example, this:

074985001543.jpg


- If so, why not just use expanding foam to make the whole wall (and then paint and epoxy of course)?
 
that is the stuff.

it was the paint an epoxy which caused my problems.

Mostly the epoxy, for had it not flaked off (IE, had i put a much thicker coat on) things might have worked out differently.

besides that, you need something to spray the expanding foam onto, in order to make the "detail".


I think fewer coats of paint, using more aquarium safe materials, and a heavier coat of some KNOWN aquarium safe sealant/epoxy would have rendered better results.

I got too into making my own look, and making it darker, when I should have just found some aquarium safe cement (some stuff is named, in a thread around here somehwre) and some cement pigment, instead of painting the entire thing like 7 times.
 
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