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

no water in the tank yet.

I want to run water through my filters when i fill it, and I need fittings to connect the filters right now.

so lets just say that this background and silicone will have had a good couple of weeks dry curing time before any water even touches it.

I as well, am hoping that the water will help defract the light and make the background less shiny.

However, next time, I would thin out the epoxy with some MEK before applying it.
I purchased a low viscosity line of marine epoxy, but it was still about as thick as moleases, and being alot thinner would have helped it coat better, and leave less air bubbles.

if you look really super extremely close you can see TONS of tiny tiny tiny little air bubbles in the places where the epoxy "pooled", and it can be seen under black light.

a thinner mix of epoxy would have allowed the air bubbles to dissipate better, even though the amount of air bubbles left after curing was about 75-80% less than when I started coating it.

I purchased 1 liter (32oz) of epoxy, and still have just more than half left..... and ALOT of it wasted by me mixing up much much more than I actually needed to cover the background...... this stuff goes a LONG LONG way.

my first mix was roughly 8oz, and probably 6oz of it was wasted after I had finished coating the background.

the finer touch ups required MUCH less epoxy, so I mixed up probably another 2oz, and wasted about 1.8 of it by the time i was finished.

thin it out with MEK, and it will go even further.
 
HYLA WALDRON said:
all the stuff he used initially was NOT aquarium safe and that is why he sealed the whole thing.
Click to expand...

indeed, my project was made from things that will most likely kill fish. this is the reason for the epoxy.

Miken: check your pm, i sent you a rather extensive one.
 
Well, I have filled my tank with water, and the shine has gone away.... you can once again see every detail and colour.

I do have one major concern though, on about 15% of my backgrounds total area, some of the epoxy has come off. mostly just on the tiny peaks of the cement, and it actually doesnt look bad, still a good natural look about it.

My concern is that these small areas, may be leeching things into the water.
the paint has come off on these areas as well, leaving the cement/grout natural colour showing through.... again, it still looks good, but what about other things.

the areas exposed, are very small areas, but there are many of them.
im guessing the paint has come off because it was attatched to the epoxy when it came off.


should i be worried? Im going to be letting it run, and doing a few drain and fills to clean anything out that I can, but is there any risk of things being constantly leeched into the water?

its sitting in water, with only a powerhead running with some carbon on the PH.

also my UGF plates dont seem to be sucking anything in, but this could be due to me not having any gravel in there.

will post pics later tonight after a few more drain and fills.
 
Pictures.

I have left the first two in their original size/resolution, so that you can get an idea, and see close up what the exposed areas look like.

Right around the bottom left of the background, where the filter intake tube is, is where the worst peeling seems to have happened. and i think it has stopped doing this now, So im hoping i wont see any more areas, or eventually the entire thing, lose its paint/epoxy etc.

this is a good lesson though, mix epoxy throughly, and accuratly. it clearly didnt harden in those areas properly, because it wasnt mixed exactly properly. the rest of the background that is covered with epoxy, should be fine now, and last a lifetime.... literally.

although it has peeled in a few areas, it didnt happen in a way that looks unnatural, and actually seems to add just a little bit of character to the background itself.

some of the shots are kind of fuzzy, but if i t urn the flash off on my camera, the anti-shake compensation goes with it.....anyone wanna donate a tripod :)

as you can see I have been using a powerhead to move water, and filter out crap that may have fallen off (had some silicone peel off.....actually in a place where I needed the silicone to come off)

I dont have my eheims running because they arent physically connected, and I wouldnt want to contaminate them with anything anyway.

Wet Background 1.jpg


Wet Background 2.jpg


Wet Background 3.jpg


Wet Background 4.jpg


Wet Background 5.jpg


Wet Background 6.jpg
 
LMAO.... im a perfectionist, I spent tons of hours on this, and thats why it looks the way it does :D

I forget who gave me the idea for the LEDs, but I owe that person an extreme debt of gratitude. for the mere mention of the idea, sparked an inferno of thought of how to get LEDs underwater.

I made them water proof, but they dont actually even come in contact with the water at all.

it turns out too, that not adding the airstones on the uplift tubes, probably worked out better.

I still get some decent sized bubbles, and wont have to worry about the airstones getting clogged over time..... but i do wonder about weather or not the UGF is actually working, but I can see why it wouldnt without gravel being on top of it.
 
looks good man! i might have to give it a try myself! I'd like to try like an amazonian tree theme tho... hmmmm...
 
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