Styrofoam/Cement Background
- Thread starter ejmeier
- Start date
No.
I don't have a digital camera!
I wish I did though...Just picture a solid granite rock wall on the back of a tank. It looks kinda like that...
Here's a link to a page that has a tank using a similar background to mine. The background looks very similar to this, only it is a darker color - almost a dark grey. (And not quite so thick - only 2" syrofoam.)
http://cichlidinspiration.net3services.com/show_articles2.asp?id=11
http://cichlidinspiration.net3services.com/show_articles2.asp?id=11
ejmeier, when it is darker, does it look more realistic? I'm not too fussy about the look of that one , but maybe because it has a kind of polar ice cap look to it.
Joe, in spite of the materials used, it doesn't look like the inside of my bar-b-que. Quite sharp actually.
This winter I will try my hand at some epoxy and stone / epoxy and gravel backgrounds and revive this thread. Who knows?
Joe, in spite of the materials used, it doesn't look like the inside of my bar-b-que. Quite sharp actually.
This winter I will try my hand at some epoxy and stone / epoxy and gravel backgrounds and revive this thread. Who knows?
I didn't really think that tank looked too realistic, like you said, it looks like big ice blocks. And yes, it looks quite realistic (IMO) when it is darker. I guess the shapes I carved were less exaggerated too, so that might be another reason.
Okay, found a link to a tank that looks VERY similar to mine, or my background that is - no serious this time, it looks just like mine.
http://cichlidinspiration.net3services.com/show_articles2.asp?id=2
Anyway here's an update on the water chemistry after the first day:
(NOTES: My test kit is made for saltwater, so I couldn't test for the pH very accurately, it only goes down to 7.4, but I would guess from extrapolation that it started at 7.0. Also, this was the first time ever I tested my tapwater with a quality test kit (Salifert)that had a high enough upper limit to detect my true dKH. It was at 18.6 dKH straight out of the tap! No kidding. With these facts aside, here are the results.)
Start: pH 7.0, Ca 100ppm, dKH 18.6
2nd day: pH 8.0, Ca 90ppm, dKH 15.4
I don't think that the Ca could've gone down, and I was testing it a bit sloppy, so I'll say it was simply unchanged. As for the dKH, it went down. I don't know why, as my water is pretty screwy, but even my existing tank's levels were equal to that of my tapwater, so somehow, for some reason, the water's dKH went DOWN by about 3.
Lastly, as I expected, the pH has risen a full point to 8.0.
The tank is a 33g long, and I would estimate that there is roughly 30 gallons in the tank. The cement is roughly 1/8" thick, with a surface area of 47" by 11", giving a total volume of roughly 64 cubic inches or about 5 cubic feet. Again, I will say that this is a very ROUGH estimate, I could be off by as much as 50% or more.
Okay, I got a teensey tiny little shot of the background using my webcam. It's pretty horrible quality because the tank is in the next room, so I had to strech the cord to the doorway and take the pic from about 10 feet away.
Can you see it?
Can you see it?
I have to correct my math here, it is driving me crazy! There are 144 cubic inches in a cubic foot, not 12.
So the volume of cement is about 64 cubic inches, or about .45 cubic feet. (Hehe, the tank itself isn't even 5 cubic feet.)The most realistic background I have seen is on on one of the africain sites. It was done exactly like you but for the final cement/sand mixture he added a little bit sof some kind of dye and it really brought out the rocks and used different clors of black and browns on different rocks. might want to think about that next time. can't rmmember what kind of dye I think it was a fabric dye.
Okay, first I was thinking one dimensional, then I was thinking two dimensional, but now I think I have finally got this THREE DIMENSIONAL measurement right. A cubic foot has 12 x 12 x 12 = 1728 cubic inches; not 12 or 144.Originally posted by ejmeier
I have to correct my math here, it is driving me crazy! There are 144 cubic inches in a cubic foot, not 12.
Sooooooo, my cement with a volume of 64 cubic inches is actually only .037 cubic feet.
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