Tank construction photo journal, foam rock backdrop

[Auhsoj27]

I loved the look of s.ling's foam rock backdrop so much that I decided to try making one for my tank. Big thanks to s.ling's thorough instructions, they helped my out a ton!



here's where I am so far in the process. Check out my album for more construction photos.

Rock wall photos

[unbrokenchain42]

looks cool. where did you get the blue foam board?

It looks really cool, do you have a pic of thw whole tank. Also what are you going to use to cove the foam, epoxy or what.
Brooks

[Auhsoj27]

the foam is insulation, bought at a hardware store. next step is to paint it, then epoxy it.

I dont have any other pics of the tank to show yet, other than silicone on the back.

[EDs Fly Meat]

I have considered using that same material, but was not sure what to coat the foam with. I long time ago I made a volcano that housed an ultra sonic humidifier for some tree frogs. I painted it, and never coated it with an epoxy or resin or silicone. The problem was that the crickets nibbled at it and I had a brown volcano with pink dots on it from the crickets!

Oh revenge is a dish best served cold.

Little orthopteran bastards!

Dave

[kyle1745]

I really want to figure out the epoxy\paint. The foam is easy to work with and cheap. I have a good chunk left and would like to try the epoxy. Could anyone explain the epoxy needed, and paint. Along with the process.

[Auhsoj27]

epoxy is epoxy, from what i've researched. its all 100% waterproof. as for paint, stay away from spray paint. most sprays will dissolve foam. Epoxy basically puts a thick coat or shell around whatever you're using it on. You could epoxy a loaf of bread if you wanted to and it would preserve it for years and years.

The biggest drawback to this method of making a backdrop compared to the greatstuff/coco fiber method, in my view, is that it takes a little more artistic effort. You have to sit there and carve out what you want, then paint it to look how you want. With greatstuff, you would squirt it on in the thickness you want in whatever area, but the final shape would be dictated by the GS, not you.

[JoshKaptur]

Auhsoj27, if you are successful in re-creating the rock from your inspiration photo, that will be a beautiful background indeed!

i used the same foam, and a 2 part epoxy (wets systems), to build a water fall in my paludarium. if you put a coat of epoxy on before painting you can use regular spray paint. this is what i did.

i also coated a portion of the last layer of epoxy with small stones. above the water line i have complete coverage with small stones. this gave a nice contrasting color, and broke the water up a bit. the best part was it created a perfet growing spot for java moss.

heres a pic after the tank has been set up almost 2 years. you can see to the right of the java, what the small stones look like.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/ ... 075_PB.jpg



here is a shot of it under the water line. you can see here how the foam looks with no stones glued to the outside. it looks just like real rock to me. i get people alway asking me how i found a perfect shaped piece, or how i carved real stone to look like that. i have to show them old pictures for them to believe i carved it myself. i dont even think i did as good of a job carving, as what is shown above.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/ ... 046_PB.jpg

heres a full tank shot, so you can see how it fits in to my paly.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/ ... 064_PB.jpg

all the land is supported by a styrofoam shelf also, but that was a different type of styro, and no panit just epoxy.

[Auhsoj27]

Its starting to look a little more like a back drop and less like foam insulation now.

I put a base coat of black onto the foam instead of white or whatever other color I'll end up using just in case I miss any spots. Instead of the bright blue showing through little holes and cracks, it will be the black. Much more natural looking.

I've been thinking pretty hard about what sort of rock I wanted to mimic with the final paint scheme. I decided against painting to look like sand stone, like the source photo, because the frogs I want would be pretty close to that color. Basically, I want to avoid light colored rock entirely. I'm thinking either black or grey granite, or even a dark jade color would look good.