[Guest]

I'm getting ready to create a background for my 65 gallon tank. My plan is to make the background on flat styrofoam boards and then attach these use silicon to attach these to the back of the aquariuym.

I plan on setting cork bark and drift wood into the foam as its drying. Will the foam be tacky enough to hold the bark/wood? should I wait till it drys then silicone it? or? Is there any danger to using styrofoam as the base for my background?


-Tad

Ok here's some pics of whats done so far:

The last pic is just b/c it was one the same card, turned out really nice/abstract other than being resized and cropped the photo is untouched.

-Tad

 

[Jace King]

I dont understand what your saying. When you say styrofoam you mean some styrofoam bricks right. Or are your talking about great stuffing some ghost wood. In that case i would make sure the wood is stable before great stuffing.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I was having two separate thoughts there... and didn't quite join them properly heh. I plan on building the background on styrofoam panels (they're about an inch thick three feet long and 16 inches wide or so). I'm going to use expanding foam (spraying it on the styrofoam panel). I then plan on setting pieces of wood into the foam while its drying.


I hope that made more sense.


-Tad

 

[Jace King]

Why even use the styrofoam they seem to just waste space to me. Why not just silicon the ghost wood in then, Great stuff over them. Am i still missing something or would that accomplish the desired effect without the wasted space of the styrofoam. What is the styrofoam for.

 

[Guest]

So that I can set everything up outside the aquarium giving me more room to work with. Really the only "wasted space" would be the 1" or so. I'm also some what nervous about spraying foam directly to the back of the aquarium. If I don't like how the background looks I can trash it before putting it inside the vivarium and don't have to worry about scraping it off the glass. I won't have to worry about spraying foam accidentally onto the sides or the front or anywhere else I don't want it.

-Tad

 

[Jace King]

Oh that actually makes sense now. For the inch, that you lose i can see how you dont mind, but when added to the lose after the great stuff then its gets bigger. I cant foresee any problems with a styrofoam background.

 

[Jace King]

But the idea of having a premade drop in background is very cool. You can make all hte mistakes you want and all you lose is styrofoam. practice till its perfect than drop it in. Good idea once i got it.

 

[Darks!de]

Lol...i was under the impression that you can just razor blade great stuff off of glass if you messed up...probably still more trouble though...

 

[Darren Meyer]

Hey I have place bog log directly into the expanding foam .Just have to place it in when it's 1/2 way cured . works great . Though I woulden't use the styrofoam , just seems like a waiste of time to me . Also gives smaller frogs a increased chance of somehow getting behind the barkground .
Darren

 

[kyle1745]

Tad,

I would do both, silicone the wood in place and then great stuff around it. As the silicone should hold a little better.

I have used the styrofoam method and it is great, easy, light, and looks good when done.

 

[Guest]

Though I woulden't use the styrofoam , just seems like a waiste of time to me . Also gives smaller frogs a increased chance of somehow getting behind the barkground .

Really I don't see how the frogs would get behind the styrofoam as its perfectly flat and is going to covered in silicon. The main advantage is I can work on the background outside of the aquarium(and make mistakes) the styrofoam is 3/4 inche thick so it isn't wasting much space. I'm going to make it then drop it in.


-Tad

 

[Guest]

Tad one thing you may want to consider is covering the styrofaom with waxpaper firts. The great stuff wont stick to it and can be reused again and again. This way you dont watse the styrofoam or the wax paper. Just make sure to have the waxey side out.

Mike P.

 

[Guest]

Interesting, the styrofoam is fairly cheap, and I think I'm going to silicone peices of drift wood/cork bark to the sytrofoam and spray the foam around them. I suppose I could do this on teh wax paper... then silicone the whole thing in at wich point the styrofoam is kind of pointless?

 

[Derek Benson]

You could probably make a mold of a tank out of some wood, libe it with wax paper and create your background in that. If you like it, lay down silicone in the tank you want it in, and the slide it in. Sounds better than not liking the background and scraping off or trashing it.

 

[Guest]

There is a support bar across the top, so I'll have to put it in pieces anyways to fit it through the top.


-Tad

 

[Guest]

Here's a little farther along.

-Tad

 

[Dunner97074]

Tad,
I did the same thing with my 55. It was alot easier working outside the tank. One thing I did that I liked was to smear the great stuff after I applied it to the foam backboard. This limited the expansion as it dried so there was less space wasted. It still dried irregular which is what the desired look was. Good luck.
Mike