# DIY Background



## AnKleBiTR (Mar 31, 2005)

So.. I bought a tank this past weekend. I bought it used off of the Member Classified section. It's a 135g Oceanic reef ready. I'm pretty happy with the purchase as a whole, but the tank and stand needed some TLC to bring them back to life. The tank had been used for a saltwater setup and it had a bit of calcium and salt buildup in it. The stand is in good condition structurally, but needs to be refinished badly. The back glass on the tank is tinted from the factory, which looks pretty cool, but I really wanted to go with a "Back to Nature" background instead. I really like the way they look. I made a post earlier this week asking for links to a website I could buy one of the backgrounds from (thanks again Mashunter), and I figured out something very important. Back to Nature backgrounds are freaking EXPENSIVE. I'm not dirt poor or anything, but I can't afford to just flush money down the toilet either. So I've decided to build my own background. I really have reservations about the whole process because I am not in the least bit artistic, and I have NO experience working with the materials I will need to finish this project. To start, I looked at backgrounds from professionals. You know, ones that actually look good, to get an idea for what I was getting into. Next I tried to research DIY backgrounds (go Google!) to see what was involved. I found some directions on another site I visit off and on. Here is a link to what I found. I read through the instructions about a dozen times to try to find some hidden passage that would later lead to my failure, but it looked pretty easy. I ventured out to Lowes and Michael's (a crafts store) on Monday to start my adventure. I picked up:

3 tubes GE Silicone I
2 cans "Great Stuff" expanding insulation
4 packs of sanding disks
2 50 lb bags of Quickcrete Quickwall
2 bottles of concrete pigment (black and brown)
1 bottle Acrylic Fortifier
1 bag latex gloves
1 40 lb bag Water Softener Salt
1 A$$ load of styrofoam

I started by cleaning the back glass of the aquarium with some paper towels and rubbing alcohol. It's important to get all of the contaminants off of the glass to ensure good adhesion of the styrofoam (buoyant) and caulk. Next I measured and cut styrofoam sheets to fit between my overflows. I caulked them HEAVILY onto the back glass. I followed the same procedure so the styrofoam was about an inch and a half thick at the bottom of my aquarium, stepping down to an inch thick about a foot from the top of the aquarium, and about 1/2 an inch thick for the last 6 inches. I staggered the seams between the layers of styrofoam to increase its crappy strength. Next I glued bits of styrofoam over the layers I had just laid to give it texture. I just broke and cut up bits so my styrofoam background would have little hills in it. After that was done, I sealed between all the seams of the styrofoam and around the edges where it touched glass with the silicone sealant. After that was done I used the "Great Stuff" to try to round out some of the edges and tweak my background a little. One note... this expanding foam stuff does not initially adhere to styrofoam very well at all. I had to spray really slowly until the adhesive "grabbed" the styrofoam to keep it from just going everywhere. The next step is to let this mess dry for at least 24 hours. The silicone needs to cure and the spray adhesive needs to expand and dry. Once 24 hours is up, you get this MESS.

The next step is to sand down the dried Great Stuff to roughen it. You need to do this so the concrete will adhere to it. I ran a rough sand paper over the Great Stuff and cut sections away to get the general shape I was after for my finished rock wall. I used a blow torch to melt sections of the styrofoam to create smooth valleys between the little "outcroppings" I created. I also used the torch to smooth some of the edges between my styrofoam sheets. The Great Stuff does not really melt from the torch. It just creates a lot of stinky black smoke. Now we get to play in the mud. I mixed the quickwall to a very thin consistency. The purpose here is to basically coat the styrofoam with a primer so the next heavy layer of concrete will stick to it. It's like thinning epoxy before sealing a plywood tank. The first layer is just for adhesion. I slathered the thin concrete onto the styrofoam and tried to work it in using a stiff bristle brush and my hands. I wore latex gloves to try to spare my hands the dry cracking fun that accompanies working with concrete. Here is a picture of my little Train Wreck now. I used a little bit of black pigment in the first course so I could easily see where the Quickwall was and how well it was covering. I started refinishing my stand while the aquarium was drying. Here are a couple before and after pics of it. Obviously it's just a rough sanding. I still need to go over it with finer grit and apply stain.

Before

After

I'll write more up as I progress through the project(s) so we can all be surprised if this succeeds!


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## AnKleBiTR (Mar 31, 2005)

The concrete I used in my background is curing with the tank full of saltwater. I think that everything turned out far better than I ever anticipated. Take a look.

After 1

After 2


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## 85RBPBRO (Apr 5, 2005)

Wow that looks good. I wish I could have done that with my tank.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

85RBPBRO said:


> Wow that looks good.


Agree!


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