# fiberglass resin turned cloudy!



## deezdrama

Well I spent about 3 months working on this awesome amazon looking rockpile background - it was perfect but somehow it got knocked over while the concrete was drying so i siliconed it back together and then i topcoated the whole thing with fiberglass resin. It made it super strong and shiny and looked great. I mixed the resin perfect and let it dry for a week before adding water- I filled up the tank last night and this morning the resin topcoat looks cloudy white














- it sucks cause i spent like forever painting shadow and highlight details on the background and it looked great, now since the fiberglass resin is cloudy looking you can barelly see the colors of the background. Is fiberglass resin suppossed to do this? The only reason i did this is because i knew people sealed there DIY tanks with fiberglass resin. Anyone have any suggesstions? All i can think of doing is draining the tank and let the resin dry out again possiblly for a day or two and see if it clears-I dont know-but it sucks. My piranhas are in a 45g rubbermaid bin and they are way crowded so i need to get this figured out.


----------



## Lewdog

deezdrama said:


> Well I spent about 3 months working on this awesome amazon looking rockpile background - it was perfect but somehow it got knocked over while the concrete was drying so i siliconed it back together and then i topcoated the whole thing with fiberglass resin. It made it super strong and shiny and looked great. I mixed the resin perfect and let it dry for a week before adding water- I filled up the tank last night and this morning the resin topcoat looks cloudy white
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> - it sucks cause i spent like forever painting shadow and highlight details on the background and it looked great, now since the fiberglass resin is cloudy looking you can barelly see the colors of the background. Is fiberglass resin suppossed to do this? The only reason i did this is because i knew people sealed there DIY tanks with fiberglass resin. Anyone have any suggesstions? All i can think of doing is draining the tank and let the resin dry out again possiblly for a day or two and see if it clears-I dont know-but it sucks. My piranhas are in a 45g rubbermaid bin and they are way crowded so i need to get this figured out.


it stays cloudy and feels rough to the touch.mine did the say thingand i filled mine after 2 hrs but it is only in spots


----------



## deezdrama

so yours stayed cloudy colored? should i try and drain it and see if it re-clears or something? This sucks ! I spent hours and hours for nothing cause you cant even see the colors


----------



## Lewdog

deezdrama said:


> so yours stayed cloudy colored? should i try and drain it and see if it re-clears or something? This sucks ! I spent hours and hours for nothing cause you cant even see the colors


When i drained it stayed cloudy and i just filled it again tonight with the new resin on the background.Ill let u know if this clouds up to.


----------



## Lewdog

lewdog said:


> so yours stayed cloudy colored? should i try and drain it and see if it re-clears or something? This sucks ! I spent hours and hours for nothing cause you cant even see the colors


When i drained it stayed cloudy and i just filled it again tonight with the new resin on the background.Ill let u know if this clouds up to.
[/quote]
yes -went looked at it today and the resin clouded right up


----------



## deezdrama

this F-ing sucks. Mine is still cloudy and made my awesome background look like sh*t. All the people on here that use fiberglass resin and noone ever mentioned or warned about it fogging up.....what a bitch. I took a rag and whiped mine down last night with the water still in it and some of the cloudiness whiped off but it still looks like sh*t- and now my water is cloudy and smells like the resin- damnit......I let my background dry for at least a week and a half and it still screwed up on me. Im going to drain my tank tonight and see if i can fix the problem, maybe we didnt use enough hardener but i mixed the whole batch so that cant be it. Let me know if you find a way to fix it.

Brodgers and others with DIY plywood/fiberglass tanks.....why did none of you mention this or did it not happen to yours?


----------



## deezdrama

Well since last time- Ive let the background dry out with no water for 2 days,refilled the tank and scrubbed the background with a sponge and then drained it, last night i re-decorated the tank with some new driftwood pieces I bought,some bamboo plants and other plants, then i refilled the tank and put my piranhas in it- hopefully they wont die from whatever was leaching out of the fiberglass but now the tank is clear and looks pretty damn good except the DIY background is still a little cloudy- Ill post pics when i get a new card reader for my camera


----------



## Lewdog

mine have been in the water since yesterday and doing fine.I can still smell the resin alittle bit and yes the resin is cloudy in spots.


----------



## EZmoney

I'm looking forward to some pics, deez! You have been working hard on this bg project.

btw whats up with your diy tank?


----------



## deezdrama

well i came home from work and the tank is now crystal clear- the background still has all the highlight and shadows I painted on it but now the whole background is just several shades lighter- but i like it, originally it was very dark muddy colors to simulate the amazon- now its more lighter colors like the look of granite rock- I added a small amount of sand in with the resin to add a bit more of texture and it looks great.

I KNOW KNOW..........








but my card reader for my digi cam crapped out and i have to get a new one,so hopefully friday ill have some pics taken of the tank

As for my piranhas- they are ten times more natural acting.... they are not as skittish,they have darkened up alot, and they now swim around the tank alot more even in the middle and the top- before they hid all the time.



lewdog said:


> I'm looking forward to some pics, deez! You have been working hard on this bg project.
> 
> btw whats up with your diy tank?


Yeah- I hope to get pics up soon- It looked twice as good before the resin turned cloudy but oh well - everyone else who seen it says it looks good and they like it better now that its a lighter color- but I personally thought it looked more realistic to the amazon before...but oh well.

My 240g Diy is done exept for glass, but Unfortunatelly I do not have room for it in my small house- I will either box my front porch onto my house and put it there this summer or wait untill I get a bigger house.

As for other potential DIY people who plan on building a DIY plywood tank- I would use epoxy anyday over fiberglass resin- its only a little more expensive but the stuff kicks the fiberglass resins ass. The epoxy dries to a tough flexible plastic - whereass fiberglass resin is a hard brittle surface that clouds up and stinks when in contact with water.


----------



## deezdrama

Here is a link to pictures of the 3 background pieces before they where put together and fiberglass resined

http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=107739


----------

