# NEW Corner tank 3D background....COMPLETE BUILD!



## joey020283

hey all!
This is my new background i just made. I had made a previous backgrounds in the past out of styrofoam and cement(like most do) But i had too many problems with that method.

I did this one alot different than my past backgrounds for a number of reasons.....

Firstly, i wanted to get rid of the styrofoam as it is far too boyant, and displaces alot of water volume. I also didnt want to use cement as it was too messy, had a bad effect on the water for a long period of time and some of it tended to crumble if it wasnt thick enough or if it was the wrong cement or concrete. I also wanted ALL equipment conceled.

I wanted this one to be light weight, very durable, and inert as well.

so after searching everywhere, i came across the use of fibreglass. I got most of the info i needed from plane model sites, surfboard sites, and car model sites. I also got alot of info from people who built their own tanks that were waterproofed in fibreglass.

So fibreglass seemed the route for me to go. It can be light weight, very durable, and somewhat easy to work with.

I still used styrofoam as the mold. Fibreglass resin eats threw styroam though, so i read that some sort of barrier between the two had to be made, or it would melt my mold.

I figuered i wanted to see how badly it would melt it, so i added some resin and hardener to styrofoam and it did melt it, but it was not that bad. So i decieded to not use any barrier and just fibreglass right over the styrofoam. Which in the end made the styrofoam easier to remove.

Here were the supplies i used:
2 Paint brushes
3 cans of spray paint(black,grey,brown)
1 old tuperware container
a spoon
3 litres of fibreglass resin and 70ml of hardener
fibreglass cloth..... not mat
lots of rubber gloves
a sheet of styrofoam
1 litre of acetone
1 tube of GE I silicone
1 can of great stuff foam
blow dryer

Since i have a corner bowfront tank, i wanted it to go into the corner of the tank. I also decieded i wanted it to be a a tree with its roots extending out.

so on with the carving. I used just a basic knife(with a serrated edge) for all of the carving. I first did the trunk, which as i carved it, i kept changing my mind on the outcome, so i did just a basic half cylider and figuered i'd do the rest once i see how the roots look.
I also used great stuff foam to hold all of the styrofoam together as it does a great job at that. But i would recommend adding it to your tank.
So after i did the trunk, i just cut up a few pieces of styrofoam and glued them together then set them in front of the trunk to get a better idea.

i did forget to take pics of some of the steps and progress, but i got most.....










after i was done that, i did some further carving to all of it, and glued the roots to the trunk.....










I also did a bit more detailing to it, and then sanded it all down to get a better finnish to it for the fibreglass. and so the fibreglass would have as many deep pockets to seap into and melt even more.




























after all carving and sanding was done. I fitted the whole background into a corner of my house to insure a snug fit into my tank.

The carving and gluing took 3-4 hours over 2 days to complete. Which was the most labour intensive part....and its not all that bad.

So on with the fibreglassing. This stuff really stinks!! I use fibreglass cloth, which is suppose to be alot easier to work with. Directions say to use 10ml of hardener for every litre and it will cure within 3-4hours.... well i used double that and it hardened in one hour. I would not use anymore than that though as it produces alot of heat, and may harden too fast and become britle. directions say to aplly the mixture to the part your fibreglassing over, then put the fibreglass over that, and then paint or smotth more resin over that. that seemed like alot of work, so i just dipped my strips of cloth into the mixture and put it on the styrofoam by hand, smoothing it and shaping it with my hand. i did find that cutting the cloth into strips rather than trying to do it in big pieces worked alot better and easier. I cut mine into 3X8 inch pieces. I also made sure to where gloves! that is a must.

after getting it all covered, i waited until it almost hardened and did it all again.
this was the first layer... forgot to take a pic of the second...










I then waited a couple of days to remove the styrofoam as i was going to use acetone to remove alot of it. This stuff also stinks, but not as bad as the resin. I removed most of the styfofoam by hand and with a knife, and then the rest with acetone.
heres a pic of most of it gone.... i cleaned it out so it was as smooth as the front.. no styrofoam left at all.



















on to the painting. I used krylon fusion spray paint for the paint. I did the first coat in black, and then the second in brown. I then combined them both for a more mixed colour. then i did a light mist in grey.










After painting it all, i sealed the whole thing in one more coat of fibreglass resin and used the blowdryer on a low setting to help with curing.(i did this on every coat)










then i put it in the tank. but once in the tank(as you can see below) it was far too shiny i felt.










so out it came. i had to wait for the sylicone to dry first so i didnt make a mess. Giving it a light sanding took the shine away. i then put it back in a siliconed it in place.

As for filtration,heating, ect..

This tank is drilled with two holes. so i capped off one of the holes and only used the other hole as the intake to my canister. the intake to the canister is on the outside of the background, so i didnt have to drill a hole in the background for that. Heater is a hydor 300watt inline heater, so i didnt have to mod anything for that as its already on the output to my canister.










The out put of the canister runs on the out side of the tank and down behind the background. i Did drill a hole in the background for the return. Since the background is hollow, i put a powerhead back there with the return beside the canisters return threw another hole. so the water is also circulated back there as well.



















as you can see, the background doesnt really take up that much room.

I let the tank sit with water into it and a power head for a few days, with daily 100% water changes just to be safe.

I did have white sand in there at first, but i thought black sand would look nicer, so i picked up 66 pounds of fine black sand. I also thoght some live plants would look nice. so i picked up 6 plants and threw them in. im not sure if they'll live, but its worth a shot. I have 96 watts of T5HO over this tank, so im hopping they'll live.
i also noticed that since i was only using bare hoses as the outputs for the canister and powerhead, there wasnt alot of flow. So i also picked up a couple of Maxijet 400's as well(i didnt want a whirl pool, just more water movement), and placed them in the front of the tank for more flow. Im still debating on how to hide them.

so heres the finnished product. I did a water change on the tank befor the pics, so excuse the bubbles.

Im sure this tank will look alot better once the plants fill in.(if they do)

heres the tank with the front lights on only.










rear lights only










LED moon lights on










and a closer pic










thats it. i'll update with more pics down the road. Again, i forgot to snap pics of some of the steps and alot of the progress, but you get the idea...

any comments, questions, or suggestions?


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## JWerner2

You are the man! I would back it with more plants though.

Nice work!


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## Maddog

very nICE!


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## nipzie

would have been a double post.


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## nipzie

looks very nice. If you are worried about the plants, why not bury a ceramic pot of eco complete or some DIY mix of cat litter, or peat, etc. under the sand to root the plants into. Sand compacts too much for roots.

it looks like you have Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig' in the front right off centre. They grow fast and easy but stalks are very brittle and easy to break off. Your plants aren't all that difficult to grow, but I would pot them in some substrate other than black sand, which is just bits of black glass. Or you could try floating plants or java fern. But then again, in a nice setup that you have with tetras, why limit yourself to plants that are usually the limit for african cichlid owners. Unless you are going to plant more a store bought bag will be way too much material for you, and will probably make you end up doing another tank. Maybe not a bad thing...

If you were closer to ON I would gladly give you a bunch of eco complete, I ended up with half of a big al's maintenance bucket spare. There are tons of cheaper DIY substrates though, if you were really worried about the plants.

anyhoo, looks great man.


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## iceblue

Excellant job. :thumb:


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## FIREFISH

That looks GREAT!!
FF


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## Morpheus

Dude, that is AWESOME!!


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## herny

very cool man


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## Howler33

Well done, you had a vision, took your time and did a great job. I agree that the background looks better without the gloss look. I imagine after a couple of months of algae growth it will be hard to tell the stump is fiberglass. I think it would look really cool with some christmas moss in the crevices.


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## KaiserSousay

=D> Just...WoW =D>


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## spotmonster

That's really nice. That's a method I'd like to try for fake rocks and or a rock background instead of styro. Do you think with a barrier that you could actually apply the fiberglass over rocks and then remove them?

I'm curious why you think the styro was easier to remove by not using a barrier?

The only barrier that comes to mind is strech film, what kind of barriers were recommended to you?


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## steelblue77

Outstanding!

:thumb:

Thanks for sharing. This opens up a whole mess of ideas.


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## joey020283

Thanks every one!!!

It did turn out as i had hoped it would. But this was my first fibreglass background, so im sure my next ones will turn out better. I have malso made a few styro/cement backgrounds as well, but i now prefer this style by far.

Nipzie: thanks for the info. I dont know a whole lot on live plants, so your advice and comments are great! thanks!

Spotmonster: I did think of a barrier for the fibreglass and styrofoam. You can buy releasing agents, but most will also eat threw the styrofoam. I also seen strech film being used, so i tryed that, and it was too hard to work with. i couldnt get it to stay on the styrofoam, or keep the shape. Tinfoil wrap can also be used, but i had the same problems with that. In the end, i just applied the fibreglass dirrectly to the styrofoam. The resin did eat the styro a bit, but it was more of a shrinking action. but by the time the melting started to ruin the shape of the background, the fibreglass hardened enough to retain its shape. It only melt it by maybe 1-4 - 1/2 inch in the worst spots. After it was hardened, i was able to rip the styro out in big chunks anyway with ease. for the hard to reach spots, i poured in some acetone to melt the styro away. If i didnt have so many groves and deep spots, i would have just used the tin foil wrap and taped it down. then the fibreglass would lift right off. thats something i may try on my next one.


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## 2ToneArmy

SICK!!! You should get some CO2 going in that thing and grow a jungle!!! That amount of plant just doesn't do justice to the tree roots. Get some Eco-Complete and mix it in with the sand.

A nice school of discus would look nice in there too, but that's just my style/preference


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## joey020283

2ToneArmy said:


> SICK!!! You should get some CO2 going in that thing and grow a jungle!!! That amount of plant just doesn't do justice to the tree roots. Get some Eco-Complete and mix it in with the sand.
> 
> A nice school of discus would look nice in there too, but that's just my style/preference


that doesnt sound like a bad idea. i'll have to look into it.


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## nipzie

For aquatic plant info, just go to Tropica.com, most aquatic plants come from there that I've seen and the variety and info are mind blowing. You wouldn't have to mix the sand with Eco-complete, the Eco is black itself, unless you like the smaller particulate size, in which case just bury some ceramic pots under the soil like I suggested.


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## joey020283

nipzie said:


> For aquatic plant info, just go to Tropica.com, most aquatic plants come from there that I've seen and the variety and info are mind blowing. You wouldn't have to mix the sand with Eco-complete, the Eco is black itself, unless you like the smaller particulate size, in which case just bury some ceramic pots under the soil like I suggested.


By ceramic pots , do you mean basic clay pots?


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## nipzie

Yes, the basic, orangish, clay planting pots. That way you could still take them out and prune them, if needed or move them to a different spot. It would look awesome as a garden. Don't go nuts on CO2, just buy one of the yeast, sugar mix ones that are like 39.99, unless you are going hardcore on the thing. That way, you can buy bakers yeast at the supermarket instead of their more expensive refill systems. Your plants will need 3 things in balance, light, nutrients and CO2. If you don't have alot of light and nutrients, CO2 might not be needed with some easier plants. But if you do have the other two with not enough CO2, you'll get algae out-competing the plants. And you thought water change chemistry was intense. Plants are great, but are a whole new level I've found. Look nice though. It was aquatic plants that got me into this hobby years ago when I found plant bulbs at WalMart for aquariums (humble beginnings, I know)


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## joey020283

nipzie said:


> Yes, the basic, orangish, clay planting pots. That way you could still take them out and prune them, if needed or move them to a different spot. It would look awesome as a garden. Don't go nuts on CO2, just buy one of the yeast, sugar mix ones that are like 39.99, unless you are going hardcore on the thing. That way, you can buy bakers yeast at the supermarket instead of their more expensive refill systems. Your plants will need 3 things in balance, light, nutrients and CO2. If you don't have alot of light and nutrients, CO2 might not be needed with some easier plants. But if you do have the other two with not enough CO2, you'll get algae out-competing the plants. And you thought water change chemistry was intense. Plants are great, but are a whole new level I've found. Look nice though. It was aquatic plants that got me into this hobby years ago when I found plant bulbs at WalMart for aquariums (humble beginnings, I know)


thanks for all the info! it will come in very handy!


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## R-DUB

Awesome simply Awesome! Great ingenuity! Great vision on your project!


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## JWerner2

2ToneArmy said:


> SICK!!! You should get some CO2 going in that thing and grow a jungle!!! That amount of plant just doesn't do justice to the tree roots. Get some Eco-Complete and mix it in with the sand.
> 
> A nice school of discus would look nice in there too, but that's just my style/preference


+1, depending on where the return is placed some floating plants would look great and look like foliage from the tree.


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## joey020283

JWerner2 said:


> 2ToneArmy said:
> 
> 
> 
> SICK!!! You should get some CO2 going in that thing and grow a jungle!!! That amount of plant just doesn't do justice to the tree roots. Get some Eco-Complete and mix it in with the sand.
> 
> A nice school of discus would look nice in there too, but that's just my style/preference
> 
> 
> 
> +1, depending on where the return is placed some floating plants would look great and look like foliage from the tree.
Click to expand...

great idea! the out puts are at the top of the bachground and cause alot of surface agitaion. I also have two power heads in there with them. any ideas on how i could accomlish the floating plant idea? would i have to remove the power heads and point the filters output down?


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## JWerner2

Well since the flow would be coming from the rear it will push the plants to the front so try to get the flow to come from the sides or front some how. Maybe plumb a spray bar to the front of the tank and let it point towards the rear.

:-? I dont know but it does sound like a cool idea 

Maybe get rid of the power heads and just point the returns to direct flow along the sides of the tank. That would cause the flow to clash in the bow of the tank and should help all the waste get pushed towards the intake better also.


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## 2ToneArmy

joey020283 said:


> nipzie said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, the basic, orangish, clay planting pots. That way you could still take them out and prune them, if needed or move them to a different spot. It would look awesome as a garden. Don't go nuts on CO2, just buy one of the yeast, sugar mix ones that are like 39.99, unless you are going hardcore on the thing. That way, you can buy bakers yeast at the supermarket instead of their more expensive refill systems. Your plants will need 3 things in balance, light, nutrients and CO2. If you don't have alot of light and nutrients, CO2 might not be needed with some easier plants. But if you do have the other two with not enough CO2, you'll get algae out-competing the plants. And you thought water change chemistry was intense. Plants are great, but are a whole new level I've found. Look nice though. It was aquatic plants that got me into this hobby years ago when I found plant bulbs at WalMart for aquariums (humble beginnings, I know)
> 
> 
> 
> thanks for all the info! it will come in very handy!
Click to expand...

If you're going to do yeast, don't spend 40 bucks on it - especially when you're more than capable as a DIY person. Find an article online somewhere for the "2 liter bottles" method. I have four two liter bottles on my 45G and it's going great!

It only costs 20 bucks to set up, and your only expense after that is buying more sugar and yeast, which is very cheap. I recommend checking out plantgeek.net for more info on plant growing in general. It's very rewarding and would look amazing in that tank you've created :thumb:


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