# Ideas for Creating & Submersing a Surfboard?



## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Alright... here's a crazy one for all you creative geniuses.......

I'd like to display a 2.5' - 3' ish surfboard in my 125g. Does anyone have ideas for, 1st off; creating it and 2nd; displaying it without making it obvious that it's anchored to something? I'd like to display it in there with maybe the nose up and the top surface on about a 45Ã‚Âº angle, like it's carving a wave. What could I mold this thing out of fairly easily that would be submersible? Then I need some sort of very clean, subtle mounting so it looks like... well like it's being surfed.


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## alfadog (Dec 18, 2009)

well wawazat How good of an artist are you?
you could take styrofoam and carve out a big wave and then cover it with cement "nice and smooth" then paint it blue and white then seal it with an epoxy, there are many reference's in the dyi threads that will tell you just what kind to use. then take silicone and glue your surfboard to it. the cement will keep it from floating away. should be pretty cool, please post picks of your progress.. opcorn:
p.s maybe you could make a fish surf'n on it. :lol:


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## kriskm (Dec 1, 2009)

Let's see, I'd go with styrofoam for the surfboard and base. If you tilt the topside of the board toward the front of the tank, you could silicone a base to the underside behind. Then silicone the base to the bottom of the tank. Use LOTS of silicone, and surround the base with substrate. A simpler method than covering with cement would be to just paint it all with Drylok (grout sealer from Home Depot or wherever). It comes in white, but you can tint it with cement tint. Color choice might be limited. Sounds like a cool idea.


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## Tom S (Dec 28, 2009)

Why not make it like a real surfboard? Carve it out of high density styrofoam, then coat it in fiberglass. If you do that you could even hollow out a pocket and insert some weights. As long as you fiberglass it well the weights won't even be exposed to water. That way you won't need to try to force it to stay down.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

The wave idea is good, but I think I prefer, for a cleaner look & less area used/water displacement, to leave the wave to the imagination & just use the surfboard alone.

My 1st thought was to use styrofoam covered or painted somehow... but wouldn't that be extremely buoyant?

Siliconing a base to the side of the surfboard then to the tank floor might work. I am dealing with an acrylic aquarium... will silicone adhere to that just as well as to glass? Again, buoyancy might be my biggest opposition??

I though too if I could attached 4 lengths of fishing line... maybe with stainless steel screws... to the bottom of the board near each corner, I could attached the fishing line to something siliconed to the bottom of the tank. I could make the lines different lengths to achieve the desired pitch of the board. In this case I would need at least some buoyancy.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Tom S said:


> Why not make it like a real surfboard? Carve it out of high density styrofoam, then coat it in fiberglass. If you do that you could even hollow out a pocket and insert some weights. As long as you fiberglass it well the weights won't even be exposed to water. That way you won't need to try to force it to stay down.


This gives me a great idea... a small, cheap skimboard with custom graphics! 36" x 18" small at my 1st quick glance for one! I could probably silicon the bottom edge to the bottom of the tank & the top edge to the back to get my pitch.

Does anyone know if silicon will adhere ok to the acrylic tank. Will it hurt the acrylic in any way. When I want to remove it later, should it not be a prob?


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

WaWaZat said:


> Does anyone know if silicon will adhere ok to the acrylic tank. Will it hurt the acrylic in any way. When I want to remove it later, should it not be a prob?


 It will adhere very lightly to the acrylic. It should not be a problem to remove later. Generally it's a matter of giving a little tug, and it's completely loose.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Mcdaphnia said:


> WaWaZat said:
> 
> 
> > Does anyone know if silicon will adhere ok to the acrylic tank. Will it hurt the acrylic in any way. When I want to remove it later, should it not be a prob?
> ...


So should it be enough to anchor a skimboard that's gonna wanna float?


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## SupeDM (Jan 26, 2009)

No it wont hold. I would drill some holes in the board and put weights in them. Then fill with fiberglass to make it look better.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

SupeDM said:


> No it wont hold. I would drill some holes in the board and put weights in them. Then fill with fiberglass to make it look better.


Well the board is probably 3/8" thick or so. Might be kind of hard to sink ballasts into such a thin board.

What about constructing a weighted base that would be mounted to the back of the board, down on the side that will be my bottom edge, then silicone it to the bottom of the tank? If it protruded past the side of the board, I could mount the board in such a way that it was even with or above my substrate. If above, the base would have to be something that didn't call a lot of attention to itself.

Any ideas for such a base?!


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that a 36x18x3/8 surfboard will support something less than 10lbs of boyancy. That means if you have something that weighs around 10lbs (underwater!) and tie your foam surboard to it, the surfboard will remain underwwater.

I recommend buying a 10lb plate weight (the kind used for weightlifting), tieing the surfboard to it with your fishing line idea, and just burying the plate in the substrate (no need to silicone anything).

You can get rubber coated weights if you're worried about metal rusting or scratches on the bottom of the tank, but metal underwater not exposed to air does not rust (at least not very quickly). Or, you can coat an iron weight in epoxy to seal it from the water.

Or, you can buy a small block of acryllic and figure out a way to attach the board to the block of acryllic (fishing line would work here too, just drill some holes through the acryllic block) and then chemically bond the acryllic block to the bottom of the tank, and it won't be going anywhere.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Rhinox said:


> A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that a 36x18x3/8 surfboard will support something less than 10lbs of boyancy. That means if you have something that weighs around 10lbs (underwater!) and tie your foam surboard to it, the surfboard will remain underwwater.
> 
> I recommend buying a 10lb plate weight (the kind used for weightlifting), tieing the surfboard to it with your fishing line idea, and just burying the plate in the substrate (no need to silicone anything).
> 
> ...


Thanx for punching the #s... where does that calculation come from?

I'd be afraid the 10lb weight would be too bulky to hide... especially in an Oscar tank.

I like the acrylic block idea... the only thing I don't like is the permanency of it in such an expensive tank. I'm assuming of course that I'd have to use an acrylic glue to keep it from pulling away as opposed to a silicone which I can remove later.

Maybe a long, thin piece of flat rock that weighs more than 10lbs that I could bury but if it became unburied would look natural. Is slate rock heavy??


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

with fishing line you could have the board sort of "float" in mid tank and sway with the current a bit

a 12X12 slate tile may weigh enough when buried in sand/gravel to hold it, some vaseline on the bottom may even help give it a bit of suction to help hold it down


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

bulldogg7 said:


> with fishing line you could have the board sort of "float" in mid tank and sway with the current a bit


That was actually the original intention!



> a 12X12 slate tile may weigh enough when buried in sand/gravel to hold it, some vaseline on the bottom may even help give it a bit of suction to help hold it down


Or I can even silicone that!

Where's a good, inexpensive source for slate?


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

home depot or lowes should have it in the flooring section, a tile is around $2, drills pretty easily with a masonry bit. You can even drill it with an old wood bit but it won't be good for anything when you get done


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

Ok, the skimboard I'm thinking about buying is just a cheap board made from coated wood & laminated. Besides being inexpensive, the advantage is that it doesn't use foam so it will be less buoyant... how much less remains to be seen.

So now my question is; might I have an issue with deterioration AND... will the glue, etc, from the lamination be toxic to the fish?

Mind you I'm an aquarist beginner here; is there a way to test to see if this board will be toxic?

Is there something invisible that I could use to seal the board easily to avoid issues with both toxicity & deterioration?


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

The calculation came from the (estimated) volume of the board and the density of water.

A 36x18x3/8 in rectangle block will displace 243 cubic inches of water. Fresh water weighs approx. 62lbs per cubic foot, so when you do the math, thats ~9lbs of bouyancy IF the board weighed nothing. To get the real bouyancy, do 9 minus the weight of the board (i.e. if the board weighs more than 9 lbs, it sinks. less, it floats, and the difference is the amount of counter weight you need to keep it submerged).

I think a round 10 lb weight is around an inch thick or less. Another option is to use something relatively thin and flat like a tile, attach the fishing line at the corners, and just bury it in the substrate and place a rock on it. No need to silicone anything. It doesn't stick to acrylic anyways.

An acrylic block would be pretty much permanent, but not a huge deal if you use a small piece. The "glue" used to bond acrylic is not really a glue. Its more like melting the pieces together chemically. The chemical melts the acrylic at the joint, and when it evaporates, the two pieces harden back together as one permanent and completely solid piece.


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## codenametorch (Dec 27, 2009)

I'd say cast the thing. If it's going in an oscar tank then I promise you he/she is going to be messing with it. Anything that can be dislodged and will float will do so if the oscar has any say in the matter. Ontop of that, those skim boards are easy to break. I know, I've boken many in my life. IMO I think a smple sand cast if a skim board covered in something to smoth it out would be safest. Just my 2 cents.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

codenametorch said:


> I'd say cast the thing. If it's going in an oscar tank then I promise you he/she is going to be messing with it. Anything that can be dislodged and will float will do so if the oscar has any say in the matter. Ontop of that, those skim boards are easy to break. I know, I've boken many in my life. IMO I think a smple sand cast if a skim board covered in something to smoth it out would be safest. Just my 2 cents.


Well we're not going to be jumpin' on the thing & springin' Ollies. :lol:

What material is used in a sand cast? Can it be painted... then how do I protect the paint & make it fish-safe? Do you know of a sand cast How-To somewhere so I can learn how to do this?


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

I like the idea of carving the board out of syro then fiberglassing it. There are chemicals that melt styrofoam that could be poured into the fiberglass form making the board fairly neutral.


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## codenametorch (Dec 27, 2009)

WaWaZat said:


> What material is used in a sand cast? Can it be painted... then how do I protect the paint & make it fish-safe? Do you know of a sand cast How-To somewhere so I can learn how to do this?


Sand and concrete. Yes but i'd recommend Drylok. See other tutorials on how to use that. It's not that hard. You can use this tutorial if necessary.

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article ... tombstones


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## brycerb (Dec 23, 2007)

Make a section where it looks like a shark took a bite out of it. Yea.


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## WaWaZat (Dec 27, 2007)

brycerb said:


> Make a section where it looks like a shark took a bite out of it. Yea.


  No! I'm a kitesurfer... actually the reason for the theme - I plan to mount a kite above the tank w/the lines running right above where the board would be.... Sharks are a surfers worst fear!!

Otherwise that wouldn't be a bad idea. :wink:


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## CJH (Oct 31, 2008)

WaWaZat said:


> Alright... here's a crazy one for all you creative geniuses.......
> 
> I'd like to display a 2.5' - 3' ish surfboard in my 125g. Does anyone have ideas for, 1st off; creating it and 2nd; displaying it without making it obvious that it's anchored to something? I'd like to display it in there with maybe the nose up and the top surface on about a 45Ã‚Âº angle, like it's carving a wave. What could I mold this thing out of fairly easily that would be submersible? Then I need some sort of very clean, subtle mounting so it looks like... well like it's being surfed.


I like the idea of carving the board from foam and coating it with something. I don't believe fiberglass in necessary. Foam backgrounds hold together without fiberglass reinforcement so a submerged faux-surfboard shouldn't need to either.

I would use epoxy resin to coat it. Note that I said epoxy resin, not epoxy paint. Epoxy paints like Sweetwater have solvents that will melt polystyrene foam.

Don't use polyester as the styrene monomers will also melt the foam. Many surfboards are made from polyurethane foam for this reason. Or they're fiberglassed with epoxy instead of polyester.

You could use drylok or cement but I would not like the textured look on a surfboard and I think algae would grow on it too readily, unlike smooth epoxy.

The board would be completely safe if made from extruded polystyrene and coated with epoxy resin.

I like this idea, btw.


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