# Styrofoam Background Questions



## vincentc (Sep 28, 2015)

Hello everyone,

I have been looking at the forum for info regarding the making of 3D background and there are a couple of questions that I am still not sure about. Could anyone help me a little?

1) I have made all the carving necessary and used a heat gun to shrink the material a little. Now I would like to paint it in a "wood" like color. What should I use?
I was going to cement the styrofoam, however I have recently (thanks to the forum) discovered that a lot of people use Drylok. However, the painting is still a little unclear to me.

2) What drylok should I use exactly? There is a drylok clear (I want something transparent), a drylok "basic" and a drylok "extreme".

3) Should I still use cement when I use drylok?

Thank you very much for your help. I will post some photos as soon as possible


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## Samadhikash (Jun 16, 2015)

Drylok recently came up in another post. Don't use Drylok Extreme. On page 3 of its MSDS it states: "Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects."

I haven't used Drylok so I'll leave its application to others. But if you go that route, get the regular stuff--not the Extreme.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

I used drylok on a 2" foam background for my 210g. I used whatever the normal/original formula is. I did one coat with just the standard product, and then used various Quikcrete liquid dyes to tint the later coats. I believe the dye colors were buff, black, and possible a shade of red, but I'm not 100% sure. I bought some real cheap chip/paint brushes, like a 10 pack for a few dollars, to applt the coats. I then mixed small batches and added tints to get my desired color. If it was a little too dark, I just added more drylok. I did 2-3 more coats, and also tried to shade deeper crevices a little darker to create depth. I know some do, but I didn't add any type of sealer to the finished product. It ha sbeen in the tank for about 9 months now with no ill effects whatsoever.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

The advantage of using cement + drylok is that it gives the background some decent weight, which is very helpful when you realize how buoyant a 4 foot piece of foam is. 
If you leave the cement out (which I did) you will need to silicone the background onto the glass and possibly lean some heavy rocks on it as well.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

Yes, I did silicone mine to the back of the tank.


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## vincentc (Sep 28, 2015)

Thank you very much for everyone's help.

I am also planning on sealing it to the back of the tank with silicone. So far I have found drylok in a store, and they will help me tint it.

Apart from Quikret Liquid Dye, do you guys know any other way to tint drylok? The shop told me that from the drylok company there is a panel of tints. However I have seen some people using acrylic paint. What are your thoughts on acrylic paint mixed to drylok?


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