# My DIY Background thread



## Rhinokio

Well i'm getting myself a 120 gallon 2'deep 2'x4' footprint. and this thread is to document my atempt at my first foam and concrete background. i plan on making it cover the whole back, and half of the sides, covering an angle from front bottom corner to back.

features i want to include, caves for smaller fish to hide. (thinking about making them with pvc tubes foamed over and concreted.

room behind for my filter intakes and my heater (with enough flow to keep the water circulated)

thinking about including an air pump hub at top with 3-6 airlines runing inside the background to hidden hookups along the bottom of the background, so you can plug aircurtains and such up without anoying air lines visible. airflow can be adjusted out of site at the top of the piece,

1 or 2 channels to run any extra plugin cords behind the wall so extras like underwater lights or pumps can be pluged in with the cords hidden.

interegrated Undergravel jet setup, jet nozzles and pumps hidden in or behind foam concrete rock .

hooking up some quick connect plant bases to certain rocks and ledges so fake plants can easily be snaped into place.

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now onto questions, if i wanted to custom paint my background, what would be some good paints that would be safe, or would any paint do if i cover it with the epoxy also obviously make sure the paint is non-toxic

would appreciate any thoughts and comments.


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## trigger

Sounds good, keep us posted WITH pictures off-course.


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## Rhinokio

Ok, here it goes. first thing i did is lay out the pvc for the UGJ system
i'm using a rio 2100 subpump with 3 jets, 2 in the front blowing towards the center of the tank, and one in the center rear (the direction can still be adjusted, i may change them to blow more circular along the tank. i could not find the marineland prefilter kit so i made my own with some epoxy and a sponge.


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## Rhinokio

looking at a lot of these projects i've noticed a lot end up looking like a stone wall, more man made then a natural rock surface, i wanted to avoid this and have plenty of depth, so i thought about gluing a template around the tank interior, then glue more foam to add detph to it, then cut out individual rock shapes and glue to this to get depth and shape


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## Rhinokio

Yesterfay my girlfriend held a brunch for several of her friends and one of mine. when my friend had to leave and i was surounded with females jibber jabbering about candles (aparently candles are the female equilivant to power tools... or porno for guys. Girls just go nuts over them. During this time i snuck out. and did some work in the garden. then spent aobut an hour just playing with foam cutting it and blow torching it.

I eventhouly made this piece









which made me think i could make a good looking wall out of one piece of foam and have depth and shape to it. it would be easier to make, easier to concrete, and easier to seal.

the only downside in this new train of thought was....


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## Rhinokio

having to rip out all the already glued foam from the tank, and take a razor knife and scrape all the silicone off of it. this took a good bit of effort.









but i feel it was for the best cause i think the solid piece idea will work out a lot better


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## Rhinokio

here are the pieces of the tank the 2 squarish pieces will go in the back, the glued on riser is over the grooves for the filter intake. and the curved ones go on the side, its glued 2 layers to add thickness to allow more depth in carving.

You can see i started a little bit of carving last nite.


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## Rhinokio

i did some more carving this morning before work. I'm really leased how it is turing out, i'm able to get a lot of depth and under cuts, and its one easy to concrete chunk, (the knotch to the left is the groove for the heaters, there will be another carved piece glued over that hole.)









and here you can see the under cuts to allow water to the filter intake.









welll thats all for today, hopw to do a lot more carving tonite maybe start the concrete phase tommorow.


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## Rhinokio

Holy poop my grammar is atrocious, please forgive.


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## Rhinokio

every one seems hyped and interested in this project! so i will continue.

while cleaning out the back yard during the candle party, I found an old piece of patio furniture with square plastic legs. I cut them down and scrubbed them clean, and mounted them to both corners. This will be the channel for any electrical cables to be run out of view.


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## Rhinokio

Here is all the pieces cut and placed inside the tank. 









I spray foamed around the water jets, and started the first coat of quickcrete. Man this stuff does not go on easy. you can also see the air lines ran behind the back of the styrofoam and emerging from the bottom.


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## MalawiLover

Holy barnacles Batman 

That is looking awesome. I really like the idea of hiding the jets with a mound of Great Stuff then carving it like a rock.

Really spiffy!! :thumb:

I must be carving defective. I cannot seem to cut the foam right. The shapes never look like rocks. How do you guys do it?


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> first thing i did is lay out the pvc for the UGJ system. i'm using a rio 2100 subpump with 3 jets


I am building the same UGJ system in my new tank. I am ordering the same pump but the info on the UGJ system by Marc Elieson in the library does not specify what size PVC to use. What diameter pipe did you use?

NOTE: I think the pre-filter kit Marc mentions is actually a Marineland/Penguin Reverse Flow Filter Kit. I searched the net and ended up at Marineland's site and see it listed there as a Penguin (see bottom image on this page http://www.marineland.com/products/consumer/con_pheads.asp). Found my kit at F&S (https://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4635&prodid=8703&catid=3). Hopefully when it comes in it all matches up and fits.


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## maxwell1295

Good stuff... :thumb:


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## Rhinokio

Well i may have a slight advantage. I have made about a million rocks over the years for various video games. And while this is sculpting them out of foam instead of digital polygons, the basics are the same.

one thing i like to do is get the feeling that the rocks are stacked and layers and not just stacked together like a block wall with morter inbetween them. The rock wall look comes from carving grooves down between the rocks, uniformly all the way around.

Here is a method of my sculpting.

1. quickly cut in lines for your rock placement, these don't have to be perfect. I found its best not to put too much thought in this, just put them where feels right.









2. pick one of the outer most stones, preferably one that you want to be sunken in pretty deep, and start cuting, i often cut way back over half the thickness of the foam. The more you cut, the more water you get, and the more 3d the over all piece will be.









3. move on to your next stone, and pay atention to where it conects to the other, does it go behind it? Does it go infront of it? Does it smoothly sit beside it?

























and i would sugest getting some small pieces and just practice before you start on the project.. i didnt. And i had to rip everything out and start over


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## Rhinokio

mix: i thought about ordering that kit. but while i was at Lowes I just picked up some pvc and epoxy and made my own, cheaper and i didnt have to wait for shipping. and i just took the pump in Lowes and found the pvc that fit best, i "think" it was 3/4 inch tho check first.
I'm not using the complicated hookup i read in one tutorial here, my pump just snugly pushes down into the piping.


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## MalawiLover

*Rhinokio*

Thanks so much for the pictoral steps. That really helps a bunch.


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> i "think" it was 3/4 inch tho check first.


I am having to wait a couple of weeks to order the pump and was trying to get a jump on some of the work (the PVC cutting etc). Since I am using the exact same pump, I figured I could use the same size you did. If you can read one of your pieces and let me know I would greatly appreciate it.

I was in HomeDepot looking at silicone yesterday and there are SO many brands. Are you using any silicone and if so, what brand/version. Or are you just using epoxy (and if so, what type). Last thing I want to do is build this and kill all my fish with toxins.

Great work! I will be reading every step as I continue planning mine and begin building. DIY is so much more fun than blowing a wad of money at the store.


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## Rhinokio

I can check tonite when i get home for work, i'm using ge1 without the fungicide, theres a sticky thread in this forum about glue. check there.

and wait till i finish this and make sure it works before you follow my steps too closely.. this is my first one


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> I can check tonite when i get home for work


Great, thanks! :thumb:



Rhinokio said:


> wait till i finish this and make sure it works before you follow my steps too closely


Great point. :lol:


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> here you can see the under cuts to allow water to the filter intake.


Hey Rhinokio. I was thinking about my plans for revamping my tank last night and liked your idea of the under rock holes for water flow. Then the thought occured to me, what if fish get behind the foam via these circulation holes and get stuck? Not sure if you have thought about this one or not, but I would think some fiberglass or plastic screen might work in the openings to keep them out.

Since your opening for this thread requested thoughts and ideas, I thought I would bounce this off you.


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## Rhinokio

considering my fish are nearly a foot long i doubt that will happen, but my girlfriend sugested doing a wire mesh... and we probably will do that since.. TA- DA i'm having to start alll over!!.

yesterday while cleaning up.. my girlfriend noticed that amongst our tubes of empty silicone.. one of them was.. 







a tube of silicone with bio-guard!" i have no idea how i slipped up and used that garbage.. but i do not want to posion my fish.. so here i go starting again.. for the third time









i've learned a bit of the process, and hopefuly it will go smooth this time.

heres some questions,, i may post them in another thread also since they may be helpfull for others

i want to get all the silicone residue off of my aquarium. whats a good solvent for doing this (i will try my bet to keep it away from all corners, but i was planing on runing another bead of ge1 over the original silicone in the corners.just to make sure, is this a good idea?

i saw a silicone type glue at the lowes that was made for foamboard, is this safe for fishtanks?

if theres any doubts i will just use the regular silicone.


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## bulldogg7

Third time's a charm. Luckily she caught it. I had a hob failure last night while at work and my wife didn't notice the 5 dead fish gawking at her. Added spraybars to my can returns! Interesting read, candles and all. Thinking you can canibalize the old one and make individual rocks, glue, shave the back, "veneer" with thin foam then do cutouts for plumbing. Haven,t seen this done yet, may be harder to coat but just an idea.


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> considering my fish are nearly a foot long i doubt that will happen


Wow (BIG FISH). Ok, that solves that problem.



Rhinokio said:


> yesterday while cleaning up.. my girlfriend noticed that amongst our tubes of empty silicone.. one of them was a tube of silicone with bio-guard!" so here i go starting again.. for the third time


OUCH! But, you know what they sayâ€¦ third time is the charm. I have my fingers crossed you ya'.



Rhinokio said:


> i saw a silicone type glue at the lowes that was made for foamboard, is this safe for fishtanks?


After reading in many places of people using the GE Silicone I, I would stick with that if it is working since it has a track record. Where is a chemist cichlid enthusiast when you need one?

I do not mean to pollute your thread Rhinokio with thoughts and ideas (I guess I need to start my own planning, ideas, and building thread), but if there is a way, you may be interested too. I was wondering/thinking last night if there was a good/suggested material to cover with cement to make fake driftwood? In my tank, I am thinking I want to cover some tubes in the bottom of my aquarium with fake driftwood (horizontally) since real driftwood can cloud tanks and decay over time and to also build it up vertically. One material I read about in other threads and may work is plastic mesh used in crafts for needlepoint (I think that is what it is used for). I also figured the foam board could work too but it would be hard to make little roots etc with it. Any other ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

EDIT: Just had an idea. What about gluing suction cups to the back/bottom of the foam board so you do not have to silicone it to the tank and can easily remove it when necessary? The foam could be cut out to recess the suction cups.


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## Mix

Hey Rhinokio, I just found this article here on CF (http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=25291). Interesting read. Talks about using GE I and also how to get off silicone. Not sure if you have seen this one or not.

Did some looking today and if you have a Grainger Supply nearby, you may try this silicone, IS808 http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4UH07). It is one of the recommended ones in the article. The only hitch with Grainger is you have to buy through a compy that has an account with them. It is usually easy to do so.


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## Rhinokio

Well over the weekend i cleaned the tank back to near new quality, tonite i will start back with the carving and hopefully new and improved tank pics coming soon


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## Rhinokio

carving now,, but have a question, is it bad to mix the cement thinner than on the directions, and just apply more coats? i'd like to make it thin enough to brush on wih a paintbrush to get in all the gaps, the last one i did the cement was almost thick mud thick,, not that easy to apply


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## Mix

I know when laying brick it matters for it affects how strong it is when it sets up. Not sure if it matters when it comes to backgrounds. Your thinking seems logical to me. It is more about sealing and not holding up a wall on a house.


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## bulldogg7

In the dIy article he thins it. Should be alright.


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## bulldogg7

In the dIy article he thins it. Should be alright.


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## Paul_DLS

I had no trouble using a thin mix for the first two layers then switching to a thicker mix for the last two on my BG. Make the mix too thick and you lose more of your rock details.

I used a MagDrive 700 for my UGJs and will be modifying it later to cut sound. Connecting the pump directly to a PVC elbow and allowing the pipes to touch the glass allowed vibrations to transfer creating too much of a hum for me. Later I'll go in and set the pump on a sponge and connect it to the pipes via a flex hose to stop the transfer.


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## Mix

So how goes the project?


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## Rhinokio

sorry guys, i've been mega busy, but here it is,, looking foreward to start puting some water in tommorow to try and get the ph stabalized.








and


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## Mix

Looking good! Nice rock shapes and great finishing job (painting/staining).

Did you paint the tank to hide the backside of the styrofoam? Also, what are your plans on the foam for your ugj system? you hiding it with anything?


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## Mix

As far as painting the tank (I do not think I was clear in my question and loose he ability to edit my post after a certain amount of time), what kind of paint did you use and did you paint the inside or outside of the tank or the foam?

With my tank a see through (from kitchen to living room) I am having a problem figuring out how I can hide my UJG pump. I thought I could disguise it as a big rock but after some drawing and tests, it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I have almost come to the point that I will just use plants to hide it. But would still prefer to hide it as a rock. Curious if you hide yours. Do not see it in the images but not sure if you had it in when the photos were taken.

Again, great job Rhinokio. Thanks for sharing your work with us and answering our questions.


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## Rhinokio

my pump will be hiddend with plants and driftwood,, its not as easy as the pipes,, causei may wanna upgrade pumps sometime down the road so i didnt want them to be too permenant.

i used the krylon fusion, and against my better judgement i painted the concrete with it,, just hope it holds well.i painted the back of the tank where its visible up top, not below cause i may wanna look inside where the filter pipe and pumps hang


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## Mix

Thanks for the info. That is part of my delima on hiding the pump. Allowing access for cleaning the filter medium. I hope the paint holds up for you. Can't wait to see it full of water and happy fish swimming around. LOL


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## Rhinokio

had water in it for 2 days,, and it seems the vinly concrete worked well ph is pretty stable around the 7.4 mark. i've got some danios and tiger barb in it to cycle it, but as soon as my lfs gets the bio spira in stock.. hopefully this week, i'm going to get some of that to jump start things








and


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## Mix

Rhinokio said:


> ...it seems the vinly concrete worked well


 Vinly?

Looking good! Love the look of the black substrate with the rock. Now I know how my color mix will look. Im going with 3M Color Quartz in black with a little white mixed in.

Like the buried air stone too.

PS, image links didn't come out correctly. instead of [image]
[url]http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/tank/tank007.jpg
http://www.tmhunt.com/pics/tank/tank008.jpg


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## Rhinokio

yup vinly quickkrete, saw someone mention it in another thread, the underwater pump head is hid in the tall plants on the left

the bubble tubes are a necesity, My oscars would flip out without bubbles to play in.


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## Rhinokio

finaly got the O's in there, will take more pics asap


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## Mix

Again, looks great! Nice job.

Realizing how big your tank is (in gallons), that fish has got to be big. Any idea in inches?


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## Rhinokio

my O's are about 9 - 10 inches each,


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## AE0N

Looking good :wink:


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## greenbirds

Nice work; this is one of my favorite DIY backgrounds I've seen here on CF. :thumb:

What type of foam did you use for this project, and where did you find it? It looks more dense and easier to sculpt than styrofoam.

Also, how did you go about filling in the corner seams of the background & sides? Quickrete with the foam already mounted in the tank, or great stuff, or __?


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## Philg

Great looking BG


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## jake12345677

looks great!
a few questions.... im really worried about making one myself... i cant seem to find quikcrete... is there anything else i can use? maybe normal concrete? 
but then how do i waterproof it?
im fine with silicone have the right stuff... but how long till the concrete can get wet afta putting it on the foam? also what foam did u use?
please please answer cuz i really wanna get started on my own one!!!!
thanks
jake


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