# DIY Background ?'s ?'s ?'s



## oleskool (Jan 1, 2014)

Hello everyone. I'm new here.
A little about me... i have been keeping aquariums over 30yrs., and have only cycled the salt water set-ups. I have been lucky.
I found this site and learned a lot. I'm ready to get it all correct now. I have two empty tanks... well, three if I count the tank I used as a tank to hold feeder fish. I am about to set-up two, a 40 gal. high, and a 50 gal. long.

I plan to do 3D backgrounds. My questions are, searching seems to produce two methods. Cement, and Dryloc. Looking at this, the cement seems to change the ph of the water for a while. Will the dryloc, pond sealer method do the same??

If i do the cement how much weight will be added as opposed to just dryloc and pond sealer??

I have a lot of styrofoam from boxes that was used as packing material. (You know each end of a DVD player is in the foam then slid in a box.) Can i use this styrofoam???


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Drylok will not change the PH at all like cement will do. The cement will be a tad heavier, but as to how much heavier that depends on what size tank BG we are talking about. But it wont be a huge weight difference. I personally am a firm believer in drylok and sealer over cement for numerous reasons. Drylok won't change the PH, it is cleaner & easier to apply, it won't crack like cement will over time, it doesn't hide detail work like thicker cement will. There's been a lot of good looking cement BG's in the past, but I think most people are switching to Drylok these days for the above reasons. The only drawback to drylok is if you seal it the sealer costs $75 itself for pond sealer, but a wise investment to protect your work IMO.


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## oleskool (Jan 1, 2014)

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly what I thought. Is the pond sealer a necessity or just added security?
What about the Styrofoam?


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

I never use pond sealer on drylok backgrounds. It's not at all needed. The drylok is a sealant so I'm not sure why anyone would spend the extra $ on doing that.

I would just go to any big chain hardware store and get the white styrofoam used for insulation. It's not expensive,,there is a neat product called smooth on, check out the video

http://www.smooth-on.com/video_play.php ... autoplay=1

The cool part is I costed out the product using their sample sizes,and for a modest sized tank,like a 75 gal,it would be less expensive than a pangea background. Also you could just buy the smoothcast 327 to color your drylok coated polystyro background if going with the molding process is a little to much.(this is what I'm gonna do from now on).The video mentions curing times that would suggest a background being finished within a day or two start to finish. That's impressive,and they show you on the site a video to make decor rocks using their materials as well.This stuff is impressive,and the line of products is massive


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## oleskool (Jan 1, 2014)

I was thinking that dryloc should be enough. I do like the idea of using the smoothcast. I will look into price and availability in the U.S. . I was thinking of using the packing foam for the detail work that will be added to a flat insulation panel.


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

I always like carving into the styro for detail instead of adding styro layers,but that should work well. Have fun,and good luck


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

> I never use pond sealer on drylok backgrounds. It's not at all needed. The drylok is a sealant so I'm not sure why anyone would spend the extra $ on doing that.


Drylok is not a sealant, it is a waterproof coating but not a true sealant so you really can't compare the two far as both being sealants. Pond armor is a true epoxy sealer where as drylok is masonary latex based "waterproofer" which is different than a sealant.The first six 3D BG's I did, I did without pond sealer, this last 265g 7ft long one I used Pond sealer. Once you use it you will most likely always use it when you see how it works. My BG's I did without sealer a year and a half ago still look good, but you _can_ see some areas were BNP's have rasped a bit of drylok off, or where I've knocked a small bit off when cleaning in the tank, and that's with 4 coats of drylok used when I built it. Pond sealer once applied give a hardness to the BG that will undoubtedly in my opinion make the BG last at least twice as long as one used without sealer. Plus when it is sealed you can actually wipe algae right off of the BG, where as with texture of drylok without sealer you can't really do that.

There's nothing "wrong" with not using sealer, I have tanks with some that I didn't use sealer on. But if you want the BG to last at long as it possibly can, then sealer is for sure the way to go.

I'd also suggest using the closed cell foam rather than the cheaper white foam which is open cell. It is much easier to work with, holds detail better and if you plan to use a heat gun to texture it the white stuff will shrivel up quickly where as the closed cell (usually green or purple from the big home improvement stores) takes heat really well giving great texture.


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