# My 8ft DIY background n tank. (warning lots of pics)



## Dno (May 13, 2008)

Ok here goes *** been wanting to do this write up for a long time now, so here goes.

it all started over 2 years ago, me and my girlfriend had just finished buying some new furniture and we had alot of packaging foam left over, n i thought wat the **** iam gonna make a background for the 6ft. I started off with a very big piece which i drew on wat i wanted to do.


















then came many long hours in the garage carving out n shaping foam to make rocks n etc...


















everything was going good even made a under gravel jet system but soon scrapped that idea when i realize it was going to make the background about 4'-6' thick to hide the piping behind the background.










then everything changed, i got my tax back n decided to buy a much bigger tank so i went to aquariums r us n ordered a 8' x 2' 2' tank, stand n hood. so mow my background was too short n not wide enough for the 8ft tank. so a few quick add ons n i was back up to speed.


















Now because this was going to be for our baby snake neck turtle Fred, i made up some mangrove roots that i was going to have at one end for any fish to hide in when ever fred got too much for them. but it was scraped after a while when i found out it was almost impossible to cement n that it couldnt hold its own weight with cement. i tried fiberglass but that dissolved the foam so i ended up with just using some twisted tree branches, problem solved 


























I did some test rocks out of foam n using the render cement u get from bunnings n mixed it with some hydro crete water proofing n bonding agent. found it to work really well so on with the rest of the background.










Then it arrived WOOOO :egrin: . i couldnt resit putting the background in to see how it would look.


















slowly i continued cementing the background n staining the stand n hood in Australian jajah.










































But then some bad news :esad: , our little fred passed away from a lung infection. so the whole project was put on hold for awhile till i decided wat to do with it n wat to stock, do i get another baby snake neck or just stick to fish.

then slowly over a few months the background was finished n coated in 6 coats of clear estapol. and was ready to move into the house.


















The big day came when i emptied the 6ft n moved it out of the way. 4 of us it took to move into the house.










Then came the not so long and tiring siliconing in place of the background, while at the same time filling the house with fumes from the silicone.


















allowing the silicone to cure for its recommended 72hrs i went back in to colour, mixing up a runny mix of render, colouring n hydro crete i painted away for a entire arvo n nite.


























Let that all dry for another 2days b4 i very slowly n anxiously filled with water, as *** heard of people having their backgrounds lifting off n floating around.










I ran a spare canister filled with carbon on the tank for a few days with daily water changes.

i finally drained it added my sand, rocks n plants n my 2 canisters which i still had running on my 6ft. let that run for a week n a half b4 i added my fish.










and thats that, it now houses 2 gold head comp juveniles, 15 cyps juveniles, small colony of 11 multis and 3 albino BN










thanks for looking, if u have any questions iam happy to answer anything on wat *** done or wat *** used.

Cheers Dno.


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## bigcatsrus (Apr 15, 2009)

I wish I could have a tank of that size. Looks amazing, I like the pic with the person in the tank, :lol: .

The stock list looks all tanganyikan (apart from the albino bn's), will you put anymore stock in?

Sorry to hear about your snake.


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## Dno (May 13, 2008)

bigcatsrus said:


> I wish I could have a tank of that size. Looks amazing, I like the pic with the person in the tank, :lol: .
> 
> The stock list looks all tanganyikan (apart from the albino bn's), will you put anymore stock in?
> 
> Sorry to hear about your snake.


the down size to having a tank this big is that it leave no room for more tanks lol, yer its all tang, i like tangs more than malawis seem to be more interesting to watch n have many different body shapes. not planing on anymore atm just waiting for my cyps to mature n breed same with my mulits. might pupt some thing else in if i think of anything.

Yer freds passing was hard, really hard on my gf almost a yr ago it happened  would love to have another tank this size n fill it with natives n another baby snake neck.


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## R-DUB (Jun 3, 2007)

SWEEEEET! Very nice BG. Love the stand and hood too. 
:drooling:


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## bigcatsrus (Apr 15, 2009)

Dno said:


> bigcatsrus said:
> 
> 
> > I wish I could have a tank of that size. Looks amazing, I like the pic with the person in the tank, :lol: .
> ...


My bf and I have an all tang tank, have a look at the thopheus. We have the duboisi (pemba). 
Awesome fish. We also have some Julidochromis Dickifeldi's. You can only have one kind of julie in the tank. Take a look at my tank and stock list in My Tanks section and see what you think.

Losing any animal is hard. I had to put my cat of 7 years to sleep due to lung cancer snd that was var y hard but it was for the best, for my cat.


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## brycerb (Dec 23, 2007)

"the down size to having a tank this big is that it leave no room for more tanks lol" :-?

 I respectfully dissagree


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## herny (Nov 30, 2007)

sweet set up bro love the pic of you in the tank lol


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## bigcatsrus (Apr 15, 2009)

brycerb said:


> "the down size to having a tank this big is that it leave no room for more tanks lol" :-?
> 
> I respectfully dissagree


Think I might have to agree. We have 8 tanks of varying sizes. Biggest being 5ft long to the smallest of being 2ft. All of different kinds of fish.


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## Gibbs (Apr 21, 2008)

ozi ozi ozi oi oi oi :lol:


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## aussieafricans (Dec 19, 2007)

i second the chant  nice work, very nice set-up i saw this ages ago and never got to see it finished, and now i have seen it and i am now happy, its gonna be awesome when your overrun with cyp's and multies, u know you'll always be able to distribute them easily here due to there being not to many around.

BEN


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