3D BACKGROUND Build--125 Gallon

[JK47]

Justin, your thoughts?

My thoughts = GIVE US AN FTS ALREADY! You like it? You happy? Worth the effort? Forget pond foam and caves. I bought some drill bits today that can hollow out wood with a 2.5" hole.. I have some wood big enough to handle those holes you can have too. PVC problem = handled.

You can't have either until you update the thread though...

 

[aclockworkorange]

My thoughts = GIVE US AN FTS ALREADY! You like it? You happy? Worth the effort? Forget pond foam and caves. I bought some drill bits today that can hollow out wood with a 2.5" hole.. I have some wood big enough to handle those holes you can have too. PVC problem = handled.

You can't have either until you update the thread though...

OK, it's almost 3 AM and I can't sleep so I'm going to finally update this thread.

Where did we leave off? The background was sitting in the tank after the 3 pieces were siliconed together, and it was left to dry for a few days...

So the next step was to silicone the bottom of the BG to the tank. I will admit JK47 did this while I went to an Ace Hardware across town to hunt
down Great Stuff pond foam. I did buy him pizza though.

Luckily, he took pictures.

Me, playing with the pond foam "nipple."

JK47 threw down two tubes of silicone and then...

Covered it in sand. This way, when the silicone dries, it just looks like sand... highly recommend this to anyone installing a 3D background, looks GREAT now.

You can see in this pic there were some gaps near the edges of the glass... might have been avoidable if we were more careful about our cuts, but honestly we did the best we could. These are the reason we decided to use the Pond Foam, to fill the gaps due to its expanding nature.

Let me just say... THIS STUFF IS FUN! I don't know why exactly, but I got a bit addicted and just used a whole can. I let it dry overnight, then the next day I carved off all the excess "shiney" parts... when the stuff is cut it looks like a nice flat black piece of foam. On the edges of the tank, you don't really notice it. I would recommend this stuff 100%. After testing, it hasn't messed with my ph or anything at all, and it is holding perfectly.

I don't really have pictures after this as JK47's camera wasn't here. All I did was carve the excess pond foam off, let the silicone cure, and then did some test fills.

THE TANK NOW HAS FISH IN IT!!!

The tank is a bit of a mess right now as it just has a ton of pvc pipe in it temporarily. It's a bit embarrassing to have such a beautiful background and a bunch of pvc in the tank.

Oh well, full tank shots will come soon.

 

[aclockworkorange]

I'm probably going to the LFS today to get some more plants. Does anyone have any genius aquascaping tips to throw in before I go?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Oh, and a bit of advice to everyone, WEAR GLOVES WITH POND FOAM. I still have this stuff on my finger nails... it won't even scrape off.

 

[JK47]

Looks good J. Told you the silicone on the bottom, pond foam on the sides/back is the way to go. Any pics of the foam all cleaned up? Have youu figuured out the FX5 return yet?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Looks good J. Told you the silicone on the bottom, pond foam on the sides/back is the way to go. Any pics of the foam all cleaned up? Have youu figuured out the FX5 return yet?

No and No.

I'm actually getting a free sump from my dad because he went out and impulse bought a 100 gallon bowfront ( ...what an ugly tank!) last week that came with a sump (but the tank isn't drilled, and no overflow or pump). Gonna get him an FX5 and steal the sump.


So I'm not rushing any decisions yet.

 

[JK47]

I have 4 FX5 intakes/returns along with hoses/quick disconnects. I'm sure we could fab something up. Unless I decide to use them.

 

[David K. Bradley]

I'm probably going to the LFS today to get some more plants. Does anyone have any genius aquascaping tips to throw in before I go?

I know you've probably been there and back already, but I was going to suggest maybe getting some red plants for the layout I drew up for you.
I would strongly suggest, "Alternanthera sessillis", "A. sessillis var. lilacina" -or- "A. sessillis var. ruba".

Another I thought would look real nice is the green Hydrocotyle leucopetala, as a tall background plant to go in one of your corners. It has a small dime to quarter coin sized leaf which reminds me of the leaves from garden geraniums my mother use to grow.

Another, which just now came to mind is the Limnobium laevigatum. I think it might look pretty cool for some of your top level fish (if there will be some) to feel like they are being protected being able to hide under the leaves of these floaters.


I can see your tank is coming right along. It looks great. Now just get your tank planted, up and running, so we all can enjoy the results!

 

[Dj.SS]

cool

 

[aclockworkorange]

I know you've probably been there and back already, but I was going to suggest maybe getting some red plants for the layout I drew up for you.
I would strongly suggest, "Alternanthera sessillis", "A. sessillis var. lilacina" -or- "A. sessillis var. ruba".

Another I thought would look real nice is the green Hydrocotyle leucopetala, as a tall background plant to go in one of your corners. It has a small dime to quarter coin sized leaf which reminds me of the leaves from garden geraniums my mother use to grow.

Another, which just now came to mind is the Limnobium laevigatum. I think it might look pretty cool for some of your top level fish (if there will be some) to feel like they are being protected being able to hide under the leaves of these floaters.


I can see your tank is coming right along. It looks great. Now just get your tank planted, up and running, so we all can enjoy the results!

David, thanks for all the advice and its always good to hear from you! Now, some exciting/sad news: I went on vacation over Christmas and came back to almost all my fish dead... Only have 3 clown loaches left in that entire tank of my BGK I raised from 2" to 8", my big elephant nose, my red tailed black shark, and 5 big clown loaches. The tank simply got too cold as I stupidly didn't leave the heat system in my house on and the weather was below freezing outside. Tank was 60 degrees when I got home. Took me a while to get over the losses, but the exciting part is I get to do a whole new stock.
So now, the plan is a big pair of CA cichlids (species will be kept a secret for now )
So the aquascaping is now going to be branches and rocks and no plants.
I am also waiting out on the problems with the silicone JK47 and I both had on our tanks with the GEII we used. We pretty much have decided the silicone had problems fully curing and was releasing methanol into the tank. I had to move all my fish to a different tank, Justins cichlids were tough enough to survive with water changes and his tank seems mostly good now.

So that's where I'm at...