700 + Aquarium Build

[arl]

So I thought I'll put cement at the back of the styro and have holes in the styro so that cement will be holding the styro through and through. Then goop the styro with cement using goop. Plus I gooped in some small cut copper tubing at the abs sheet to hold the styro better ( shown on one picture above) Heres a pic of my cemented styro.

 

[arl]

Put about 3/8" thick cement on the styro, wet it 3 times a day for 3 days. When I tried it on my fish tank, for some reason the cement warped the styro, tried grinding the cement to straighten the styro and have more surface touch the abs sheet, but its too much trouble plus the harder part of the cement is the outer part. tried gooping the grinded cement but it wont hold as good as ungrinded cement. So much again for that crazy cemented back idea . Plus cement at the back will give me more problem in lowering down the PH.

 

[arl]

Then I thought that maybe the copper tubing studs will be enough to hold the styro down, so I added more copper tubing studs gooped on the walls. Copper tubings just happen to be the material that I can get easily that is why I used it. I also read that the pink styro foam insulator is better to use because it is more compact and stronger (but expensive). So my plan now is to put 1 laver of pink styro, drill holes on it to match the copper tubing studs and silicone the pink styro to the copper studs. then I'll just add pieces of ordinary styro to form the 3D rocks by just silicone. Sound like a great plan!!!

 

[cichlid savage]

Wow a lot of lessons learned on this build. Can't wait to see more pix and then the finished product.

 

[arl]

So I did just that, used 10 tubes of GE silicone 1 to stick the additional styro to the pink styro for the 3D effect. and siliconed also the pink styro to the copper studs via the holes on the pink styro. Worked on it for about 10 hrs, and let it dry. Now we're getting somewhere, They look realy nice .

 

[arl]

On the 2nd day of drying I decided to test the bonding strength of my siliconed styro. Guess what now????? Silicone DOES NOT stick good to pink styro, it just peels of just as bad as it did on the abs sheet . AND EVERYBODY IS RECOMENDING PINK STYRO FOR A 3D BACKGROUND . I got news for you guys SILICONE DOES NOT STICK TO PINK STYRO!!!!!!

As you can see from above, when I yanked the white styro all the silicone came along with it. None is left on the pinck styro except on the part where I have my copper studs, in which case the white styro broke itself but silicone still sticking on it.

 

[arl]

Another thing that I learned is that there seemed to be a reaction between silicone and copper. prolonged exposure of copper to silicone( due to longer drying time because of thick silicone) will make the copper currode so much and the reaction weakens the goop. so my copper studs now are all GARBAGE AGAIN!!! . (As usual, What else is new )

 

[arl]

Maybe if I scratched the pink styro it will take out the smooth surface and the bottom layer will have a better bonding with silicone. But the thought of me wasting almost $100 on this idea pissed me off that I don't want to try it anymore. besides I have to redo my studs because thy're no good now. The silicone-copper reaction weakened it (goop) so much.

 

[arl]

Next plan........... Same "studs" idea to hold the styro but using abs pipe plus I added a horizontal abs pipe at the top end of the tank, gooped it. this is suppose to hold also the styro down.

 

[arl]

The 2 pipes that runs side by side downwards are just my returns. nothing much to do with my background. It would help holding styro though. silicone sticks very well on abs pipes. Its just crazy that it won't do the same on abs sheet .