Hello there, just thought I'd show off my handy work. This was modeled after Joey's tree trunk build from DIYfishkeepers.com as I really liked the idea of having a hollow background that did not displace much water and left room for the hardware behind it. This was built for a 40B that I picked up at the petco dollar per gallon sale.
First shot is after I finished carving the styrofoam and set it in the tank to test the fit.
The fiberglass shell after removing the styrofoam
First coat of paint
I used regular acrylic craft paint as I knew I would be painting more resin over top to seal it in. I think it came out nice although if you go this route be prepared to apply multiple base coats as the first one or more will dry cracked.
More paint and then sealed with resin and again fitted inside the tank
Crappy shot with a light on and water in the tank.
Once I have the tank set up with sand and plants and fish etc, I will post more photos. I have to finish the stand and paint it and then put together the canopy and above tank basking area for my turtle.
This was a fun project for the most part. The fiberglass MAT was really hard to work with, so if you're planning a build such as this I would definitely recommend to splurge the extra dollar or two to get the CLOTH. I tried some of that on this build as well and it was so much easier to mold around corners.
First shot is after I finished carving the styrofoam and set it in the tank to test the fit.
The fiberglass shell after removing the styrofoam
First coat of paint
I used regular acrylic craft paint as I knew I would be painting more resin over top to seal it in. I think it came out nice although if you go this route be prepared to apply multiple base coats as the first one or more will dry cracked.
More paint and then sealed with resin and again fitted inside the tank
Crappy shot with a light on and water in the tank.
Once I have the tank set up with sand and plants and fish etc, I will post more photos. I have to finish the stand and paint it and then put together the canopy and above tank basking area for my turtle.
This was a fun project for the most part. The fiberglass MAT was really hard to work with, so if you're planning a build such as this I would definitely recommend to splurge the extra dollar or two to get the CLOTH. I tried some of that on this build as well and it was so much easier to mold around corners.