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Very Pleased with This First Background Attempt (Pic Heavy)

24K views 30 replies 24 participants last post by  R-DUB 
#1 ·
Hello all - I'm setting up a 135 gallon (upgrading from a 55), and while doing it I thought I'd try my hand with my first 3D styro background. I did lots of research (mostly on these boards) and took pics along the way.

Drawing from my fishing experiences, I wanted to create many rock ledges and shelves that are so common in the smallmouth-laden rivers that I fish. At the same time, I want to leave a lot of open space since I plan on having an all-male hap/peacock setup.

Here I started off with standard 2" insulating styro found at Lowe's. I began with 3 sheets siliconed together, but I took one off after finding it took up too much room.



I also had some packing styro that came with a new mitre saw I bought. This would be broken up and serve as the shelves and ledges.







Then I got to carving with a cutco kitchen knife (the bread slicer, much to my wife's dismay), a steak knife, and a butter knife. The steak knife broke off midway through carving.

Left side, carved:



Right side, carved:



Standing up in the workroom:

 
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#2 ·
Next was to add color. I decided to use only drylok, mixing in black and rusty brown. The base coat was a very dark muddy brown. I found that leaving some styrofoam bits in the crevices made the drylock look craggy and "dirty."

First coat:



Then I added white (very sparingly) and brown highlights. This was done by using "washes" with just a tiny amount of water to the brush. Variability in the color, brushstroke and water was key.

Detailed left side:



Detailed Right side:



Then came the part where it goes into the tank. I got a glasscages tank after I had already carved and painted the BG. The glasscages aquarium had extra large 6" center braces (!!!!), so I ended up breaking this thing up into 6 pieces.

Finally in the tank...



Used 5 and a half tubes of silicone...



Then weighted it down with the rocks I was going to use:

 
#3 ·
Then came the fittings and final setup. I have an eheim canister which has ugly green tubing. So I decided to drylok that in a matching color to blend it in. I used screws to keep the spray bar holes open while the drylok dried. Both intakes are in big caves that obscure their view from the front.



Left side fittings:



Right side fittings:



Both intakes are in big caves that obscure their view from the front

Ready to fill her up...



I got the real rocks from a landscape supply store that gave them to me for free. They went in and next comes the water...

 
#17 ·
Lighting is a Coralife fixture of 2x 95 watt Power compact bulbs- one actinic, and one 6,700k. The fixture is four feet long, centered along the front panel. I tried different positions for the lighting, but this is the one I like the best.
 
#26 ·
Amazing work. I am about to get a 90 gallon glass tank and have considered trying to do the same thing. I can only hope it looks somewhat like yours!
 
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