My DIY Background and Moonlighting
 

Decided to share my experience in DIYing aquarium background after seeing that there is quite some interest in it in bro gtohow's thread. This is the final result. Hope more bros will find it useful and indulge in their own background making!




Materials needed are:

- Styrofoam boards (depends on how thick you need)
- Sharp pen knife
- Cement and mix
- Silicon (Most silicon can be used)


The boards are cut up and placed in position.

Looks very natural... Hmm.. AF seems to have alot of hidden dragon and crouching tiger..

Cheers
Koolman

The boards are stacked together to make thicker dimensions. Generous amount of silicon are to be used. After which, pressure is to be applied so that the bonds are strong enough.


You can start carving your background after leaving the silicon dry for 24 hours.


My tank is with bracing so I have to break the background into smaller pieces. The pieces are painted with cement.


Note this space behind the background. It is for the powerhead to be placed in so that it can be hidden from sight.

:p n he's one of them! Great job bro KawaiiBoy:)

You can see that for my background, all the air tubings and water pipes are integrated with the background and hidden from sight.


The last photo shows the tank with cold cathode moonlighting that I DIYed. It can be attached to a timer to be switched on at specific timing.


The water is a little greenish because of some medicine applied to the water. Hope you all will find my thread useful. Thanks for looking!

nice lah bro, u can collaborate with tank makers and taylor backdrops for new tanks.

tks for sharing bro,great work,looks very real

Thanks guys for the compliments. I did refer to some of the works of other people in the Internet, so its not really something original. You guys can do a search on it too! :)

Great step by step detailing the DIY works bro, thanks for sharing.

very well done, thumbs up

impressive! :)

can do one and sell to me :p

Beautiful and impressive! Just a question, would the cement affect the water parameters? Harmful?

Haha. This is my first try. But will do whatever I can to help if got bros interested. :) Especially interested in giant tanks!

Cement will cause the water to become alkaline. Suitable amount of water changes can get the water level to normal. I never test the pH and used feeder fishes to test the water for chemical content only because I am rearing Tanganyika fishes therefore the high pH suits them.

Saluate u on yr project, yr patient, yr time and determination
Thumbs up for this beautiful setup................
Tks for sharing,...........keep us update on further incoming project too.;)

Bro u can get the commercial a/c and start a biz to help ppl custom made one... Ur skill very gd. Very professional. Anyway u try doing background using resin mould? I read online ppl use it and do rocky background also very nice

great idea;)when ppl want background can find you .:)

great work! like wat fellow AF bros said, you can start ur own business liao...

WOW first try and its already looking perfect...

Let me know when you go commercial..hahaha :D

great effort....
lovely effects...

Very professional!

Lots of hard work and efforts!

very nice and impressive

Great thinking & creative. Good skill too.

Its awesome dude!
I like the part where the powerhead is well hidden from view.
But I think need a very strong one to suck up dirt from every corner of the tank.

nice one,bro

Awesome work, kawaiiBoy.

Very pro for a first timer, the whole setup looks very natural and I'm sure your cichlids will enjoy the habitat just like in Lake Tanganyika itself.

Would love to do one for my tank setup, but never take the first step when getting my tank started.. :p

What tangan cichlids will you be stocking? Is this a 5ft tank?

Very nice and natural. Not sure if I am artistic enough to do so :)
May I know is there a special kind of cement mix to use?

it looks really good to me!

Thanks everyone for their compliments and suggestions! I can help from time to time on a small scale for bros who are interested, but to go commercial may be a little hard. I just graduated and still looking for a job and don't really dare to commit now because I may not have time in future. I just hope my thread can encourage bros in arofanatics to try on it also, because I have seen many American and European forums with DIY backgrounds and stuff, and to tell you, it is really very satisfying and fun project!


Haha. Don't think will have another project any time soon, unless I can earn big bucks and live on a landed property then get a 12ft tank and have a HUGE project. :D

Never try before. But according to what I read, using resin is a little more risky because no errors can be made and once the resin harden, then that's it. So the user have to have a very clear idea on what he wants to do. Certainly not easy but can try.

thats some DIYed background!

thanks for sharing :)

btw care to share what type of silicon u used to stick the foam boards together and to the back of the tank?

Yup a very strong one is needed, but more than that is the placement and the design of the gaps. The tank itself doesn't have much current, and with sand and rocks, dead spots are pretty hard to prevent. Currently I run on a cannister and tom800 to OHF. Will be thinking of new designs so as to make better filtration systems in future.

This is a 6ft tank. Erm actually there are already altos compressiceps, lemon cichlids, brichardi and tangan cat inside already. Just sold my 2 mpimbwe blue fronts and will have to wait before stocking up some fronts. Just take the 1st step and I am sure you will enjoy it! :)

I use cement mixed with hardener. There are other type of mixes and bro gtohow may have used a different mix also. My father is a contractor and he got the materials for me. According to him, the hardener allows the cement to stick better to the styrofoam and not crack easily. I also not very artistic but I think there is no harm trying. :)

Thanks bro!

Thanks thanks. I just use normal silicon that most hardware shops sell. Its like 3-4 bucks if I remember. Actually most silicon should be safe. I think what is important is that we must allow a good curing period. I left it for a week with the additional styrofoam beams as shown in my pictures to apply the pressure.

Actually what I was told by my father is that it prevents cracks and also helps to make the cement stick better with the styrofoam board and also between cement layers. I applied 2 layers of cement. You can apply more but I guess will be heavier.

thanks bro. still wondering what to do for my 2ft tank setup. hope to give it a try one day when free. btw clearing up the styrofoam bits must have been a headache! :D

Great work! Certainly very nice!

You are welcome.
Haha. Anyway I use vacuum cleaner for the bits and also ruler to sweep those that I can't suck up and then pick by hand. Quite easy lah but my mum see liao she is the one with headache not me. :p

could you do 1 for my 7ft? :D :D

Wah. 7ft! Sounds interesting. :D

any ideas in mind already? :D

KawaiiBoy...you have my ups:)