Decorative Grey Foam for Tank

[Diana Caye]

A local shop sprays the back of its tanks with a grey foam. It looks like the expanding foam that is used for repairs in a home. The application resembles the outside of a brain. In their tremendous display tank, the foam has crusted over with wonderful purple calcium, algae and corals, and it looks like a coral cave wall. The shop folks feel it is safe. Has anyone heard anything or suspect anything about the long-term advisability of this procedure? I spoke to one person who said he worried about mold and mildew and whether the foam would disintegrate with the corrosiveness of the sea salt. But it looks fantastic.

Diana

 

[jagwire]

foam

foam

i have used foam to make back wall and indivual rock for freshwater and salt water tanks. it works very well and i have had one tank running for 4 years without any problems. one thing tho is that after i get the foam into the shape that i want to be a cover it with west systems epoxy which is more commenly used in the marina enviroment. i would be tenetive about the foam without the epoxy

 

[Diana Caye]

Thanks for your response JAGWIRE. For anyone interested in this topic, I found two related threads on the Do It Yourself forum. Both threads go into detail about how to build with the foam and show ongoing construction photos. They are both intersting and useful.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1188352&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1300282